The resilient Gophers women’s basketball team pulled away for an 83-60 victory over Wisconsin on Sunday, Feb. 15, in Madison, Wis.
The victory extended the Gophers’ winning streak to eight games, their longest in the Big Ten since 2004 and gave them 20 victories for the third consecutive season for the first time since 2015-16.
Twenty is “a big number in the basketball analytics world,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit told KFAN radio after the game. “For us, we’re just trying to keep getting better. It was a quality win for us, especially against a rival on the road in a tough place to win.”
The Gophers (20-6, 11-4 Big Ten), who defeated the Badgers by 35 points on Jan. 25 at Williams Arena, started slowly falling behind by 10 late in the first quarter.
“A couple of things hurt us,” Plitzuweit said. “Wisconsin was scoring in transition and scored pretty easily in the first quarter. We had to continue to adjust through the game. We have to understand how to attack on offense, and when we do that we’re more efficient.”
After shooting 33% (5-for-15) in the first quarter, the Gophers made 27-of-44 field-goal attempts (61%) over the final three quarters.
“We knew they would come out fiery,” Mara Braun, who led the Gophers with 20 points, told KFAN radio. “We just got back to what we do.”
Gift Uchenna, a transfer from Southern Illinois, who scored eight points in 19 minutes against the Gophers on Jan. 25, scored eight points in the game’s first eight minutes to help the Badgers (13-13, 5-10) open an 18-8 lead. The Gophers finished the first quarter with two field goals from Tori McKinney to cut the Badgers’ lead to 18-12.
