Riding a six-game win streak, Minnesota (19-7, 8-7 B1G) is back on the road Thursday at No. 8/9 Maryland (23-3, 12-3) with tipoff scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.
The game will be streamed on BTN Plus and can also be heard on the Gophers’ radio home, 96.7 FM KFAN Plus.
THE OPENING TIP-OFF
• Minnesota’s six-game win streak in conference play is tied for the second longest in program history and is the longest since also winning six in a row from Jan. to Feb. of 2006. The only longer streak in team annals came when it won 11 in a row from Feb. of 2003 to Jan. of 2004, the junior and senior seasons of head coach Lindsay Whalen.
• Thursday night will mark for the first coaching matchup between Lindsay Whalen and Maryland’s Brenda Frese, who was the head coach at Minnesota during the 2001-02 campaign, Whalen’s sophomore season. The Gophers went 22-8 that year and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Whalen was an All-American and the Big Ten Player of the Year, while Frese was the AP National Coach of the Year.
• The Golden Gophers are 2-2 this season against Top-25 teams. Their two wins both came at home as the 20th-ranked Gophers topped No. 12 Syracuse in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 29. Minnesota then beat No. 17 Rutgers on Feb. 3. The Gophers’ losses, meanwhile, came at No. 23 Michigan State on Jan. 9 and at home to No. 22 Iowa on Jan. 14. Minnesota is looking for its first road win over an AP Top 25 team since beating No. 23 Notre Dame in the opening round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
• The Gophers are 6-3 on the road this season, going 2-0 in the non-conference and 4-3 in Big Ten play. Kenisha Bell leads the Gophers with a 17.2 scoring average in road games this year, while Destiny Pitts (15.9) is also averaging double figures. Taiye Bello is the team’s top rebounder on the road at 9.3 boards per game.
• Few teams in the country do damage at the free throw line like Minnesota. Through Sunday, the Gophers ranked fourth in the NCAA in both free throws made (411) and free throws attempted (600). Kenisha Bell has been the most prolific free throw shooter for the team, ranking second in the nation in attempts (208) and eighth in makes (140). In addition, Annalese Lamke ranks fifth in the B1G in percentage (80.7) and Destiny Pitts is eighth (79.4).
SERIES HISTORY WITH MARYLAND
• Minnesota and Maryland meet for the ninth time on Thursday. The Terrapins have won seven of the eight all-time meetings, but Minnesota got its first win in the series a year ago.
• In College Park, Maryland has all won all four meetings between the schools.
LAST SEASON VS. MARYLAND
• Behind three players scoring at least 20 points, Minnesota recorded a dominant 93-74 win over No. 10/9 Maryland on Feb. 18, its first ever win against the Terps.
• Gadiva Hubbard led all scorers with 22 points, while Kenisha Bell contributed 21 points and six assists. Destiny Pitts was the third Gopher to reach 20 points as she came a rebound shy of a double-double as she finished with 20 points and nine rebounds.
• The Gophers bombarded Maryland by shooting 14-of-24 from 3-point range, including makes on nine of their first 14 attempts. Pitts led the team with six 3-pointers.
• In the first quarter, the Terrapins led 15-10, but the Gophers responded by closing out the quarter on a 14-4 run to lead 24-19 going into the second.
• Maryland cut Minnesota’s lead down to seven points in the second quarter, but Pitts made a 3-pointer and Wagner followed with back-to-back triples in a span of 1:30 to push the Gophers lead back to 13. They took a 53-39 lead into the locker room.
• Minnesota was just as relentless in the third quarter, outscoring the Terrapins 26-15. The biggest lead of the game came with 2:11 to play in the quarter as the Gophers held a 77-50 lead. The Terrapins never got closer than 19 the rest of the way.
LAST TIME AT MARYLAND
• Minnesota and Maryland last met in College Park on Feb. 26, 2017, with the Terrapins posting a 93-60 win.
• Kenisha Bell led Minnesota’s scoring with 18 points, while Jasmine Brunson turned in 10 points and Bryanna Fernstrom added nine.
• Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Brionna Jones led the way for Maryland on their senior day, scoring 27 and 24 points, respectively. The Terrapins shot 55 percent and outrebounded the Gophers 46-30 as they clinched a share of the Big Ten title.
• Minnesota was down 26-12 after the first quarter and trailed 51-30 at the half. The Terps then outscored the Gophers, 21-15, in both the third and fourth quarters.
RECAPPING THE WIN OVER PENN STATE
• All five starters scored at least 14 points as Minnesota crushed Penn State Sunday at home, 97-67.
• Destiny Pitts led all scorers with 22 points, her third straight 20-point game, and dished out a career-high six assists.
• Kenisha Bell scored 17 points to go with a game–high seven assists, while Jasmine Brunson also scored 17 and pulled down five rebounds, matching career highs in both categories. Irene Garrido Perez set a career high with 16 points thanks to four 3-pointers.
