Tori McKinney scored 20 points and Amaya Battle and Grace Grocholski each added 18 to lead the balanced Gophers women’s basketball team to an 88-53 victory over Wisconsin on Sunday, Jan. 25, at Williams Arena.
The Gophers (14-6, 5-4 Big Ten) never trailed after McKinney’s three-pointer started an 8-0 run over the first 2½ minutes. They ended the game with an 18-2 run as they won their second game in a row.
The margin of victory matched the largest for the Gophers in the 90-game series with the Badgers and was the 50th win in the series for the Gophers, who have won the past three meetings.
The loss ended a two-game winning streak for the Badgers (13-8, 5-5), who were coming off a victory over No. 24 Nebraska. Wisconsin has equaled its overall victory total (13) and surpassed its Big Ten victory total (four) from 2024-25.
“We came out of the gates really well,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit told KFAN radio after the game. “We played good defense and played really well in the first quarter and in the second quarter.”
The Badgers, who trailed by 20 points at halftime, made five three-pointers in the third quarter to cut the Gophers’ lead to 10 with 3:40 left in the quarter.
“Our alertness and our awareness got really better after that,” Plitzuweit said. “And the resiliency we showed to come back and finish the third quarter strong, and we were good in the fourth quarter.”
The Gophers closed the third quarter with a 10-0 run to take a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter.
