The most important thing for Gophers women's basketball coach Lindsay Whalen on Sunday was the experience and not, necessarily, the final score.
Gophers women's basketball dominates in exhibition with Minnesota Crookston
There was still plenty to learn about Lindsay Whalen's team from a game against an overmatched Division II opponent.
November 1, 2021 at 1:01AM
Because, as expected in an exhibition opener against Division II Minnesota Crookston, the Gophers breezed to a 78-33 victory at Williams Arena, outscoring the Golden Eagles 41-7 over the second and third quarters.
What Whalen wanted was for her team to go through the process.
"After last year, without fans, and how just the year was, I felt it was a good opportunity for us to go through a game day,'' Whalen said. "Go through the experience of shootaround, fans back, to get that experience after not having it for a year. To get one game with the lights on, the band is there, the fans.''
While it's hard to draw conclusions, there were some themes that emerged from the game:
- Led by the guards, the starting lineup looked good.
Whalen is going with a three-guard starting five, with point guard Jasmine Powell, Sara Scalia and Gadiva Hubbard, who played her first game wearing No. 13, the first time a player has worn that jersey since Whalen in 2003-04. Those three combined for 39 points on 16-for-29 shooting, making seven of 16 threes.
Hubbard hit five of nine three-pointers for 17 points. Powell had nine points, four assists and seven boards. Scalia scored 13 with three steals.
"Coach actually came up to me during our shootaround and said, 'This is your first game as No. 13,' " Hubbard said. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I have a lot to look up to.' But I think I did somewhat decent for my first game [wearing] 13, and I plan on doing a little more.''
Meanwhile, Kadi Sissoko scored 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting at power forward, with seven rebounds and a steal in 22 minutes.
- Competition for playing time will be intense. That is certainly true at guard, where graduate transfer Deja Winters scored nine points with five steals in 19½ minutes, Alexia Smith had four assists and Caroline Strande had six points.
Klarke Sconiers started at the center/post position and scored seven points with five boards in 12 minutes. But both Bailey Helgren — a graduate transfer — and Kayla Mershon looked good defensively.
- The Golden Eagles — led by center Bren Fox's 11 points — shot 21.4 percent. Not unexpected. But the Gophers defense in the middle two quarters was excellent, holding Crookston to seven points and 1-for-24 shooting. Third quarters were a problem for the Gophers last season.
- There are things to work on. The Gophers shot well in stretches, but missed some easy shots. Their 20 turnovers were far too many. And given the amount of time Whalen gave her reserves, having them score 19 points off the bench — with Winters and Strande getting 15 of them — seemed a little low.
But it was a good experience.
"We're a step ahead of where we were last year,'' Hubbard said.
Minnesota shot nearly 60% during a 20-8 start to erase a fresh loss to Nebraska, but guard/forward Taylor Woodson suffered a knee injury early in the game.