• Taiye Bello recorded her 10th double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds. She was a perfect 7-of-7 from the floor, marking just the eighth performance in team history, and her second this year, with that many attempts without a miss.
• As a team, Minnesota set season highs in points (97), field goals made (38) and field goals attempted (70), and tied season high in 3-pointers made (9) and assists (23).
• The Lady Lions actually opened the game on a 9-2 run, but Minnesota followed by scoring the next 16 points and 20 of the next 22 to take a 22-11 lead. The Golden Gophers finished the first quarter up 28-17.
• The Gophers didn’t let up in the second quarter, starting the frame on a 9-0 run and outscoring the Lady Lions 31-17 in the quarter. The Gophers were red-hot from the field, making 12-of-15 shots in the quarter.
• Minnesota went into the locker room at halftime leading 59-34, marking the sixth-highest point total for one half in program history.
MORE NOTES ON THE SIX-GAME WIN STREAK
• During the team’s current five-game win streak, Destiny Pitts (20.0) and Kenisha Bell (19.3) are both averaging over 19 points per contest, while Jasmine Brunson (12.3) is also in double figures. Taiye Bello has averaged 11.8 rebounds/game during the run.
• The Gophers’ defense has clamped down during the stretch, making notable improvements in several stats compared to the first nine games of conference play. Points per game allowed has gone from 67.4 to 56.2, while opponent field goal percentage has dropped 71 points to .378 and opponent 3-point percentage has dropped 99 points to .281. Turnovers forced have gone up 14.2 per game to 16.7, while steals per game have also gone up from 5.6 to 8.3.
• The offense has also made improvements in field goal percentage (38.4 percent to 43.7), 3-point percentage (28.2 percent to 39.8) and free-throw percentage (67.6 percent to 71.3) during the streak.
IN THE POLLS
• Minnesota enters Thursday’s game in the “receiving votes” portion of the AP Poll for the fifth straight week. Prior to that, the Gophers had a 10-week run in the AP Poll, their longest such streak since appearing in all 18 polls during the 2005-06 season.
• Three 2018-19 opponents are currently ranked in the latest polls (AP/Coaches): No. 8/9 Maryland, No. 10/10 Iowa and No. 18/18 Syracuse. Rutgers and Michigan State are receiving votes in both polls. The Gophers are 2-2 against those teams, beating Syracuse and Rutgers, while losing to Iowa and Michigan State.
• Minnesota visits Maryland Thursday in the only scheduled meeting between the teams this season.
GOPHERS GAINING EXPERIENCE IN NEW ROLES
• Even though two-thirds of Minnesota’s roster consists of upperclassmen, the Gophers actually have the fewest combined career minutes of any roster in the Big Ten, according to research initially done by Nebraska’s Communications office.
• Through Feb. 18, the Gophers’ roster had played a combined 11,466 minutes, while no other team in the league had fewer than 11,800 combined minutes. For further context, Thursday’s opponent, Maryland, ranks 12th in the Big Ten with 11,865 combined minutes.
• Not only is the team playing under a new coaching staff, all five members of the starting lineup that has been used for most of the season have been playing in different positions than they did a year ago. Among returning starters, Kenisha Bell has gone from the 1 to the 2, while Destiny Pitts has mostly played the 3 this season after playing the 4 a year ago.
• Meanwhile, Jasmine Brunson (1), Taiye Bello (4) and Annalese Lamke (5) have all started a majority of the games this season after primarily coming off the bench a year ago. In addition, Irene Garrido Perez’s eight career starts have all come in the last eight contests. All four have seen double-digit jumps in their minutes per game this season: Brunson (+20.2), Lamke (+19.0), Garrido Perez (+14.6) and Bello (+14.3).
PITTS HEATING UP AT THE RIGHT TIME
• Through the first seven games of Big Ten play, Destiny Pitts was averaging 9.6 points per contest while shooting 33.8 percent on field goals and 20.0 percent on 3-pointers, making 9-of-45 attempts from beyond the arc.
• Since then, she is averaging a team-high 19.8 points per game over the last eight contests while shooting 45.9 percent from the floor and 44.1 percent on 3-pointers (26-for-59).
• In her last three games, she has scored 21 points against Northwestern, 27 at Purdue and 22 vs. Penn State. It’s the first time in her career she’s scored 20+ points in back-to-back games, let alone three straight.
BELLO DOMINATING THE GLASS
• Through Sunday, Taiye Bello was third in the country and leading the Big Ten in offensive rebounds per game (5), and ranked fourth nationally in total rebounds (325) and seventh in rebounds per game (12.5). She was also 22nd in the NCAA in defensive rebounds per game (7) and 36th in double-doubles (10).
