Gophers women’s basketball team goes cold, falls to No. 23 Michigan State

Gophers women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit is convinced her team, which will begin play at the Big Ten tournament Wednesday in Indianapolis, is a better team than it was last year, a better team than began this season.

The problem: Most of the rest of the Big Ten is better, too.

The Gophers ended their regular season with a 73-58 loss at 23rd-ranked Michigan State on Saturday. For Minnesota (20-10, 8-10 Big Ten), it was a difficult end to the stretch run of the regular season. Minnesota has lost two consecutive games, four of five and seven of nine.

It’s likely the Gophers will have to win at least one game, and perhaps more, at the Big Ten tournament to fight their way into the NCAA tournament.

“We have to find a way to compete for 40 minutes,” Plitzuweit said in a phone interview.

Locked in to the 13th seed, the Gophers will play at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday against whichever team finishes 12th; as of Saturday night that would mean a rematch with the Washington team that beat Minnesota by 10 points earlier in the week.

Saturday the Gophers went toe-to-toe with the Spartans (21-8, 11-7) for about 32 minutes.

Through three quarters the biggest lead in the game was Michigan State’s seven-point edge in the second quarter, which the Gophers cut to one at the half. Neither team led by more than four in the fourth, which ended again with Minnesota within a point.

Then Tori McKinney — who scored all 17 of her points in the second half, including Minnesota’s first 13 of the third quarter — opened the fourth with a drive and a score.

The Gophers forced a turnover, then Grace Grocholski (23 points) hit a three-pointer. It was the start of a 7-2 run that had the Gophers up 52-48 on Grocholski’s score with 7:52 left.

Then, over the next 3:28, Michigan State turned three Gophers misses and three Minnesota turnovers into a 13-0 run that ended when Grace VanSlooten scored to put the Spartans up 61-52. Nine of VanSlooten’s team-high 15 points came in the fourth quarter.

The Gophers made just one of 10 shots and turned the ball over four times while being outscored 25-6 over the final 7:28.

“We were careless with the ball,” said Grocholski, who made seven of 16 shots, two of six three-pointers and seven of eight free throws. “There were some lack-of-effort plays, people beating us to 50-50 balls. We need to get better.”

The Gophers held the Spartans to 25 points on 10-for-33 shooting in the first half. Minnesota matched Michigan State in a 21-21 third. But in the fourth the Spartans made nine of 12 shots, scored seven points on the break and 14 in the paint. Minnesota ended the game with 17 turnovers and a season-low seven assists against a team that leads the conference in steals.

Michigan State’s on-ball defense made it difficult to get the ball inside; the Spartans limited Gophers starting center Sophie Hart to one point and just one field goal attempt. They also did a good job contesting threes, where the Gophers were 3-for-14.

“It started with turnovers, then they got going in transition,” Plitzuweit said. “It got away from us.”

Now Minnesota will try to regain its footing in time for Wednesday.

“It’s tournament time,” Plituzweit said. “It’s a new season.”