No. 24 Gophers women’s basketball team turns stern, surges past Northwestern

Grace Grocholski didn’t miss a second Sunday.

Four quarters, 40 minutes, 27 points, 10 rebounds, her first double-double. At times, the Gophers women’s basketball sophomore pushed her team, and at times, she tried pulling it along. There were times, as Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said after Minnesota’s come-from-behind 87-82 victory at Northwestern, when Grocholski was “imploring” the Gophers.

“We used her on the block, handling the ball, rebounding,” Plitzuweit said by phone from Evanston, Ill. “We asked her to do all of it, and she answered.”

Reserve sophomore Nia Holloway played nine minutes, scoring all six of her points in the final six minutes. After the Gophers spent most of the game trying unsuccessfully to guard Northwestern’s Grace Sullivan (18 points) and Caileigh Walsh (17 points) in the post, the athletic Holloway became part of the answer.

BOXSCORE: Gophers 87, Northwestern 82

Big Ten standings

Holloway scored on successive possessions late in the game. The first basket put the Gophers up 82-80 with 1:37 left. The second — which came when she turned down a 10-footer, drove and scored off the glass — gave the Gophers a four-point lead with 44 seconds left. Just 13 seconds later, she blocked a three-point shot. Perhaps her finest 66 seconds in a Gophers jersey.

“We wouldn’t have done this without her,” Grocholski said.

Here’s what the 24th-ranked Gophers did: Moribund for three-plus quarters, down 16 with 8:09 left, Minnesota outscored Northwestern 29-8 the rest of the way to improve to 17-2 overall; they’re 5-2 in the Big Ten Conference, matching last season’s conference victory total. They did it by turning up the defensive pressure, denying in the post, attacking on offense, getting to the free-throw line, ultimately turning back the upset-minded Wildcats (7-10, 0-6), who were playing for the first time in nearly two weeks.

Grocholski matched a career high in scoring, set against Northwestern last year. She was 8-for-14 from the field overall, 2-for-5 on three-pointers, and hit all nine of her free-throw attempts. Point guard Amaya Battle scored 18 points and shot 5-for-10 from the field, adding six rebounds and six assists. Freshman Tori McKinney scored 13 points, going 4-for-5 on three-pointers.

The Gophers don’t want to make a habit of falling behind late, but they continue to show the toughness Plitzuweit has seen in the team from the start of the season.

“We were so flat at the beginning,” Plitzuweit said. “The first 32 minutes, our defense was so flat. We just had nothing in the tank. But I thought we found a way over the last eight minutes or so to find that ball pressure, deny more things.”

And avert the upset. Penn State sent ninth-ranked Ohio State to its first conference loss of the season earlier Sunday. The Gophers didn’t want to hand another Big Ten opponent its first conference win of the season on the same day.

So they didn’t.

The process began after Northwestern used a 5-0 start to the fourth quarter to take a 16-point lead on Kyla Jones’ basket with 8:09 left.

Then the switch flipped. The Gophers denied more in the paint, picked up the ball full court. On offense, they raised the aggression.

The change was amazing. Through the first 31:51, the Wildcats made 29 of 51 field-goal tries (56.9%), seven of 13 three-point attempts, and committed just two turnovers. After that? They went 3-for-14 overall, 0-for-2 on threes, and committed three turnovers that the Gophers turned into five points down the stretch.

“I think we just found a way,” said Grocholski, who has scored in double figures in five straight games, averaging 17.2 points during that time. “We did everything in our power to get stops, to get good looks. We found more intensity in that fourth quarter. Momentum is a huge thing. Us getting in transition a little bit, stringing scores, it allowed us to lock in on defense.”

And on offense? Grocholski’s two free throws with 7:50 left started the comeback. Over the final eight minutes, the Gophers hit seven of eight field-goal attempts and 14 of 17 free-throw tries — Battle was 6-for-8, Grocholski 5-for-5 — while scoring 29 points.

After Holloway’s final basket, Walsh scored with 26 seconds left to make it a two-point game. But Battle made one of two free-throw tries a second later, got the rebound of Northwestern’s ensuing miss, then followed with two game-clinching free throws with nine seconds left.

“Jeez, that was something,” Plitzuweit said. “Our young ladies showed a lot of guts and resilience.”