• Bello is also currently the most improved rebounder in the Big Ten, upping her rebounds per game total from 6.3 last year to a conferece-best 12.5 this year. The +6.2 difference has her tops in the B1G, ahead of teammate Annalese Lamke who has gone from 0.7 to 5.4 per game (+4.7). Aside from Bello and Lamke, no other player in the B1G has improved their average by more than +3.3.
• Bello has 17 games this year with at least 10 rebounds, 10 games with at least 15 boards, seven games with at least 18 rebounds and one game with at least 20.
• Against Penn State on Feb. 17, Bello recorded her 10th double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds. She was a 7-of-7 from the floor, marking just the eighth performance in team history, and her second this year, with that many attempts without a miss. Earlier this year, she was 9-of-9 at Michigan on Dec. 31. Janel McCarville and Amanda Zahui B. are the only other players in team history to have multiple games in a career where they’ve attempted at least seven shots and not missed.
• Against No. 17 Rutgers on Feb. 3, Bello posted her ninth double-double of the season with 11 points and a career-high 21 rebounds. It tied for the sixth highest total in Gopher history, and they were the most by a Gopher since Amanda Zahui B. had 22 rebounds against DePaul in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Ten of the rebounds were on the offensive end, while the other 11 came on defense.
• Bello’s 21 rebounds are also tied for the most by any Big Ten player this year with Maryland’s Shakira Austin.
• Bello has 14 double-doubles in her career, and Minnesota is 12-2 in those games.
• She had her first B1G double-double of the year with 12 points and 12 rebounds against Iowa and pulled down 18 rebounds in back-to-back games versus Purdue and Ohio State.
• At Michigan on Dec. 31, she made all nine attempts from the floor for a career-high 24 points. She became one of five players in Gophers history to not miss when attempting at least that many shots.
• Arguably Bello’s best performance of the season came against No. 12 Syracuse when she went for 20 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, including 10 offensive.
• Bello posted double-doubles in the first three games this season, becoming the first Minnesota player to have three straight double-doubles since Amanda Zahui B. ended the 2014-15 season with four in a row. And though she didn’t have a double-double against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in game four, she did have 19 rebounds.
BELL FINISHING STRONG IN SENIOR SEASON
• Senior Kenisha Bell leads the Gophers in several categories, including points per game (18.8), assists per game (4.3) and steals per game (2.1).
• Nationally, Bell is second in the country in free throw attempts (208) and ranks eighth in makes (140).
• She leads the Big Ten in free throw attempts and steals (55), ranks second in the league in free throws made, steals per game, field goals made (168) and points scored (489), and is third in scoring average and field goal attempts (407).
• After being named to preseason watch lists for the Nancy Lieberman Award (nation’s top PG) and Naismith Trophy (nation’s top player), Bell earned spots on midseason watch lists for the Wooden Award and is oen of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Women’s Defensive Player of the Year Award.
• Bell has also been a four-time Big Ten Player of the Week Honor Roll honoree.
• At Indiana on Feb. 6, Bell went over 2,000 career points. She scored 434 in her freshman season at Marquette and has scored 1,632 at Minnesota for a total of 2,066 career points. She’s one of 18 active players in the country with at least 2,000 career points.
BRUNSON MAKES MARK IN RETURN TO STARTING LINEUP
• After starting the first 18 games of the season, junior Jasmine Brunson came off the bench for the next two contests. She then returned to the starting lineup against Northwestern on Jan. 31 and has elevated her offense ever since.
• Through the first 20 games of the year, Brunson was averaging 7.2 points and shooting 36.2 percent from the floor. In six games since returning to the starting lineup, she’s averaging 12.3 points while shooting 45.0 percent.
• On the year, Brunson is averaging 8.4 points per game after averaging 2.9 last season. That +5.5 increase is the third best in the B1G behind only Annalese Lamke (+7.8) and Purdue’s Karissa McLaughlin (+5.6).
GARRIDO PEREZ GETS CALLED INTO STARTING LINEUP
• Irene Garrido Perez has been called into the starting lineup for the last eight contests, with Minnesota going 6-2 in those contests.
• Since making the first start of her career against Purdue on Jan. 24, Garrido Perez has averaged 6.1 points, 2.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.0 steals per game while playing 35.8 minutes per game. Prior to that, her career totals in those categories were 1.6 points, 0.6 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 0.2 steals while averaging 8.5 minutes.
• During the team’s six-game win streak, Garrido Perez is shooting 50.0 percent from the floor and 60.0 percent on 3-pointers, averaging 7.7 points per contest.
• Against Penn State on Feb. 17, Garrido Perez set a career high with 16 points, including a career-best four made 3-pointers and six made field goals.
• In a win at Indiana on Feb. 6, she made all four shots, including all three 3-point attempts. Nine of her then-career high 11 points came in the first half. In addition, she set career highs for rebounds (6) and minutes (40).
(info and photo courtesy of Gopher Sports)