U women go through toughness training in losing 72-64 to Maryland

There are two kinds of toughness, Gophers women's basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit said after Wednesday's 72-64 loss to Maryland at Williams Arena.

The first is effort. From start to finish, that was there Wednesday, through frustration, missed shots, turnovers. The effort was there.

But there is a second kind the Gophers are still learning. "There is a toughness to how hard you play," Plitzuweit said. "And a toughness to being able to execute. And we're not ready to do all those things yet. But we got better."

The Gophers (11-3 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) started this game on an offensive roll but ended it in stops and starts as Maryland (10-4, 2-1) ramped up the defensive pressure. The Gophers led 21-18 after a first quarter in which they shot 47.9%. But they were outscored the rest of the way as their shooting plummeted into the 30s and their turnovers soared to 20.

The Gophers lost consecutive games for the first time this season. And if Wednesday's loss was more competitive than Saturday's 94-71 loss in Iowa, some of the same issues still need to be addressed:

On defense, working on cutting down free looks at the basket with better help defense. On offense, how to get good looks in the half-court when the team has a limited number of players who can attack off the dribble.

"Teams are starting, when coming off screens, they're starting to trap," Gophers guard Mara Braun said. She scored a game-high 20 points, and she worked for every single one of them. She added six rebounds, three assists and two blocks. She went 5-for-12 on three pointers on a night when the rest of the team went 2-for-16. She was trapped, jostled and tripped while playing all 40 minutes.

Center Sophie Hart scored 13 points with nine rebounds. She scored all of Minnesota's points in an 8-3 start to the game, but saw the ball less and less as the game went on, but scored only five points on 2-for-7 shooting the rest of the way. Guard Grace Grocholski had 12 points and forward Mallory Heyer had seven points to go with 10 rebounds. Starting point guard Amaya Battle had eight points, five rebounds and five assists, but also committed eight of the team's 20 turnovers.

Maryland, coming off a loss in Nebraska where it allowed 87 points, held the Gophers to 72 on 36.9% shooting. The Terrapins scored 17 points off Gophers turnovers, got 34 in the paint and 14 on the break.

Their full-court trapping defense slowed the Gophers after Minnesota's strong start. Their tenacious on-ball defense in the half-court prevented the Gophers from coming back late. Allie Kubek and Shayanne Sellers each had 15 for Maryland.

"We have to find ways to score in the half-court at a higher percentage," Plitzuweit said.

Down three, Maryland opened a 25-15 second quarter with a 10-2 run. Minnesota came back to take a 34-32 lead on a Braun three-pointer with 3:32 left in the first half before the Terrapins finished the half 11-2.

Minnesota was down 58-50 entering the fourth quarter and trailing by 12 with 5:25 left before Heyer scored twice and Hart once in a quick 6-0 run that pulled the Gophers within 67-61 with 4:05 left.

But the Gophers didn't make another field goal and never got closer than five points after that.

"You want to play hard," Plitzuweit said. "But when you play really hard sometimes you don't play as smart as you want to, especially when you're going through it and learning at the same time. I'm pleased with how hard the players competed. Now we have to go back and see how to execute better."