As the clock ticked down on the final seconds of the Gophers' 86-79 victory over Michigan State on Sunday at Williams Arena, the boisterous home crowd thundered its approval.
And, really, Minnesota (18-6, 7-5 Big Ten) gave the season-best 6,570 in attendance plenty to cheer about.
But let's start with this: Mired in a 1-4 slump, the Gophers finally showed signs of what led them to a program-best 16-2 start to the season.
Freshman Carlie Wagner hit back-to-back three-pointers as part of a 10-0 Gophers run midway through the second half, and Amanda Zahui B. notched her 17th double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 rebounds, lifting the Gophers after an uncharacteristically hot start from the Spartans.
Wagner scored a career-best 25 points — 21 of which came in the second half — and Zahui's five blocks put her at 199 for her two-year career, setting a program record.
"I thought it was a very strong performance from our kids from the standpoint of coming off a couple losses here and having to handle that adversity," Gophers coach Marlene Stollings said.
The Gophers had been reeling, having lost four of five and facing a near must-win against a team sitting at 13th in the Big Ten standings. The Gophers had fallen out of the top 25, had dropped to sixth in the league and were sliding toward the bubble of the NCAA tournament.
Stollings said they simply needed to settle into their own game and "control the controllable."
Michigan State (11-13, 3-10) didn't make that easy.
The Spartans came into the game shooting only 28.6 percent from three-point range — and promptly hit 10 of their first 19 from downtown. Freshman Lexi Gussert, who had averaged 3.8 points per coming into the game, scored 18 before halftime and 20 on the day.
For their own part, the Gophers struggled early, missing 16 of their first 20 shots and trailing 19-10 midway through the first. But, they settled in, and a rare three-point shot from Zahui at the buzzer (she is 5-for-19 from behind the arc for her career), tied the score at 37-37 at the break.
Then Wagner took over.
The high school star from New Richland, Minn., had 14 points in the first seven-plus minutes of the second half. Her pull-up jumper in the lane at 15:46 tied the game at 50-50, erasing what would be the Spartans' last lead of the day. Minnesota pushed the pace the rest of the way, and the Spartans' shooting cooled off.
"The basket just felt big tonight," said Wagner, who finished 8-for-14 from the floor, 5-for-10 from three-point range. "I was shooting confidently and my teammates were just running the plays and setting awesome screens for me and giving me the ability to get open."
Aerial Powers led the Spartans with a game-high 31 points, but Michigan State wound up shooting only 33.3 percent from the field, 35.1 percent from behind the arc.
Shae Kelley, who had 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Gophers, said the win was big for restoring the team's early-season momentum. She attributed it to energy, focus and effort.
"I think we're moving at a much higher pace," she said. "… Even when we made mistakes, they were at a 100 percent [effort]."
