Gophers advance to WNIT Championship Game after semifinal win over Troy

The University of Minnesota women’s basketball team defeated Troy 74-69 on the road in the Fab 4 of the WNIT on Wednesday night at Trojan Arena. The Gophers will now face St. Louis for the WNIT Championship on Saturday. The game will not be on the ‘U’ campus. 

The Gophers, who improved to 20-15 on the season, had four players score in double figures. They were led by Amaya Battle, who had 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Mallory Heyer tacked on 15 points and nine rebounds and Sophie Hart chipped in 12 points and 11 rebounds. Grace Grocholski added 11 points, including a late-game three that put Minnesota up by four points with 38 seconds remaining. 

Minnesota has now won 20 games in a season for the first time since 2018-19 when it went 21-11 and advanced to the second round of the WNIT. 

On defense, Minnesota held Troy (22-12) to 3-of-17 from three and grabbed 31 rebounds. Troy came into the game averaging 81 points, but were held to 69 by Minnesota. It was just the eighth time – and second since early February – that Troy was held below 70 points.