Gophers women’s basketball struggles at Wisconsin, loses 59-56

After the game ended, Gophers women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit, her voice a bit worn from a night spent exhorting her team, said it might be time for some re-evaluation.

The Gophers went to Wisconsin on Tuesday and lost 59-56 to a 13th-place Badgers team that entered the game as the lowest-scoring and worst-shooting team in the Big Ten.

“We’ll learn from this, for sure,” Plitzuweit said by phone.

And, perhaps, change some things

Maybe the spacing on offense. Maybe the way the team guards in the post.

Serah Williams, the 6-4 Badgers big, scored 24 points — 10 in the fourth quarter — and had 15 rebounds for Wisconsin (9-9 overall, 2-6 Big Ten), which shut down the Gophers offense pretty much from start to finish.

Still, Grace Grocholski — the Gophers freshman playing her first college game back in her home state — hit a shot clock buzzer-beating three with 5:45 left to put the Gophers up two.

The Gophers (14-5, 4-4) scored just two points in the final 3:11. Mallory Heyer scored off an offensive rebound to pull the Gophers within two with 40 seconds left. The Gophers got a start but, out of a time-out, could not score. After Williams made one of two free throws with 21 seconds left, the Gophers had two chances to try to tie the game, but three-point attempts by Heyer and Mara Braun didn’t connect.

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The Gophers’ point total was a season low. Their 33.8% shooting was the team’s second lowest.

“We couldn’t get anything around the rim like we wanted to,” Plitzuweit said. “Serah Williams had a lot to do with that. We couldn’t score on the block.”

And trying to drive the paint is not a strength of a Gophers team that had won three of four games before Tuesday.

For an idea of just how choppy the Gophers’ offense was, consider ...

Minnesota held Wisconsin under 60 points, forced 18 turnovers while committing just five, had a 15-4 edge in points off turnovers, a 12-2 edge on the break.

And they lost, primarily because Wisconsin — led by Williams — was the more physical team, out-rebounding the Gophers and getting to the free-throw line twice as many times.

BOXSCORE: Wisconsin 59, Gophers 56

Big Ten women’s basketball standings

“She can get touches in so many different ways,” Plitzuweit said of Williams, who hit nine of 14 shots, including her lone three-pointer, with 3:29 left in the game. Braun drove for a basket for a one-point Gophers lead with 3:11 left, but Minnesota was outscored 6-2 down the stretch. “She can post up. She can use the ball screen and roll. She can step outside of the lane. She kind of had her way with us.”

After a résumé-building, 19-point victory over Michigan State on Saturday — which went into the game No. 18 in the NCAA’s NET rankings — this loss to Wisconsin (126th entering the game) hurt.

“It’s tough, it’s tough,” said Plitzuweit, whose team was playing its fourth game in 10 days. “Physically being strong enough to impose will in that last game is really important. And it’s not who we are right now.”

The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.