The Minnesota Gophers are now 5-4 following their loss on Wednesday to the Kentucky Wildcats (7-1). All but two of Minnesota’s 74 points came from their starters: Amaya Battle, Katie Borowicz, Mara Braun, Alanna Micheaux and Mallory Heyer.
A quick bucket from Battle after the tip-off kickstarted a successful run, which turned into an 11-4 lead, but Kentucky’s defense applied the pressure when the game started to slow down.
Kentucky’s face-guarding defensive scheme had the Gophers rattled as they handled the ball up the court. This turned into nine Minnesota turnovers in the first quarter. They tacked on an additional 12 points off those turnovers and shifted the momentum and lead in their favor.
Minnesota’s pattern of turning hot and then going cold continued into the second quarter. Braun and Borowicz hit back-to-back three-pointers to close Kentucky’s lead to two with seven minutes left.
The Gophers then shot 0-6 from the field proceeding the threes, while Wildcat forwards found no trouble overpowering their counterparts and getting the ball into the basket.
Micheaux’s second-quarter performance drastically changed from the first quarter. She went 4-5 from the field, scored eight points and pulled down three rebounds in the first quarter but went scoreless and rebound-less in the second.
With Kentucky claiming the paint, Minnesota had no choice but to trust Braun’s range from deep to keep competing. Her last-minute three-pointer ended the Gophers’ scoring in the first half, but the team was still down by two.
She turned the deficit into a tie eight seconds into the third quarter after she was fouled while shooting. Kentucky guard Robyn Benton followed it up with a smooth jumper to reclaim the lead.
Benton, who missed all three of her shots in the first half, scored more than half of Kentucky’s third-quarter points. On top of that, she snuck in two steals and an assist. It seemed as if it was her against the entire Minnesota roster for a majority of the quarter, a battle in which Benton claimed victory. Her performance helped the Wildcats move their lead up to five heading into the last quarter.
With the Gophers down 59-64, they looked to the perimeter for help, and out on the perimeter was Heyer, Minnesota’s most efficient three-point shooter of the year.
Heading into the fourth quarter, she sat for only three minutes. She showed no signs of fatigue and even began contributing more offensively. She cashed in from the three-point range once in the first few minutes, another with four minutes to go and her last in the final minutes to take Kentucky’s lead to just two possessions.
Down two with under a minute to go in the game, Micheaux was fouled hard driving into the paint for a layup. She limped to the free throw line and took her time to line up. The Barn silenced itself to help her focus, but it was not enough. She missed both and the Gophers’ attempt to foul their way back into the game failed.
Minnesota as a team made 54.5% of their free throws. Borowicz was honest about the struggles after the game.
“It’s the ups and downs of the game. We’re great basketball players, we gotta figure it out ourselves,” Borowicz said. “Some games you are going to have better free throws than others. This just wasn’t our night.”
Minnesota’s next opponent is the Iowa Hawkeyes, led by one of the nation’s most popular collegiate players, Caitlin Clark. The game will be held on Saturday at 8 p.m. in Iowa City.