Gophers women’s basketball scores rare road upset in beating No. 10 Iowa 91-85

In the past 10 seasons, it’s been difficult for teams to win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Gophers women’s basketball team can attest to that.

On Thursday, Feb. 5, the Gophers built a big lead and held on for a 91-85 victory over No. 10 Iowa, their first victory in Iowa City since Jan. 25, 2007.

The Gophers led by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter and held on after the Hawkeyes got within five in the final seconds. The Gophers had lost their previous 11 meetings in the rivalry since beating Iowa 90-89 at the 2018 Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.

It’s also the Gophers’ first victory over a top-10 team since beating No. 10 Maryland 93-74 on Feb. 18, 2018, and their first road victory over a top-10 team since beating No. 9 Stanford 68-56 in the second round of the 2003 NCAA tournament. Their last conference road victory over a top-10 team was 92-85 at No. 5 Wisconsin on Jan. 20, 2002.

And, with the Gophers men having beaten No. 10 Michigan State on Feb. 4, it’s the first time the Gophers men and women beat a top-10 opponent in back-to-back games since 2013, when the Gophers men beat No. 1 Indiana 77-73 on Feb. 26 and the Gophers women beat No. 7 Penn State 89-81 two days later.

It was the first home loss of the season for the Hawkeyes (18-5, 9-3), who have lost three in a row since guard Taylor McCabe suffered a season-ending knee injury. The Hawkeyes were tied for first place in the Big Ten before losing at Southern California and UCLA. Since the start of the 2016-17 season, the Hawkeyes are 138-21 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Gophers led by 77-57 with 7:51 remaining and still led by 16 with four minutes to go. Iowa pulled within eight in the final minute and then within 90-85 with 14 seconds remaining. Tori McKinney made one of two free throws to put the Gophers up six, Iowa missed a three-pointer and the Gophers ran out the clock to earn their fifth consecutive victory. It’s their longest winning streak in conference play since 2018-19; they will look to make it six in a row Sunday at last-place Rutgers.

“We knew they’d make a run,” Plitzuweit said. “Iowa is a great team and hard to guard. You just have to find a way to slow them down. To our credit, we weathered the storm.”

Grace Grocholski scored 21 points and Mara Braun added 16 points, going 4-for-4 from three-point range, for the Gophers, who had five players score in double figures.

“It was such a good team effort,” Braun told KFAN. “We were able to get it done. It’s a tough conference and every game is tough. Now we have to build from this.”

McKinney added 15 points, Amaya Battle had 12 points, 14 rebounds and six assists before fouling out and Finau Tonga added 10 points for the Gophers, who shot 51.6% from the floor (32-for-62) and a team-record 71.4% (10-for-14) from three-point range. They also outrebounded the Hawkeyes 41-28, grabbing 14 offensive rebounds that led to 14 second-chance points.

BOXSCORE: Gophers 91, No. 10 Iowa 85

Big Ten standings

The Gophers trailed by as many as eight points in the first quarter, but they led by 10 at halftime after outscoring Iowa 25-14 in the second. In that quarter, the Gophers shot 9-for-14 from the floor and 4-for-4 from three-point range. The Hawkeyes shot 5-for-17 from the floor in the second quarter.