Gophers women take big step backward with decisive loss at last-place Northwestern

Here are some numbers to explain Northwestern's 76-62 victory over the Gophers women's basketball team on Saturday in Evanston, Ill.:

The Wildcats (9-18, 2-14 Big Ten) doubled their conference victory total. The Gophers (10-17, 3-13) took a big step back after Wednesday's encouraging outing.

"I think it was just turnovers for us," said Mara Braun. The Wildcats employ a distinctive zone defense — called "The Blizzard" — that tries to trap opposing teams. But Braun said the Gophers' execution was the problem, not the Wildcats defense.

"It wasn't the press," she said. "It's stuff we can control. We have to slow down a little bit, execute."

Wildcats forward Caileigh Walsh hit eight of 13 shots while scoring 22 points. Paige Mott added 15 points. Of the nine Northwestern players who saw action, six of them had at least one steal. Hailey Weaver had six.

The Gophers got 12 points from Braun and 11 from Katie Borowicz. Six Gophers had multiple turnovers. The best rebounding team in the league, the Gophers had a 37-25 edge there. But Minnesota was able to turn its 10 offensive rebounds into only five second-chance points.

"He's been running that for years," Gophers coach Lindsay Whalen said of Northwestern coach Joe McKeown's defense. "It's been the story of our season. When we take care of it, our offensive efficiency is high. When we're turning it over, we get fewer attempts, fewer looks. Obviously, there have been too many games like this."

Down four late in the second quarter, the Gophers got four consecutive points from Destinee Oberg, who tied the score at 33-33 with a driving layup with 19 seconds left in the half.

Carolina Lau scored to end the half, putting Northwestern up two.

And then the Gophers had three turnovers and a miss in their first four possessions of the second half as Northwestern pushed the lead to 10 on Walsh's turnaround.

The Gophers never got closer than eight points again. The Gophers were outscored 41-29 in the second half; Northwestern's 18-point fourth-quarter lead was its biggest in a conference game this season.

It was a difficult step back for the Gophers, who executed so well on offense in their 95-92 victory over Nebraska.