Gophers women's basketball sends off seniors in style with 87-54 win over Illinois

Their parents were in the stands. Siblings. Grandparents.

Five players played their final home game for the Gophers women's basketball team in Wednesday's one-sided, nearly from start-to-finish, 87-54 victory over Illinois at Williams Arena on Thursday night. And they were honored after it was over:

Gadiva Hubbard, Laura Bagwell-Katalinich, Kayla Mershon, Deja Winters and Bailey Helgren.

Hubbard spent her entire college career here. Mershon and Bagwell-Katalinich played two seasons here after transferring in. Helgren and Winters played here one season.

Each of them had their senior moments Thursday in a game none of them could have scripted better.

"That's what we talked about today,'' Helgren said. "There was a lot of emotion throughout the day. We said, we deserve this. There are five of us. For all 40 minutes we dominated. It was fun.''

BOXSCORE: Gophers 87, Illinois 54

But what made it fun was that, on senior night, every senior played well.

Hubbard made six of 12 threes and scored a season-high 22 points. Bagwell-Katalinich (11 points) and Deja Winters (12) were both in double figures. Helgren had three blocks, six points, a game-high five assists. Merson had a four points and eight boards.

Junior Sara Scalia (17) points scored in double figures for the 19th straight game, and Kadi Sissoko, another junior, had 13. Illinois was led by Adalia McKenzie and Aaliyah Nye, who scored 14 points each.

But Thursday it was about the Gophers seniors.

"We talked about this being their last regular-season home game, how this chapter of their career … how we wanted it to go,'' Gophers coach Lindsay Whalen said. "They just went and took their moment. All of them.''

Whether the Gophers get a first-round bye in next week's Big Ten Conference tournament will be decided Sunday. The bottom four teams play on Wednesday, the first day of the tournament. The Gophers (13-16 overall) are in 10th place at 6-11 in the Big Ten, a game ahead of Penn State. But the Gophers finish the regular season at Penn State on Sunday in the only game between the two teams this season. So the winner will get the first-round bye.

It will, Whalen said, be a playoff-like game, almost certain to have more drama than Wednesday's victory.

But that's OK. Senior night is supposed to be fun. It was this time. There was a point when all five seniors were on the floor together in the fourth quarter. Whalen called a play that ended with a Hubbard three.

"It felt good to have a good game for my senior night,'' said Hubbard. "As the clock wound down it was like, 'Gosh, this is about to be the last one.' We talked about it before the game. We wanted to have a relaxed senior game. It felt good.''

Most senior nights feature players who have played their college careers together. This class, ultimately assembled during the COVID-19 age, was a little different.