Gophers women’s basketball team drops home game to Iowa

After another game had gotten away, Gophers women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit talked about discipline and toughness.

Specifically, about needing more of both.

In a 68-60 loss to Iowa on Thursday at Williams Arena — the Gophers' third consecutive loss this season and 11th in row in regular-season play to Iowa — Minnesota lacked toughness to start, discipline at the end. The Gophers struggled to score early, couldn’t get a stop late.

The result: a 13-2 Iowa run over the first five minutes of the game and a 17-9 Iowa finish after Grace Grocholski’s first points had tied the score 41-41 with 4:33 left in the game.

“This is a group that has wanted to make adjustments,” Plitzuweit said of the Gophers, 18-6 overall but down to 6-6 in Big Ten play. “Now it’s time to make some of those adjustments, and you have to make them really quickly. Because you don’t have any time to sit around and wait.”

For a second consecutive game, the Gophers offense struggled to score, both from behind the arc and at the rim. The Gophers scored a season-low 53 points Sunday at UCLA, only 60 Thursday.

Minnesota shot 35.1% overall and made seven of 28 three-point shots. Through the first three quarters, the Gophers were 12-for-42 overall, 4-for-21 on threes.

And when things finally started clicking, after the Gophers had clawed their way back into a tie, the defense they had played all game abandoned them.

After Grocholski tied the score, the Hawkeyes (16-7, 6-6) scored on seven consecutive possessions to put the game away, scoring 10 of the next 12 points and going up 61-53 on Sydney Affolter’s three-pointer with 1:28 left.

“They just scored, and we can’t allow that,” said guard Amaya Battle, whose 12 points made her one of four Gophers players in double figures.

“There were multiple times when we would [get close] and they would just score. Or get a rebound.”

Mallory Heyer (10 points, 10 rebounds) had her third double-double of the season for the Gophers. Freshman Tori McKinney had 16 points, nine in the fourth quarter. Annika Stewart came off the bench to score 14, eight in the final 10 minutes.

Hannah Stuelke had 17 points and seven rebounds for Iowa. Lucy Olsen had 14, Affolter and Kylie Feuerbach each had 13.

It’s getting to crunch time for the Gophers, who lost their second in a row at Williams Arena. They host a good Indiana team Sunday, then head to Columbus to play No. 8 Ohio State. Sunday’s game now looks even bigger for a Minnesota team sitting on the NCAA tournament bubble.

“It’s very frustrating, but we can’t hang our heads,” Heyer said. “We’re going to keep working and we’re going to watch film and figure out what we did wrong.”

Down 11 at the half, the Gophers got within six entering the fourth quarter.

Then McKinney and Stewart each had five points in a 14-8 start to the fourth that tied the score.

But at the other end Stuelke was fouled. She made the first free throw, missed the second. But Affolter got the offensive board, got the ball to Feuerbach, who was fouled and made both free throws. After a Gophers miss, Stuelke scored again. Another miss and Affolter hit a three and the Hawkeyes were back in control for good.

“They out-toughed us in that game,” Plitzuweit said. “They started with an edge and took it right at us.”

That’s kind of the way the game ended, too.

“I say, hang with us,” Plitzuweit said. “I think we’re going to continue to improve. We’ve got to find a way to be more disciplined and be a little tougher.”