Gophers vs. Oregon is another NCAA bubble team battle

The Gophers women’s basketball team has four games left in the regular season, two at home, including Sunday’s 2 p.m. matchup with Oregon at Williams Arena, a game that can be streamed on BTN Plus and heard at 96.7-FM and 100.3-FM. The Gophers also have two games on the road. Here’s a look at the next two weeks:

After Thursday’s overtime loss at No. 9 Ohio State the Gophers, 19-7 overall, are 12th in the Big Ten at 7-7, one game behind Indiana, which beat Purdue 78-56 Saturday. The Gophers remain at No. 31 in the NCAA’s net rankings — nine spots ahead of No. 40 Oregon — and remain in the NCAA tournament field according to ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme.

But the Gophers are still looking for a signature win and have yet to beat a team ranked in the AP Top 25.

Remember: The Gophers have to finish with at least a ninth seed to get a bye in the first round of the conference tournament.

This stretch run will be crucial. According to Creme, Minnesota, Indiana, Nebraska and Oregon are the final four teams in the field without having to participate in a play-in game.

Creme projects 12 Big Ten teams will make the field, which puts the Gophers squarely on the bubble. After this game, the Gophers will play at struggling Purdue, come home to play Washington — which Creme has as the first team out of the tournament — then travel to East Lansing to play Michigan State.

Logic would suggest the Gophers need to at least split their final four games.

It’s true the Gophers — who rallied from 14 down in the fourth quarter to force overtime Thursday — are coming off one of their strongest games. But the difficult three-point loss had to be draining, especially considering three players played 34 or more minutes and both Amaya Battle and Tori McKinney played more than 40.

And, while the competition has been tough lately — with games against UCLA, USC, Ohio State and Iowa — the fact is the Gophers have lost five of their past seven games.

After Thursday’s game, Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said Oregon will be a challenge simply because the two teams don’t know each other well. This will be Minnesota’s third game ever against the Ducks, the last coming in an NCAA tournament loss at Oregon in the spring of 2018.

Oregon is currently at 8-6 in the Big Ten, 17-8 overall. The Ducks have lost to Illinois — a team the Gophers beat — OSU, Michigan, Maryland, USC and UCLA. But the Ducks have two victories over ranked teams, against Baylor in the non-conference and at Michigan State.

Like the Gophers, the Ducks rely on defense rather than explosive offense. Oregon has only one player — guard Deja Kelly (10.4) — averaging in double figures in scoring. The Gophers have six players averaging 8.8 or more points, but none scoring more than Battle’s 12 points.

Oregon is 15th in the conference in scoring (67.4), 17th in shooting percentage (42.3) and last in three-point shooting percentage (28.7).

Gophers center Sophie Hart is coming off a career-high 21 points at Ohio State, a game in which five Minnesota players scored in double figures. Minnesota’s 50.7% shooting at Ohio State was its second-highest in conference play.