Gophers push back against Illinois, grab another Big Ten women’s basketball victory

At times Sunday the Gophers women’s basketball team was as cold as the freezing weather outside Williams Arena. Layup attempts were caroming off the rim or backboard, midrange shots weren’t falling, minutes of game clock were passing without points.

It got better.

Down 11 with 12 minutes left to play, down eight entering the fourth quarter and down seven with 6:16 left, the Gophers finished Sunday’s game with a rush in a 68-61 victory over Illinois, one that:

“We talked about it this week,” Plitzuweit said. “One thing we haven’t demonstrated yet is a level of resilience. And I think the fourth quarter demonstrated our young ladies have a level of resilience. They showed that.”

The Gophers outscored the Illini (11-4, 1-3) 33-15 over the final 12 minutes, 20-6 after Genesis Bryant’s three-pointer with 6:16 left put Illinois up 55-48. They did it with characteristic defense, of course. Illinois missed its final 10 field goal attempts, didn’t hit one in the final 4:23 and finished the game shooting 35%.

But they did it with offense, too. Of those final 33 points, freshman Tori McKinney (11), sophomore Grace Grocholski (nine) and fifth-year center Annika Stewart (nine) accounted for 29 of them. Those three had 25 of Minnesota’s season-best 28 fourth-quarter points.

For McKinney, all of her 11 points came in the fourth. Grocholski finished with a season-high 19, seven in the fourth, including a personal 6-0 run that ended with two free throws with 52 seconds left that put the Gophers up four. Stewart and Amaya Battle scored 11. Mallory Heyer had 10 points and 10 rebounds, her first double-double of the season.

The Gophers shot 16-for-46 through three quarters. In the fourth they made six of 11 shots, two of three three-pointers and 14 of 18 free throws, with McKinney going 7-for-8, Grocholski 5-for-6.

Resilience?

“We just looked within each other,” said McKinney, who was 0-for-3 with no free throw attempts through three quarters. In the fourth: She was 2-for-3 shooting, 7-for-8 on free throws with three rebounds, two assists and a steal while scoring in double figures for the ninth time in 11 games as a starter. “We kept having our huddles, the five people out on the court. It was, ‘We’re going to win this with us. It’s just us, together. We’re going to keep our calm. We’re going to keep our composure.‘ ”

BOXSCORE: Gophers women 68, Illinois 61

Plitzuweit said two plays stuck out. With Grocholski, it was getting the ball to Heyer as the shot clock was expiring earlier in the fourth quarter. With McKinney, it was her attacking off a pick, getting knocked to the floor, hard, then getting up and hitting two free throws with 2:51 left, drawing the Gophers to within two points.

And then: Heyer grabbed the rebound of an Illinois miss and Grocholski drove to tie the score with 2:15 left. With 1:26 left, Grocholski hit two free throws. She hit two more with 52 seconds left, and Minnesota led by four.

Over the final 12 minutes it was like a switch was flipped. “It was just slowing down at the rim,” said Grocholski, who hit five of eight shots and both of her three-pointers. “Just trying to not settle for tougher shots than we needed. It was just doing the little things.”

Bryant finished with a game-high 20 points. But, guarded by McKinney for much of the game, she shot just 6-for-16. Former Park Center star Adalia McKenzie scored 14 before fouling out late.

The Gophers’ 3-1 start in the Big Ten is their best through four games since the 2014-15 season.

“We were struggling to get things to fall for us a good majority of the game,” said Plitzuweit, who on Sunday added her 400th win to a résumé that includes head coaching stops at Grand Valley State, Northern Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia. “But in the fourth quarter our players did a really nice job of playing with toughness. That’s when things could have turned the other way in a hurry.”