Gopher Women’s Basketball Upset #10 Iowa Hawkeyes 91-85

The Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s basketball team saw the Gopher men upset #10 Michigan State at the Barn on Wednesday night and decided they wanted in on that. The Gophers jumped out to a least as high as 20 points before withstanding a late Iowa Hawkeye charge to escape Iowa City with a 91-85 win. It’s the Gophers first win over Iowa since 2018, their first road win over a ranked opponent since 2009, their first win in Iowa City since 2007, and their first road Top Ten win since Lindsay Whalen and company won at #9 Stanford in the 2003 NCAA Tournament. The last Big Ten road Top-10 win came in 2002 at #5 Wisconsin. So yeah—this win was monumental for the Gophers.

Iowa took control early jumping out to an 14-6 lead less than four minutes into the game. But that would be the Hawkeyes biggest lead as Minnesota began to claw back on a 6-0 run to cut the Iowa lead to one. A Toir McKinney three with just second left in the quarter cut the Iowa lead to just one point at 24-23 after the opening ten minutes.

The second quarter was a Gopher domination. Minnesota opened the quarter on a 15-4 run that saw triples go down from McKinney, Grace Grocholski and Mara Braun. Iowa would cut the Gopher lead to five at 39-34 before Minnesota closed out the half on a 10-5 run to push their halftime lead to 10 at 49-39. Braun led the Gophers with 13 points going 3-3 from beyond the arc in the first half.

Minnesota kept pushing in the third as well, not allowing Iowa to claw back into the game. Minnesota opened on a 8-0 run to m=push their lead to 18. Iowa would get back within 12 before a Grocholski three and a Brylee Glen triple extended the lead once again. Minnesota once more finished strong on a 5-0 run to close out the third and take a 72-55 lead into the final ten minutes of the game.

The Gophers had been in this situation before. Minnesota had a large fourth quarter lead against #7 Maryland before blowing the game not once, but twice and losing in double OT. Minnesota had a huge fourth quarter lead against #21 USC at home and hung on for dear life in a one point win. So the Gophers knew Iowa was going to make a run. It was just when, and would Minnesota get a big enough lead to stave it off.

The latter part the Gophers did their best. They would extend their lead to 20 after a quick five-zero run with a Grocholski three and a McKinney layup at 77-57. Iowa would not go away however. They slowly chipped back cutting the Gopher lead incrementally with a couple of huge threes from Chazadi Wright and some great post play from their leading scorer Ava Heiden. Then the ref show took over. Entering the game the Gophers and Iowa were the two least fowling teams in Big Ten play averaging just 11 and 12 fouls per game. They both nearly eclipsed that mark in the fourth quarter alone. Both teams were in the bonus by the midway point of the fourth quarter, and it seems every little ticky-tack things was getting called on both sides of the ball. It would effect the game down the stretch as both teams lost key players to fouling out.

Iowa’s Addision Deal fled out with just over four minutes to go and the Gophers still up by 16 after a pair of Battle free throws. She would be the next to go as she picked up her fifth foul on a questionable offensive foul with 3:27 to play. Without Battle the Gophers offense got a bit stagnant as they ran as much clock as possible, but took horrible shots as the shot clock expired. But after another situation where Minnesota ran a full 30 seconds off the clock and fate smiled on them—you knew it was Minnesota’s night. Braun took a awkward three-pointer as the shot clock expired and she banked it in from 25 feet away to push the Gopher lead back to 16 at 87-71 with 2:33 to play. When Heiden fouled out with 1:59 to play, it seemed like the Gophers could exhale.

But again Iowa would not give up. They took advantage of Minnesota just going 4-8 from the free throw line down the stretch with McKinney missing thee straight at one point. After the first to McKinney mises the Gophers had two chances to grab a defensive rebound to end the game, but missed out twice, and Iowa took advantage with Journey Houston hitting a three pointer on their third shot with 14 seconds left to cut the Gopher lead to 90-85. Iowa had gone on a 14-3 run to get back in the game. McKinney hit one of two free throws after burning six second off the clock to put Minnesota up by six, and Iowa had one last chance to make things really interesting, but a Taylor Stremlow airball three with five seconds left would be the final gasp, and the Gophers celebration was on.

Grocholski ended up leading the Gophers with 21 points. Braun finished with 16 on 4-4 shooting from beyond the arc. McKinney added 15 and Battle 12 as she picked up her third double-double on the season with a career high 14 rebounds. She also added six assists to get within nine of Whalen for 2nd all-time in Gopher history. Finau Tonga was huge off the bench with 10 points and seven rebounds in just 17 minutes of game play.

Minnesota shot 51.6% as a team for the game and 71.4% from three. The three=-point shooting percentage set a program record for the best in a single game. As we said in the preview the stars had to show up, and show up they did. The Gophers dominated most of the hustle stats in the game outrebounding Iowa 41-28 including a 14-7 offensive rebounding edge. The Gophers had 11 turnovers to Iowa’s eight, but the Minnesota scored 16 points off of those turnovers while Iowa only picked up seven. It all ended up with Minnesota picking up a huge Quad 1 win and likely jumping up a seed line in the next NCAA Bracketology when it comes out.

Minnesota will need to now avoid the letdown loss when it travels to Rutgers on Sunday morning. The Gophers will face a Scarlet Knights team at 11 AM central that is just 1-11 in conference play and has lost five games in a row. Rutgers scores the least amount of points in the Big Ten, and the Gophers allow the least. It should be an easy win for Minnesota as long as they don’t look past them to another huge game when Nebraska comes to Williams Arena next Thursday night.

But for tonight, the Gophers can find their ice cream in Iowa City and celebrate on what should be a joyous bus ride home.