U, Buford sharp in victory over Harvard

Led by Kiara Buford's season-high 25 points, the Gophers continued to display improvement on both ends of the floor with a 79-53 victory over Harvard on Saturday in the Best Buy Classic at Williams Arena.

The Gophers (6-5) had averaged 38 percent shooting heading into Saturday's game. That number got a healthy boost for the second game in a row as the Gophers shot 53.3 percent, including 5-for-11 on three-pointers.

"We haven't shot the ball real well all year, but we've been on the road a lot," Gophers coach Pam Borton said. "And we've got three or four people on our team that are as good of shooters that we've had in our program for a long time. So it was just a matter of time before they started making shots."

Buford's 25 points were just two shy of her career high. The St. Paul native went 11-for-14 from the floor and was 3-for-4 on three-point attempts. She added six assists, three blocks and two steals.

"I'm a senior. I've played this system for four years so I kind of know what I have to do," Buford said. "I think the points are something that just comes."

One of the reasons the Gophers' shooting has improved is the play of Katie Loberg. When she scores, it opens up better options for the Gophers guards. Loberg and the other post players were chatting before the game, saying, "We need to throw the first punch."

"And me as the starting center kind of took that to heart, and I made sure that I would be the one to do that," she said.

The junior from Princeton scored 16 points Saturday, including some key early baskets to get the offense going.

"When you have a post player like Katie that's finishing extremely well inside and other teams are double-teaming her and keeping an eye on her, it opens things up for our guards," Borton said.

Borton had changed the starting lineup with three guards in Wednesday's victory over Air Force to help spur a better start.

The same group opened Saturday's game with a 9-2 run, but they trailed 16-15 midway through the first half.

Paced by Buford's 11 first-half points, the Gophers led 33-24 at the break.

The Crimson (4-5) outrebounded the Gophers 44-33, but Minnesota scored 20 points off 16 Crimson turnovers and finished with 38 points in the paint. The Gophers also successfully defended the three-point shooting barrage from Harvard -- the Crimson went 6-for-28 -- an aggressive approach it hadn't seen all year.

Freshman point guard Rachel Banham was held to just two points in the first half but rallied for 11 second-half points to extend her double-digit scoring streak to seven games.

The Gophers will be looking to extend their winning streak to four games against Alcorn State when the teams play at 2 p.m. Sunday to close out the Best Buy Classic.