Gophers women's basketball throttles struggling Lindenwood team 100-45

To Maggie Czinano's knowledge, it had never, ever happened before.

Czinano is a junior for the Gophers women's basketball team, and she wasn't talking about her first career double-double in Thursday's 100-45 victory over Lindenwood at Williams Arena. She was talking about how her sister Monika was there, watching, while wearing maroon and gold.

"I've not seen that in five-plus years," Czinano said after scoring 12 points with 10 rebounds. "Even when I committed she was not wearing a Gophers sweatshirt. So it's really cool."

There's a reason for this. The Czinanos are from Watertown. Monika played her college career at Iowa, helping the Hawkeyes to the NCAA title game last spring. She surprised her family by coming home from Budapest — where she's playing pro ball — for the holidays.

And that meant she was with the family at Williams watching one of the better games Maggie has played.

In a one-sided win over a team the Gophers were expected to beat easily, Minnesota coach Dawn Plitzuweit was able to give 12 players eight or more minutes of playing time. None of the starters played 18 minutes in a game the Gophers led by 19 after a quarter and by 40 at the half.

Gophers reserves scored 43 points, with Czinano leading the way. But there were others. Backup point guard Janay Sanders had seven points and five assists. Nia Holloway had nine points, five rebounds and a steal in 16-plus minutes.

The Gophers, playing their first game in eight days — they won't play again until they resume Big Ten Conference play at fourth-ranked Iowa Dec. 30 — finished the nonconference portion of their schedule at 11-1 overall (1-0 in conference play) with three victories of 50 or more points, for three of the top five most lopsided victories in program history.

"It was a great way to end our nonconference, a good way to go home for Christmas break," Plitzuweit said. "We had a lot of young ladies who had a chance to compete, to play a lot of minutes for us, to grow and develop. We certainly feel that will pay off in the future."

Mara Braun scored 21 points on 9-for-17 shooting and had five rebounds in 17:23 of playing time. Amaya Battle had nine points and eight assists in 17:23, Grace Grocholski 11 points in 17:16 and Sophie Hart had 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting in 13:45.

All five played a season low in minutes, spending most of the second half and all of the fourth quarter cheering from the bench.

"We came out knowing we were going to fire right away, try to get ahead, just so we could get everyone in," Braun said. "It's fun to be able to cheer on your teammates. It's fun to watch other people succeed."

The Gophers shot 53.3% overall, made 12 of 29 threes, and held Lindenwood (2-8) to 27.4% shooting, the seventh opponent to shoot 35.1% or worse. They forced 16 turnovers but committed a season-low seven. Twelve players played, and all scored.

Czinano, who made five of 10 shots overall, attempted a career-high three three-pointers — something Plitzuweit has been encouraging her to do – and made one.

And her sister was there to watch it. Before she went to do a post-game radio interview, Czinano went over to Monika and got a picture. A career Hawkeye wearing Gophers gear. Rest assured, it will go online.

"Don't worry," Czinano said. "It will go somewhere. Probably my mom's Facebook."