Wednesday night at Williams Arena, everything went pretty much as expected.
The Gophers women's basketball team was playing host to Cal State-Northridge. After a loss Sunday to then-eighth-ranked Connecticut, it was safe to assume the Gophers would come out strong.
Yup. The final: 84-31.
"We did a lot of work trying to get our offense flowing," said center Sophie Hart, one of four Gophers in double-digits scoring with 13 points on 6-for-6 shooting in less than 20 minutes. "I thought we looked better tonight."
It was a rather historic win. The 53-point margin of victory was the third-biggest in program history and the largest since 1981. The 31 points scored by the Matadors was the sixth-lowest total against a Gophers opponent ever. The previous five all came in the 1970s.
The Gophers (4-1) shot 48.4% and held Northridge to 25.5%. Minnesota started the second quarter 14-0. The Gophers outscored Northridge (2-3) 16-2 in the fourth quarter. Twelve Gophers played, with 10 scoring.
"We went out and did what we were supposed to do," said Janay Sanders, who scored 10 points off the bench. "We took care of the ball [14 turnovers]. We held them to 25 percent shooting. We defended the way we're supposed to."
They did all of that.