Gophers open women's basketball season with 107-73 rout of Lehigh

The Gophers were a disappointing 15-16 record last year, including 5-11 in the Big Ten for 10th place. But Carlie Wagner is determined her team will be better her senior year.

And she began her quest for a storybook ending with a pretty stellar start.

On the guard's first shot Saturday in the Gophers' season opener, she sank a three-pointer, the 207th of her career. That inspired an 18-2 run her team went on en route to a 107-73 victory against Lehigh at Williams Arena in front of an announced 2,642 fans.

"I was excited when it went in. I was like, 'Yes!' " Wagner said. "We struck first, which was huge. And that's what we want to emphasize this year is that we strike first. We're not going to get in a hole and have to make a comeback. We're going to hit them first and hit the ground running … and go from there."

The Gophers finished the game shooting 51.3 percent, including 52 percent from the three-point line and 80 percent on free throws. Seven Gophers broke into double figures, including Wagner with her 84th career double-digit game. Wagner and sophomore guard Gadiva Hubbard led the way with 22 points each. Junior guard Kenisha Bell, freshman guard/forward Destiny Pitts and freshman guard Paloma Gonzalez had 12 each. Senior center Bryanna Fernstrom scored 11 and sophomore guard Jasmine Brunson 10.

That offensive prowess isn't surprising, as the Gophers did return 83 percent of their scoring from last season, including their top three scorers and four out of five starters.

"Very pleased with the balance of our scoring," coach Marlene Stollings said. "I thought we shared the ball extremely well. And also very pleased with the fact that we took care of the ball. It was a big point of emphasis for us, and our defensive effort in playing man-to-man for 40 minutes was something that we'll build upon. But certainly a good start for us, a good showing for us defensively."

The Gophers recorded 12 steals and four blocks and had 30 defensive rebounds. They also forced 23 Lehigh turnovers, scoring 31 points from those, while committing just seven themselves.

Pitts said she felt her team's defensive pressure was good throughout the game. Of the three Gophers making their debuts Saturday, Pitts was one of two to score her first points for the program.

Hubbard nabbed a career high for three-pointers, going 6-for-7. A broken nose and mononucleosis cut her freshman year to just 23 games last season, but Hubbard has put all of those impediments behind her.

"My teammates were just finding me," Hubbard said. "They didn't have to pass me the ball, and there were other people, obviously, open. But they found me, and I was just comfortable with my shot.

"It just feels good to start a new season and know that I'm not going to have any more setbacks."

And the team's solid start Saturday has done a lot to help the Gophers firmly move on from last season's letdowns.

"We were building. We were putting pieces together," Stollings said of last season. "Had a great class come in here, and I thought that you got to see just a glimpse of how talented they are. … They add a lot of value to what we have coming back. Our returners [are] playing now with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder, I would say, because of the way they were tested, and they were so young … in those tough environments last year.

"Our focus has been, let's show everybody what we learned from last year. We're not new anymore."