Gophers women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit was running her players through a five-on-zero drill earlier this week. The idea is to work on movement and motion. At one point, Mallory Heyer read a screen that, physically, wasn’t there. She changed her cut in the middle of the play.
Gophers women’s basketball puts Michigan State on ice in 69-50 victory
Following a one-sided loss earlier in the week, the Gophers went on a giant run early and never looked back against Michigan State. Mallory Heyer led the way with 18 points and 15 rebounds.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 21, 2024 at 2:21AM
“And I thought, ‘She’s starting to really figure it out,’ ” Plitzuweit said.
Fast forward to Saturday’s 69-50 dismantling of Michigan State at Williams Arena. Certainly the best victory of the season for the Gophers against a Spartans team that came in ranked 18th in the NCAA’s NET ranking. Possibly the best Heyer, a sophomore playing in her 48th college game, has played in a Gophers uniform.
Heyer made six of 11 shots, five of eight three-pointers. She scored 18 points and matched her career high with 15 rebounds, her third double-double of the season and the eighth of her career. She had three assists and no turnovers.
The best? “I’m not sure,” Heyer said. “I think I’ve had some decent games last year, too. But I would say, all-around, it was one of my better games.’’
She has scored more points. In an overtime game at Wisconsin last year, she put up 28 with 15 rebounds. But the Gophers lost that game. This time, they won, convincingly, taking over with a 25-6 run that began with Mara Braun’s pullup jumper in the final minute of the first quarter and ran 2:45 into the third, when Sophie Hart’s post hook put the Gophers up 19.
The Gophers (14-4, 4-3 Big Ten) have won three of their past four conference games. Heyer had six threes in a victory at Michigan and five Saturday vs. the Spartans. In those three victories, she shot 54.1% overall and 56.5% on threes and averaged 9.0 rebounds and 18.3 points.
“Mallory played great. She absolutely played great,” Plitzuweit said. “She has such a burning desire to compete, get after it. Now she’s learning how to get the game to slow down. That’s huge.”
The Gophers certainly slowed down the Spartans (13-5, 3-4). After a back-and-forth first quarter, the Gophers held the Spartans to 32 points and 27.3% shooting over the final 30 minutes.
Yes, Michigan State missed a lot of makable shots. Especially in the second quarter. But the Gophers defense got better as the game went on, and the Spartans finished with season lows in points overall, points in a quarter (six in the second) and shooting percentage (32.8) in their biggest loss of the season.
Freshman Grace Grocholski again filled the boxscore, with 11 points, six rebounds, four assists, a steal and no turnovers. Hart scored 12 on 6-for-10 shooting. Braun had 10.
DeeDee Hagemann led Michigan State with 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting. But the rest of Michigan State’s players combined to score 32 points on 14-for-50 shooting.
It was Minnesota’s most complete game of the season.
“It felt like it was,” Plitzuweit said. “When we got stops, we started to push it a lot better, started recognizing, read screens a little better, moved the ball a little better.”
Heyer did all of the above. After the game, Grocholski said there are times when Heyer’s rebounding ability seems almost uncanny.
“She comes out of nowhere,” Grocholski said. “She puts a lot of emphasis on that. And we need it.’’
Minnesota, ranked first in the nation, dealt with injury and absence against No. 3 Michigan State.
