Grace Grocholski led four Minnesota players scoring in double figures, and Mallory Heyer finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds as the Gophers beat Florida, 66-52, on Monday to advance to the WBIT final at Indianapolis.
Freshman Tori McKinney added 14 points and hit a 3-pointer to give the Gophers a 66-50 lead with 33 seconds left.
The Gophers (24-11) advanced to Wednesday’s championship game against Belmont (26-12), a 66-57 winner over Villanova in Monday’s early game. Tip is set for 6 p.m. CDT at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Minnesota held Florida 23.3 points below its season scoring average and outrebounded the Gators 37-31 — 8.8 rebounds below their average. Since losing their first-round Big Ten Conference tournament game, the Gophers are 4-0 in the WBIT.
“The break in between the Big Ten tournament and the time that the WBIT tournament started was a really important time for us,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “Not just to get healthy again, but just as important, it allowed us to really work on us.
“There are so many times during that (Big Ten) stretch that you’re preparing for opponents, and we had over a week that we could really focus on who we were and how we need to compete and do things about ourselves. And I thought that really helped.”
Wednesday will mark the second straight postseason championship game appearance for the Gophers, who lost to St. Louis in the WNIT final last spring. Minnesota is now 8-1 in postseason games in Plitzuweit’s two seasons.
“I think our team tonight did a great job of moving the ball and finding the open player, and I was the recipient of some of those plays,” said Heyer, whose 15 rebounds were a season high and contributed to her sixth double-double this season. “It felt good to see the ball go through the hoop, and obviously rebounding is something … I can bring to the team every day.”
The Gators cut their deficit to single digits, 56-48, with 6:13 left in regulation when Amaya Battle missed a pull-up jumper and Laila Reynolds scored on a driving layup. But Grocholski answered with her fourth 3-pointer to give Minnesota an 11-point lead with 5:02 left.
Both teams went cold, but it worked for Minnesota as the Gophers worked nearly two minutes off the clock — with the help of two offensive rebounds by Heyer — to take their 59-48 lead into the final three minutes.
After a shot clock violation by Minnesota, Hart forced a steal and was fouled, then on the other end hit a turnaround jumper to make it 61-48 with 1:53 remaining.
After a Ra Shaya Kyle basket made it 61-50, Florida coach Kelly Rae Finley called a timeout, but Tori McKinney made a 3-pointer and, after a Gators miss, Battle rebounded and found Heyer alone for a layup that essentially sealed the victory, giving Minnesota its biggest lead, 66-50, with 33 seconds left.
The Gophers twice led by as many as 11 points in the first half, the second time after going on a 12-0 run that gave them a 37-26 lead on Heyer’s layup with 19 seconds left before intermission.
But the Gophers couldn’t contain Liv McGill, who drove the lane with a bucket and a foul with 3.4 seconds left. She hit the free throw to make it 37-29, and Battle missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
McGill, a Minneapolis native who attended Hopkins, scored 17 points in the first half but finished with 18 points on 8-for-21 shooting. Plitzuweit said that was because the team dedicated itself to its defensive switching after intermission.
“We’ve just been playing a complete game,” Heyer said. “Tonight, we really started off strong and we also finished strong, too. So we really just kept that momentum going strong throughout the whole game. We really didn’t have any lapses.”
With Florida coach Kelly Rae Finley on leave — she gave birth to a baby at 5 a.m. Monday — assistant Susie ...
