Gophers women’s basketball cruises past Central Connecticut 89-48 in season opener

A year ago, Annika Stewart was beginning her fourth season at Nebraska, Taylor Woodson her first at Michigan. On Monday night at Williams Arena, both players — both in Gophers uniforms — celebrated their homecoming.

Impressively.

The Gophers women opened their season with an 89-48 victory against an overmatched Central Connecticut State team missing its best player because of injury. So the final score isn’t the most important thing to come out of this game.

This might be: For a team returning all five of its starters from a 20-victory season a year ago, the Gophers sure looked different.

A graduate transfer, Stewart led the team with 18 points in 17 minutes. She made seven of 10 field-goal tries, going 3-for-4 on three-pointers. Woodson, a sophomore transfer, scored 10 points and added five rebounds and two steals in 16 minutes.

“I guess it felt pretty good out there,” Stewart said. “It was just fun being back playing again. This whole offseason, I was like, ‘When’s the first game going to come?’ Now it’s here.”

Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit promised a team that would be deeper. The first impression is she’s right. The Gophers bench scored 50 points on 19-for-37 shooting from the field. And while the nature of the game skews the numbers a bit, that’s still the most bench points in Plitzuweit’s one-plus seasons here.

Stewart and Woodson, along with freshman guards Tori McKinney and McKenna Johnson, scored their first points with the Gophers.

“It’s just great being back at Minnesota, back at home playing,” Woodson said. “Playing around so many familiar faces was great.”

A few stretches during which Plitzuweit was experimenting with combinations aside, a team with seven new players had remarkable chemistry. As Woodson said, the fact that 11 of the 15 players are from Minnesota helps. Plus the fact that Stewart played at Wayzata High School with starting guard Mara Braun (17 points) and that Woodson played at Hopkins with Gophers point guard Amaya Battle.

Both came home to be closer to family.

The Gophers outscored the Blue Devils 41-2 off turnovers, 42-14 in the paint, 17-5 on the fast break, 50-8 off the bench.

BOXSCORE: Gophers 89, Central Connecticut State 48

Braun scored nine points in the first quarter, which ended with the Gophers up 24-6. McKinney and Woodson each had four in the second as that lead grew to 20. Stewart had eight in the Gophers’ 26-point third quarter that ended with Minnesota up 27.

It will take time for Plitzuweit to settle on a rotation. But the new faces give her the opportunity to play in different ways. When Stewart goes in for starting center Sophie Hart, the team can go to a five-out style. McKinney adds speed and defense, Woodson strength and versatility. Grad transfer Alexsia Rose — the first guard off the bench — didn’t score but had four assists and three steals.

“I think our depth is something that is going to provide us with different looks for our opponents,” Plitzuweit said. “We can guard a little differently, score in different ways. We got a chance to see a little bit of that tonight.”

The starters — including juniors Braun, Battle and Mallory Heyer — were productive as ever. Heyer had five points and five rebounds in 18 minutes. Battle had five points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals in 20 minutes. Braun and sophomore Grace Grocholski each had five assists.

“It’s only Game 1,” Woodson said. “We have a whole season ahead of us. We’re only going to get better.”