Minnesota Women’s Basketball-Minnesota Loses to Michigan

Minnesota lost to Michigan 84-69 in Ann Arbor. Despite a career high from Carlie Wagner, the Gophers were blown out of the building by a Michigan’s dual attack of Hallie Thome and Katelynn Flaherty. With the loss, the Gophers are now 10-8 on the season and 1-4 in conference play.

Minnesota kept the game reasonably close after the first quarter before completely falling apart on offense in the second. The Gophers shot 3-13 from the field in the second quarter and by halftime the game was functionally over as Michigan by 25. For the game, Minnesota had nearly as many turnovers as field goals made. Michigan put up 35 more shot attempts than the Gophers, in part because of nineteen offensive rebounds. Truth to be told, this should have been an even bigger loss had Michigan not let up in the fourth quarter.

The horrific team output obscured an excellent game from Carlie Wagner. She set a career high with 38 points on 13-20 shooting. That’s an effective field goal percentage of 83%, which is insane. Wagner also added eight rebounds. Unfortunately, Wagner had no help from any of teammates. The rest of her team was 12 of 36 from the field.

On defense, the Gophers had no answer for Hallie Thome inside. For reasons that I’m still unclear about, Minnesota never attempted to double in the post even though no Minnesota post player was able to guard Thome one on one.

Minnesota will next play Illinois at Williams Arena on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m.