That Sara Scalia did what she pretty much always does was important, certainly.
Scalia, the Gophers women's basketball team's top scorer, scored 24 points against Michigan State on Sunday at Williams Arena. It was her 14th consecutive game in double figures. It featured at least one of her now-signature long bombs. In the Gophers' 71-60 victory, Scalia righted a listing ship in the first quarter, hit her free throws down the stretch in the fourth.
But here's what was maybe the nicest thing about the victory for Minnesota (11-13, 4-8 Big Ten): They held onto — indeed grew — a halftime lead Sunday when Scalia went without a field goal for the final 20 minutes.
This was, in the best sense of the word, a team win.
"A great win," coach Lindsay Whalen said. "And against a really good team.''
Thursday at fifth-ranked Indiana, the Gophers led by four late in the game only to be outscored 14-0 down the stretch by the Hoosiers.
Not this time. Because so many players contributed at different times:
- Alexia Smith came off the bench to score 13 points, her best showing in a Big Ten game in two seasons. She had two steals, two assists and no turnovers. She was a team-best plus-19. Her three-pointer at the end of the first half stemmed the tide after the Spartans had cut a seven-point lead to one. Her three-point play 3 minutes into the second half keyed a Gophers surge.
- Alanna Micheaux scored seven of her nine points in the Gophers' 23-18 third quarter.
- Bailey Helgren came off the bench to score six points with seven rebounds and two blocks. And what timing. A 15-point Gophers lead in the third quarter was down to six early in the fourth. Then Helgren scored. At the other end, she blocked a shot from Tamara Farquhar. Moments later, Helgren grabbed an offensive rebound and fed Deja Winters (10 points) for a three-pointer that pushed the lead back to 11 with 6:38 left.
