Gophers Surprise Ohio State; Advance to Final

Going into Sunday’s game against No. 3-ranked Ohio State, the Gopher women’s basketball team had 23 wins, but they hadn’t beaten a team ahead of them in the national rankings or the conference standings. The Gophers got the marquee victory they had been looking for when they outlasted the Buckeyes, 66-63 in overtime to advance to the Big 10 tournament finals against Michigan State 6 p.m. Monday.

The No. 4 seed Gophers held Big 10 Player of the Year Jessica Davenport to only 12 points in avenging a 12-point loss last month to the Buckeyes. Gopher All-American, All-Everything Janel McCarville kept Davenport from getting position under the basket. Davenport had torched the Gophers for 35 points and 11 rebounds in the February game.

The Gophers’ Shannon Bolden put the clamps on OSU sharpshooter Caity Matter, who scored only 4 points in shooting 1 of 8 from the field. Bolden then moved over to stop OSU’s Brandie Hoskins. Hoskins led the Buckeyes in scoring with 23 points, but with Bolden guarding her late in the game, she couldn’t carry the Buckeyes to victory.

Offensively for the Gophers, the inside tandem of McCarville and Jamie Broback again provided most of the points. The 2 combined for 45 of Minnesota’s 66 points. Broback led the way with 24 on 10 of 14 from the field. McCarville added 21 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists. Unlike the previous game against Minnesota, OSU opted to have Davenport guard McCarville most of the time instead of Broback. The Gophers then wisely moved McCarville to the key area, where she often passed the ball to the mismatched Broback in the lane for high percentage baskets.

The Gophers trailed by 6 points with 4 minutes remaining in regulation, but they rallied to tie the game at 56-all. A McCarville steal gave the Gophers the ball with 19 seconds remaining in the game, but OSU collapsed on McCarville when she drove to the basket, forcing McCarville to pass to April Calhoun, who had her last-second baseline shot blocked to send the game into overtime.

The Gophers led most of the way in overtime, but OSU had a chance to tie at the buzzer, when Davenport’s 3-point shot from the top of the circle went hard off the backboard and rim. This was the 2nd game in a row in which the Gophers’ opponent has missed a desperation 3 to tie the game at the buzzer.

MSU Next. The Gophers hope to continue to play the role of The Avengers when they face the other Big 10 co-champ, Michigan State, in the finals of the conference tourney 6 p.m. Monday in a game to be nationally-televised on ESPN2.

Michigan State has owned the Gophers in 2 previous meetings this year, with a 13-point home win and a 31-point thrashing of the Gophers at Williams Arena.

The Spartans advanced to the championship game with an 83-76 win over Penn State.

Notes and Observations:

• Pam Borton and her Gopher coaching staff deserve a lot of credit for their gameplan and in-game adjustments against Ohio State. The team’s offensive plan to take advantage of the mismatch they had inside with Broback on a smaller and weaker defender worked all afternoon, thanks mostly to McCarville’s entry passes. Also, as Shannon Schonrock does not match up well against the Buckeyes (mostly due to her size), having Calhoun bring the ball into the forecourt and having Kelly Roysland play more minutes were good decisions. And finally, switching Bolden to defend Hoskins late in the game was another good move.
• OSU’s loss may have cost them a No. 1 seed when the NCAA tourney pairings are announced next Sunday. With the win over OSU, the Gophers secured at least a No. 4 seed. An upset win over MSU in the Big 10 tourney final could give the Gophers a chance at a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tourney.
• Penn State’s Jennifer Brenden, a senior from Central Minnesota’s Sauk Rapids-Rice High School, scored 24 points in PSU’s loss Sunday.
• Former Gopher men’s assistant Mike Peterson is in his 1st year as the women’s head coach at Wake Forest. His team allowed 106 points in an ACC tourney loss to Duke this weekend. Maybe he brought the defensive playbook from last year’s men’s team with him? Peterson has one of the top 5 recruiting classes in the nation coming in next year, so things should be getting better.
• Duke then proceeded to thump Brenda Frese‘s Maryland team, 74-44 to advance to the ACC title game against North Carolina.
• No. 1 LSU lost only its 2nd game of the year, 67-65, to Tennessee in the SEC title game Sunday.
• Gopher recruits Ashley Ellis-Milan and Katie Ohm are both among the 5 finalists for Ms. Basketball in Minnesota.

Talk about the game on our Gopher Basketball message board.