Freshman point guard Banham getting halfway there

Rachel Banham is still a freshman, technically. But maybe that's not the right label.

"I'm going to start calling her something else, like an advanced first-year or something," Gophers women's basketball senior Kiara Buford said with a laugh.

Banham agreed.

"No, I don't feel like a freshman," she said.

But that's exactly what the Gophers are relying on this year: A rookie point guard anointed with the task of leading Minnesota's offense down the floor. The results have been both promising and a work in progress.

Banham leads the Gophers with 13.9 points per game, but she has admittedly struggled to be consistent.

"Sometimes in games I'll start off the first half strong and the second half I kind of go to sleep, or I'll start the first half, kind of, whatever," she said. "I need to play two halves really strong."

She's shown flashes of stardom against the nation's best. In an 89-60 loss to No. 1 Baylor last month, Banham shot 60 percent in the second half, scoring 15 of her team-leading 19 points after the break.

"She had an unbelievable second half against some of the best players in the country," Gophers coach Pam Borton said.

Banham has not been happy with her shooting percentage early in the season. A 2-for-15 performance against South Florida, 6-for-17 at Quinnipiac, 4-for-16 against Wake Forest and 5-for-17 at Denver all contributed to losses. She does seem to be gaining confidence.

"My coaches help me a lot. Pam talks to me a lot," Banham said. "Ki [Buford] will talk to me and calm me down when I'm feeling like I don't know what I'm doing or I'm not doing well. She talks to me, and I think it helps deal with a lot of the pressure."

On the flip side, the former Lakeville North standout already has added heroics to her young Gophers career. She hit the game-winner with 0.6 seconds left against Virginia Tech, a game in which she scored 15 points and had four assists in a turnover-free effort. In her college debut, Banham posted 15 points in a victory against Arkansas. She recently hung a season-high 20 points on the New Jersey Institute of Technology, garnering her Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors for the second time.