Women’s College Basketball: Gophers can’t keep up in loss to Washington

Minnesota might be playing themselves into the WNIT.

After winning their 20th game of the season last week at Purdue, and with a chance to pull to .500 in the Big Ten, the Gophers were just plain outgunned on Wednesday in a 72-62 loss to Washington at Williams Arena.

Huskies guard Elle Ladine led four teammates in double-digits with a game-high 26 points as Washington scored over and through Minnesota’s defense, shooting 58% from the field and 50% (8 of 16) from 3-point range.

“They have five kids that can score, and score in different ways, and we couldn’t guard ‘em,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit told KFAN-FM after the game.

It was the last home game, and penultimate game of the regular-season for the Gophers, who have now lost six of their past eight games. They will be underdogs when they finish their regular season at No. 23 Michigan State on Saturday afternoon.

With Minnesota post Sophie Hart on the bench for much of the game, Huskies post Dalayah Daniels finished with 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, and guards Sayvia Sellers and Hannah Stines each added 11 points.

The Gophers (20-9, 8-9) have one more chance to burnish their record for a possible NCAA tournament by beating a ranked team for the first time this season on Saturday against the Spartans. And a run in the conference tournament next week in Indianapolis would go a long way toward accomplishing that, as well.

Problem is, Minnesota just might end up playing Washington (17-12, 8-9) in the first round Wednesday.

“Obviously, we’ve got to get readjusted, and readjusted quickly if we want a real chance of playing in the postseason,” Plitzuweit said in a postgame radio interview.

The Gophers used a 12-2 run to pull within 65-60 on a layup by Natalie Holloway with 1 minute, 56 minutes remaining, but it was all but over when, 34 seconds later, Nadine hit an off-balance 3-pointer to push that lead to 68-60.

Grace Grocholski and Annika Stewart, getting the bulk of the Gophers’ post minutes off the bench, each scored 13 points, and Mallory Heyer added 10 points and a team-high eight boards.

Minnesota led 17-10 after one quarter, and 24-12 after Mallory Heyer scored after an offensive rebound by Stewart after 2:14 of the second.

But Washington picked up the pace and started attacking the Gophers more aggressively, and Minnesota started getting sloppy with the ball. The teams traded baskets for a bit until the Gophers went cold while the Huskies suddenly couldn’t miss.

After Minnesota built its lead back to 27-17 on a 3-pointer by Grocholski, the Huskies made their next seven field goal attempts to finish off a 21-9 run that tied the game 33-33 on Elle Ladine’s turnaround jumper in the lane with 46 seconds left in the half.

The teams traded turnovers after that, and Minnesota wing Tori McKinney missed a shot at the buzzer to keep the score knotted. Ladine scored the first basket in the third quarter and never trailed again.

The Huskies led by as many as 17 in the second half.

“They just beat us, cooked us in about every action that they had, especially on the ball screens,” Plitzuweit said. “We couldn’t stop ’em, couldn’t slow ’em down and couldn’t score enough to overcome them.”

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