Women’s basketball: Turnovers costly in Gophers’ 80-74 loss to Kentucky

John Shipley, Pioneer Press
Updated ·4 min read
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In some ways, the Gophers women’s basketball team is playing beyond their years. Starting three freshmen and two sophomores, they’ve been in every game this season, including against fellow Power 5 teams from Wake Forest, Virginia, Penn State and, on Wednesday, Kentucky.

In other ways, well, they’re still figuring it out, and right now turnovers are an issue. They survived it to beat Penn State in their Big Ten opener last Saturday, but on Wednesday it cost them in an 80-74 loss to the Wildcats at Williams Arena.

Just barely, but it cost them nonetheless.

Jada Walker led four Kentucky players in double figures with 19 points, and Ajae Petty added 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds as the Wildcats held off yet another late run by the Gophers (5-4) in front of 2,495 at the Barn.

“I thought we fought to the end,” freshman guard Mara Braun said. “It was just the little things that we need to clean up throughout the game in order to come out on top the next time.”

Facing an aggressive, concentrated effort to stop her, Braun was held to 14 points, six below her average, but finished with a team-high eight assists. Mallory Heyer and Rose Micheaux each scored 17 points for the Gophers, and Katie Borowicz had 16 points, five assists and five steals.

But Minnesota finished with 21 turnovers that Kentucky (7-1) turned into 26 points. By game’s end, the Wildcats had one more turnover than the Gophers, but the damage had been largely done. The Gophers raced to an 11-4 lead but started losing the ball soon after — and not just against the Wildcats’ press.

At one point, Kentucky was outscoring Minnesota 12-0 on points off turnovers, most of which came during an 18-2 run the Wildcats used to take a 22-13 lead late in the first quarter. Minnesota spent the rest of the game playing catch-up, taking only one more lead, 44-43, early in the third quarter.

Minnesota survived 26 turnovers, 10 of them in the first quarter, to beat Penn State last Saturday at the Barn, 98-96.

“I wanted to see a step taken today from us being able to take care of (the ball) right from the start,” head coach Lindsay Whalen said. “But, you can’t just snap your fingers. You have to go through some of this.”

Against Penn State, the Gophers made 28 of 32 free-throw attempts and missed only one in the fourth quarter. On Wednesday, Minnesota was 6 for 11 from the line, including two misses by Micheaux that could have tied the game with 50.4 seconds left.

Instead, Walker was fouled while running the point and made both free shots to give Kentucky a 78-74 lead with 28 seconds left, and Robyn Benton scored in transition with 15 seconds remaining for the final margin.

“Obviously, we’re frustrated, but we’ve talked about this before,” Borowicz said. “We know what we have to do as a team, we’ve just got to execute it. We’ve been working through practices; throughout the games we’ve just got to do it early on.”

Braun, one of only two freshmen in the Top 20 nationally in scoring average before Wednesday’s game, was 5 for 13 from the field and still made some big baskets to keep the Gophers close. She also found teammates for easy layups. But it was a slog for the point guard from Wayzata. The Wildcats were committed to letting anyone but Braun beat them.

“I feel like they’re always throwing a tough guard, physical guard, at me,” she said. “But you’ve just got to adjust and each game, find new ways to score and distribute the ball.”

The Gophers entered the game ranked 22nd nationally in rebounding (44.8 per game) yet were beaten 46-33 on the boards — another disappointment for Whalen.

“When you get outrebounded like we did and turn it over like we did, it’s going to be hard to win games against really good teams,” she said.

Still, the Gophers haven’t lost a game this season by more than six points, and their combined margin of defeat is 4.3 points. They’re disappointed in Wednesday’s loss, but they don’t lack confidence.

“I think it’s going to motivate us, for sure,” Heyer said. “We’ve been in every single game this season. We’ve been close. It’s been six points or less every single game, so I think it’s going to motivate us.”

Next up is No. 16 Iowa on Saturday in Iowa City.

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