Well, you knew they weren't going to go undefeated, so in a sense this loss is not a surprise. Any Big 10 road game, especially against a team with a winning record, is a trap. That means Indiana, Maryland, Michigan State, Iowa, Rutgers, Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue, Northwestern, Illinois, Nebraska, Penn State. All of them, traps. Well, OK, maybe not Wisconsin or Illinois. And the Gophers will play 8 more of them on the road before this is over. All but Indiana and Iowa and Penn State, and of course Michigan, whom they've already played on the road.
So, getting a Big 10 road win sooner than later to boost the confidence now becomes the big challenge. Lindsay Whalen's team gets lowly Illinois at home, but then a trip to East Lansing is not going to be a cakewalk by any means. Then a home game vs. #19 Iowa, and then a couple winnable road games at Wisconsin and Nebraska. A 3-2 record would be good. 4-1 would be terrific.
So, on Monday, Michigan exposed the Gophers ball-handling, creating 21 Gopher turnovers and 26 Michigan points off those turnovers. Minnesota led 20-19 midway through the 2nd period when the Wolverines went on a game-changing 21-2 run to lead 40-22 at the half. In fact, they made it 44-22 early in the 3rd before the Gophers started to whittle it down a little bit.
Taiye Bello had 24 points to lead Minnesota but she had "just" 7 boards as the Gophers got out-rebounded 39-32. Bello shot 9-of-9. Her teammates shot 14-of-45 (31 percent). Kenisha Bell and Destiny Pitts shot 4-for-24 (17 percent).
Player of the Day--Taiye Bello
No comments:
Post a Comment