Gophers women's basketball stunned by Jacksonville in season opener at home

The Gophers had the ball in their hands with a chance to win twice in the final 25 seconds of the game.

And twice turnovers trashed those opportunities.

So the Gophers dropped their season opener 69-66 to Jacksonville on Tuesday afternoon

before an announced crowd of 2,554 at Williams Arena, a loss that seemed to stun and dismay a team with lofty NCAA tournament ambitions.

"We'll learn from it. That's all we can do," coach Lindsay Whalen said. "It's a long season. And obviously, this one hurts. But we have to regroup."

Junior guard Sara Scalia appeared distraught postgame and was at a loss for words on how to explain her team's eight fourth-quarter turnovers. Three of those were her own. The first was a miscommunication where she lobbed the ball to forward Kayla Mershon, who had already cut toward the basket. The final two were the Gophers' ultimate undoing.

With 25.1 seconds left in the game and the Gophers trailing by two, Whalen called a timeout to set up what could have been the final play of the game. Gadiva Hubbard inbounded the ball to Scalia. But Jacksonville's Carmella Walker intercepted Scalia's ensuing pass, and the Gophers had to foul her to stop the breakaway.

Walker made both her free throws, and Hubbard managed a three-pointer to put her team back within one with about two seconds to play. Another quick foul and two more free throws for Jacksonville gave the Gophers 2.6 seconds to get the ball to Hubbard at half court for a long shot to force overtime.

Instead, Scalia's ball sailed high and well out of bounds.

BOXSCORE: Jacksonville 69, Gophers 66

Whalen said the fourth-quarter defensive lapses were obvious. But she could also tell her team was a bit out of rhythm to start, when Jacksonville jumped to a 15-9 first-quarter lead.

But Scalia turned it up in the second quarter, scoring 14 of her eventual game-high 25 points. While she likely won't forget her late lapses, she kept the Gophers in the game shooting 8-for-15 from the field, 3-for-7 on three-pointers and 6-for-6 at the free-throw line. Plus she had a game-high seven rebounds.

The Gophers went into halftime with a 32-29 lead and increased that to 50-45 heading into the fourth quarter. But Jacksonville made a 12-3 run to start that final act and regain the lead.

Jacksonville won only four games last season. But this year's team boasts many transfers, including redshirt senior guard Taylor Hawks, who scored a team-high 15 points.

"What we failed to do was take them out of what we already knew they were going to do," Gophers junior guard Jasmine Powell said, "which was drive and try to get fouled to the line. They didn't do anything really out of the ordinary. It was kind of on our end."

Jacksonville did take advantage of the free shots, as Gophers forward Kadi Sissoko fouled out about halfway through the fourth quarter, and Jacksonville was in the bonus for much of that period, going 12-for-14 at the line.

The Gophers won't have much time to dwell on the disappointment of this first game. They travel to Arizona State for a Friday game before returning home for a Sunday matinee against George Washington.

"Just a tough way to start the season," Scalia said. "But I mean, we've got to move on from here. It's in the past now."