Gophers women’s basketball team pushes No. 9 Ohio State to overtime before losing

All the problems that plagued them early Thursday could have bothered the Gophers late.

They didn’t.

A hostile road crowd and a 14-point deficit with less than five minutes to play could have proved insurmountable.

For a moment it didn’t seem like they would.

The Gophers women’s basketball team stormed back with a 13-1 run, forcing overtime on sophomore guard Grace Grocholski’s three-pointer from the top of the key with 8.9 seconds left in regulation. But they couldn’t keep it up and lost 87-84 at ninth-ranked Ohio State.

“You can go over it,” said Gophers senior center Sophie Hart, who led Minnesota with 21 points on 10-for-15 shooting, in a postgame phone interview. “You can analyze every single little play. But I’m proud of our toughness. I’m proud we were able to fight back. I’m just so proud of our team.”

After struggling to take care of the ball early, the Gophers flipped that script late; Minnesota had a season-high 21 turnovers that OSU turned into 30 points. But the Gophers had only two turnovers over the final 15 minutes and outscored the Buckeyes 10-2 off turnovers in the fourth quarter.

Getting help from everywhere — seven Gophers players scored in the fourth quarter — Minnesota got to the verge of the signature win it has been looking for all season.

But junior forward Cotie McMahon and the Buckeyes did just enough in the five-minute overtime.

“I’ll give two words to you,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “Competitive stamina. We didn’t do a lot of things particularly well. But we played hard. We had a high level of tenacity. We executed down the stretch at a high level. We are getting better, which is what you have to do in February.”

The Gophers (19-7 overall) fell to 7-7 in the Big Ten with Sunday’s home game against Oregon looming. Ohio State (21-3, 10-3) rebounded from losses at UCLA and USC — two teams ranked in the top seven in the country — by shooting nearly 60%.

McMahon scored a game-high 25 points, including OSU’s first four in the OT period. Freshman guard Ava Watson went 4-for-4 on three-pointers — the only treys OSU hit all game — and scored 16. Senior forward Taylor Thierry and freshman guard Jaloni Cambridge each had 10.

And Ohio State needed every point.

The Gophers, who had five players score in double figures in Hart, junior guard Amaya Battle (17), senior forward Annika Stewart (12), freshman guard Tori McKinney (10) and junior forward Mallory Heyer (10), only led the game for 19 seconds early in the first quarter.

But every time the Buckeyes seemed ready to run away with the game, the Gophers pulled them back.

Minnesota ended regulation on a 17-3 run, holding Ohio State to one field goal in the final 3:44. That included a 13-1 finish to regulation that featured a three-point play by Stewart, that three-pointer by Grocholski and two baskets from McKinney.

In the overtime the teams traded points to 80. With 54 seconds left, freshman center Elsa Lemmila scored on a layup. Then a Gophers turnover was turned into a fast-break bucket by Thierry. Heyer made it a one-point game with a three with 33 seconds left only to have Lemmila score again. With 13 seconds left. Battle made it a two-point game by hitting one of two free throws. Junior guard Chance Gray hit one of two free throws for OSU with five seconds left. Stewart’s last-second three didn’t fall.

The Gophers shot 50% and turned 16 offensive rebounds into 20 points.

So close.

“I think this shows great promise for the stretch run,” Hart said. “We won’t have our heads hanging. We’ll be ready to go Sunday.”

That means the Gophers will have to flush Thursday’s disappointment quickly.

“Our young ladies believe we can compete,” Plitzuweit said. “We did that. You look at the stat sheet and say, ‘How did we do that?’ They got more free throws, they were more efficient. We turned the ball over more. But we found a way to compete.”