When this season began the Gophers women's basketball team just didn't seem able to get out of the gate. More recently, they've had problems shutting the door.
The result, often, has been the same: a loss.
The Gophers are 2-5 heading into Sunday's game with Penn State at Williams Arena. That includes a 1-4 mark in the Big Ten, with the four losses coming by an average of 19 points. Earlier in the season slow starts sabotaged them; more recently, it has been tepid second halves.
In a victory at Wisconsin, the Gophers had a 41-30 halftime lead erased by the Badgers, who forced overtime. In Iowa on Wednesday, the Gophers led by 16 late in the second quarter and by 10 at halftime before the Hawkeyes outscored them 54-31 in the final two quarters.
Gophers coach Lindsay Whalen says the problem is experience and a need for more resiliency.
"Part of it is just going through it," Whalen said. "We've had two games in a row where we won the first half of games. We gave up 30 points by halftime in Wisconsin and 38 in Iowa. We gave up the lead in Wisconsin, but won, so it doesn't sting as much."
But Iowa stung. Against a high-scoring and well-regarded Hawkeyes team, Whalen said her team had to be better at absorbing the kind of counterpunch a good team will throw at them.
The experience will come. Shorthanded at the start of the season, the Gophers have had their full roster available for a while now. But Whalen — and point guard Jasmine Powell — said the team members are still figuring out how to play together. That is particularly true of transfers Laura Bagwell-Katalinich and Kayla Mershon.