MINNEAPOLIS — Amaya Batte scored a career-high 32 points and Minnesota won its first game in the Big Ten Conference Tournament since 2020 with a 77-69 victory over Rutgers 77-69 in Wednesday night's opening round.
Battle, a 5-foot-11 sophomore guard, shot 10 for 20 from the floor, 11 for 15 from the foul line, distributed seven assists without committing a turnover and grabbed five rebounds. It was Minnesota’s first conference tourney win since the Golden Gophers beat Penn State 85-65 in Indianapolis.
Grace Grocholski added 12 points for the 11th-seeded Golden Gophers (16-14) which advanced to play sixth-seeded Michigan on Thursday night. Minnesota entered the tournament on a four-game losing streak and had dropped 10 of 11 since Jan. 23.
Destiny Adams scored 31 points and grabbed a career-high 24 rebounds for 14th-seed Rutgers (8-24) which beat Minnesota, 81-73, in Piscataway, New Jersey, on Feb. 13.
Erica Lafayette scored 16 points for Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights end their season losing their final five contests.
Minnesota led 24-14 after the first quarter, but the Scarlet Knights battled back to reduce their deficit to 39-35 at intermission. Throughout the second half Minnesota appeared ready to put Rutgers away but couldn't pull away.
Adams made two foul shots to give Rutgers a 57-56 lead to start the fourth quarter. Later, Rutgers' Lisa Thompson made a jump shot to tie it at 61-all. But Battle followed with a jumper, Mallory Heyer made a 3-pointer and Minnesota maintained safe distance for the remainder.
The Gophers (16-14, 5-13 B1G) move on to play a second-round game Thursday against the sixth-seeded University of Michigan (18-12, 9-9 B1G). The game is scheduled to begin 25 minutes after tournament game five, which pits Penn State against the University of Wisconsin. That contest is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. CT.
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