Gophers women's basketball team tops Butler in overtime

Little came easy for the Gophers women's basketball team in an 88-86 overtime win over Butler on Sunday night at Williams Arena.

Rachel Banham scored a game-high 35 points, broke the program's record for career three-point field goals made, and hit a three-pointer with 4.9 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime.

Sophomore post Amanda Zahui B. had 25 points and 10 rebounds and scored five key points in overtime.

"Butler is a very talented team, and, obviously, they gave us all we could handle tonight," Gophers Coach Marlene Stollings said.

"We knew they were a good team," Banham said. "Coming in, they were 2-7, and that didn't mean anything."

The late-game heroics were almost enough to make the Gophers (8-1) forget about an uneasy performance that started with an abysmal first half.

The key word is "almost."

Minnesota shot just 39 percent, turned the ball over eight times, and needed a late 11-3 run to trail by a point at the end of the first half.

Luckily, the Gophers have Banham.

The star senior scored or assisted on 19 of the Gophers' first 24 points coming out of the break. She had 26 points in the second half, and had a block on what would've been a go-ahead layup for Butler with 36 seconds left in overtime.

Then there was the game-saving shot on Minnesota's last possession of regulation: Trailing 79-76, Banham dribbled to the right corner, stepped back behind the three-point line and buried a jumper with a defender in her face.

"I knew I had to take the last shot," Banham said. "I was ready for it, and I knew I could score it over that girl; she was a little shorter than me. I was feeling it most of the game, so I just let it fly."

Butler's Loryn Goodwin missed what could've been the game-winning layup on the ensuing possession, and Minnesota was able to outlast the Bulldogs (2-8) in the extra period.

"I'm very proud of the resiliency of our team in fighting back and hanging in there and never giving up," Stollings said.

Five Bulldogs had at least 11 points, with Goodwin leading the way with 24. And Butler hit 12 of 27 three-pointers.

"The threes were killing us a little bit," Banham said.

Still the Gophers were able to salvage the win.

"We talk about advancing where we're at — advance the offense and advance [on] the defensive end," Stollings said. "And we talk also about being able to do that after wins is very nice. Our goal is to keep advancing after wins."