Again, the Gophers women's basketball team had a sizable third-quarter lead, only to see it leak away. Thursday at Williams Arena it was a nine-point advantage sabotaged by a succession of turnovers.
Again, the Gophers fought back to take a lead in the fourth. This time it came with 3 minutes, 42 seconds left when Mallory Heyer broke a tie with a three-pointer.
Again, the Gophers couldn't execute down the stretch, outscored 16-7 over the final 3½ minutes by Rutgers in a 65-59 loss that felt a whole like Minnesota's loss in Wisconsin on Sunday.
With their fourth straight loss the Gophers (8-9, 1-5 Big Ten) fell to 13th place in the Big Ten, one spot above last-place Northwestern. Rutgers (8-10, 2-4) won its second straight.
"I don't think it was one thing,'' Heyer said. "We didn't keep our composure the whole game. We kind of lost it in the third. It's all about keeping composure. We have to hold ourselves responsible for our mistakes.''
The frontcourt of Heyer (18 points, seven rebounds, three assists) and Rose Micheaux (17 points, 10 rebounds) scored 35 of Minnesota's 65 points but they combined for eight turnovers as well. Together they shot 14-for-24. The rest of the Gophers lineup scored 31 points on 7-for-35 shooting.
The Gophers were outscored in the paint (42-36), on second-chance points (12-11, despite 21 offensive rebounds), off the bench (15-9) and on the break (13-4).
Again, the stat that jumps out: Both teams had 20 turnovers. But Rutgers had a 20-11 edge in points off turnovers.