Less than one minute remained in the opening quarter on Sunday afternoon at Williams Arena, but a sense of urgency led Gophers coach Dawn Plitzeweit to call a timeout.
The Indiana Hoosiers were on a 11-2 run to take a 17-11 lead, and the Gophers — losers of three straight — didn’t seem to have any answers for a team had averaged over 76 points a game during its three-game winning streak.
The Gophers survived the quarter, then took control of the game.
Limiting the Hoosiers to 37.5% shooting from the field, the Gophers relied on a stifling defense and double-digit scoring from three starters in a 66-56 win before an announced crowd of 4,180.
The Gophers (19-6 overall, 7-6 Big Ten), who gave their NCAA tournament hopes a much-needed boost, put together a stellar all-around performance when they needed it most.
“I thought that was a very important game for us, a really good bounce-back game for us,” Plitzuweit said.
Guard Amaya Battle led the way with 16 points, including six big free throws in the fourth quarter. With the output, the junior reached1,000 career points. Center Sophie Hart muscled her way to 14 points under the basket and Mallory Heyer delivered her second straight double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
The Gophers were able to turn things around defensively after the first quarter, Plitzuweit said, by cleaning things up.
“We made some mistakes in some of our things defensively and they make you pay,” she said. “They are a team that can be really, really efficient. When you play against good teams, when you miss an assignment, teams make you pay.
“The good news was, as the game wore on, we had a little more awareness. That’s probably the growth from last year to this year. We have the ability at a higher level to understand and make the adjustment. Last year, we understood, but we weren’t capable of making some of those adjustments the same way.”
The Gophers limited Yarden Garzon, the Hoosiers’ leading scorer (14.6 points per game) to six points on 2 of 9 shooting. Much of the credit goes to Grace Grocholski, but mark it down as a team effort.
“It was really important for us to try to limit opportunities for Garzon because she is so dangerous,” Plitzuweit said. “You have to have incredible awareness.”
The Hoosiers (15-8, 7-5), who came into the game having made a season-high 15 3s in a win over Rutgers, were limited to 7 makes in 22 attempts (31.8%) by the Gophers. The Gophers also outrebounded the Hoosiers 43-25.
“(We) finished plays at a very high level,” Plitzuweit said. “I think that was a key in this game, whether it was on the offensive end, getting more rebounds than we did — we’ve learned from other opportunities in other games. And on the defensive end we did a really nice job of finishing plays.”
The Gophers outscored the Hoosiers 16-10 in the second quarter to take a 29-27 lead into halftime. The lead grew to nine after three quarters at 50-41, with Heyer and Hart doing a lot of damage down low.
“Setting the ball screens, trying to find different ways to post up,” Hart said of the Gophers’ success of scoring down low. “And trying to be intentional with the post-ups and timing.”
Plitzuweit said the game plan was to try to feed the post.
“We’ve seen over the course of the last two to three weeks that it is something that we have to be able to do,” she said. “We’ve been trying in different ways. Tonight, I thought Mallory Heyer played really well and got some real good opportunities on the block.
“It’s something we have to be better at — getting the ball around the rim. We had some times when we had some size advantage and we tried to get the ball around the block. At times, Mal didn’t have that advantage but she still scored it.”
The Gophers’ rebounding advantage included a 10-3 edge on the offensive side.
“Our awareness to get to the offense glass was a lot higher than it was in our last game,” Plitzuweit said. “You’ve got to learn and then you’ve got to work to apply it. We were very intentional about the things we had to do to get better.
“You’re at the point in the season where it’s really valuable for the team to be able to continue to grow and develop and learn. If you’re not doing that, then it’s going to be really hard moving forward.”
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