That was unexpected. But, what a luxury, to be able to say that "close call" was unexpected rather than that "loss" was unexpected. But, make no mistake. This was a "close call." The Gophers trailed most of the way, retook the lead at 6:03 of the 4th at 39-38, then made 7-of-10 FT inside of a minute to hang on.
The Gophers led early 9-4, but fell behind 15-13 at 6:31 of the 1st. It took more than 20 minutes to catch up because they shot 16-of-49 from the field and 20-of-34 from the line, and that's including a 24-point 4th quarter. They were 7-of-13 from the line after 3. They also won the rebounding battle in the 4th quarter. San Diego had one more after 3 but the Gophers ended up with a 47-37 edge.
Thank goodness for Taiye Bello, who has to be one of the best rebounders in the game. She corralled 11 in the 4th period alone (17 for the night), 3 of them on the offensive end, and 2 of which she putback in the basket. One of those was the bucket that gave Minnesota the lead for good at 6:03. She scored 6 points in the 4th on 3-of-5 shooting. Jasmine Brunson added 8 4th quarter points on 1-of-1 FG and 6-of-9 throws. She too had a key offensive board leading to 1-of-2 FT. Kenisha Bell led the Gophers with 21 points. She was pretty much the entire story for 3 periods, though she managed to make just 1-of-5 FG in the 4th and 3-of-8 FT. It was just enough.
Minnesota had of course moved into the top 25 at #25 on Monday. Now, in their 1st game as a ranked team, they played pretty tight and the pressure played havoc with their shooting. Hopefully that is now behind them.
Player of the Day--Taiye Bello
Team of the Day--I'm going to go with the Mankato State--er, MSU-Mankato--men, who won at St. Cloud 80-77 in an OT thriller.
Coach of the Day--Matt Marganthaler, MSU Mankato men
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