Gophers fall to NDSU on the road

The University of Minnesota women’s basketball team (2-1, 0-0 B1G) dropped its first contest of the year on the road to North Dakota State (3-0, 0-0 Summit) on Thursday night. Minnestoa got a career-best performance from Maggie Czinano with 13 points and seven rebounds along with 15 from freshman Amaya Battle.

As a team the Maroon and Gold shot 25-63 from the floor, with Mallory Heyer and Katie Borowicz also reaching double figures. Mi’Cole Cayton made her first start since 2017 in the loss.

The Gophers got off to a solid start early, jumping on top of the Bison 10-4 six minutes into the contest. Micheaux notched four in the frame while Czinano hit 3-of-4 from the charity stripe to get the Maroon and Gold going early.

The end of the first half was controlled by the Bison who scored the final seven points of the half to take a one-point lead 28-27. Minnesota led by as much as eight during the period when Heyer hit her second shot of the game to make it 20-12. Minnesota was held scoreless for the final 2:30 of the half and Abby Graham of NDSU scored all seven of her first half points in the final 4:23.

Czinano continued her strong play in the third quarter, scoring five in a row for the Gophers to cut the lead to just one with 4:32 to go. Minnesota took the lead just 36 seconds later with a fastbreak layup from Heyer, with an assist from Amaya Battle. The lead was as large as two in the quarter, but six of the last seven points in the quarter were scored by the Bison, giving the hosts a 46-43 lead into the fourth.

The Bison’s lead was as large as eight during the fourth, helped by scoring the first four in the fourth. Minnesota didn’t back down, continuing to fight with buckets from Czinano and Alanna Micheaux to cut into th elead with 3:50 to go. Three straight points from the free throw line from BAttle cut the lead to one, but six straight in response by the Bison grew the lead back to seven. Down the stretch the Gophers came up with stops, and forced a turnover to cut the lead to three with 26 second left, but coudln’t complete the comeback for the second straight game.