Gopher Basketball
The Gophers didn’t have an answer for Penn State’s all-conference performer Tanisha Wright, who torched the Gophers for 32 points before a crowd of 11,885 at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center. Wright also keyed the Penn State defense, which scored 23 points off 17 Gopher turnovers.
The Penn State guards easily won the battle against the Gopher perimeter players. Wright’s teammate Jess Strom, contributed 19 points, including 14 of 14 from the free throw line.
The Gophers got good offensive games from Janel McCarville (21 points, 11 rebounds) and Jamie Broback (14 points), but they were outrebounded 36-26 by a more determined and aggressive Nittany Lions team. The Gophers entered the game against PSU leading the conference in rebounds.
Wright won the anticipated matchup with Gopher defensive stopper Shannon Bolden. Wright was not an offensive factor early in the game, but she scored 12 of PSU’s final 14 1st half points and then got Bolden in early 2nd half foul trouble. From then on, she was almost unstoppable, slashing to the basket or scoring on a series of pull-up jumpers.
Unlike recent years, where the Gophers have lost at Penn State and then defeated the Lady Lions at Williams Arena, there will be no rematch this year as part of the Conference’s unbalanced schedule.
As a result of Sunday’s loss, the Gophers dropped to 14th in this week’s Associated Press poll.
Iowa Next. The Gophers (16-4, 6-2) will be looking to get back in the win column 7 p.m. Thursday at Williams Arena against the Iowa Hawkeyes in a game which will be televised on Fox Sports Network.
Iowa (15-4, 4-4) was undefeated in non-conference action, but has hit a few bumps in the road in Big 10 Conference play. The Hawkeyes have conference wins over Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, and Michigan. The Hawkeyes have lost to Penn State, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Purdue.
Iowa is led by 6’3″ center Jamie Cavey and 5’6″ guard Crystal Smith. Krista VandenVenter, a 6’2″ first-year player from Osseo High School, is a starter for Iowa. Gopher freshman Leslie Knight and her Hopkins team battled VandenVenter in last year’s Minnesota State High School Tournament. VandenVenter was 1 of the finalists for Minnesota’s Ms. Basketball Award won by Knight, who has seen limited playing time for the Gophers this year as she learns how to play the small forward position after playing the post position in high school.
Gopher guard April Calhoun, also a former Ms. Minnesota Basketball Award winner, played the 1st two years of her college career at Iowa before transferring to Minnesota.