Noga's Career Night Paces Gophers to Victory over Binghamton
Sophomore
Sari Noga scored a career-high 16 points, and added six rebounds and
two steals, to lead the University of Minnesota women’s basketball team
to a 65-40 victory over Binghamton Saturday afternoon on the opening
day of the Subway Classic at Williams Arena. With the win, the Gophers
will face the winner of Nevada vs. North Dakota State in the
championship game of the tournament Sunday night at 7 p.m. The
25-point margin of victory was the largest for the Golden Gophers since
Jan. 14, 2010, when they defeated Purdue, 74-47, at Williams Arena.
Meanwhile, Minnesota’s defense held the visitors to only 40 points, its
least amount of points allowed since 2009. On Nov. 24 of that year, the
Gophers held North Dakota State to only 37 points in front of the home
crowd. Along with Noga, senior Kiara Buford also scored in
double-figures for Minnesota. The guard’s 11 points against Binghamton
extended her streak of double-digit scoring games to four, while she
also tallied five rebounds, five assists and two steals. The
Maroon and Gold scored 40 of its 65 points in the paint and also
recorded 20 second-chance points, thanks to a 17-10 advantage in
offensive rebounds. The Gophers took an early 1-0 lead on
the Bearcats to open the contest, but the visitors put together an 11-4
run to pull ahead of Minnesota, 11-5. Minnesota was able to find its
groove late in the opening stanza, however, scoring 22 points in the
final nine minutes of the half to take a 35-22 lead into halftime. Freshman
Rachel Banham scored eight of her nine total points in the first half,
while also grabbing seven of her team-high eight rebounds in the
opening stanza. Senior Jackie Voigt added seven rebounds
and six points and fellow senior Brianna Mastey tallied seven points
and two rebounds off of the bench for the Gophers to contribute to the
Gophers’ 20 points off of the bench. Minnesota only got
stronger as the game wore on the in the second half, going up by 20
points on a basket by Mastey with 8:23 to play, before another field
goal by the senior extended the lead to 23 for the Gophers with just
under seven minutes remaining. From there, the Maroon and
Gold held onto its 20+ point advantage, capping it off with its biggest
lead of the night on a pair of free throws by sophomore Shonte Clay
with less than a minute to play. Nevada and North Dakota State will play in the first round of the Subway Classic Saturday night at 8 p.m.
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