The movie script could not have been written any better. The oft injured redshirt junior Minnesota native hits a step back three to tie the game. The home crowd is so loud that nobody…and I mean nobody can hear the shot clock buzzer expire. The 5th year senior transfer and Minnesota native hits a tough bucket to give her team the lead. The senior team leader and Minnesota native gets one last chance to make a memory on the raised floor and sends the crowd of over 10,700 into an absolute frenzy. The “villains” get one last chance, but their game winner falls just short and the heroines get to celebrate. But this was no movie. This was real life. The Minnesota Golden Gophers came back from an eight point deficit with 5:04 to play and would battle back with massive plays from Minnesotans up and down the roster punctuated by an Amaya Battle 15 foot jumper with 0.8 seconds left in the game to propel the home team to the Sweet Sixteen in a 65-63 win over Ole Miss. How sweet it is!
The Gophers and Rebels traded baskets for much of the opening ten minutes. The Gophers got a huge boost when Ohio State transfer and SEC newcomer of the Year Cotie McMahon picked up her second foul just 2:37 into the game and had to sit for most of the quarter. The game was knotted until Mara Braun took the game over in the final 22 seconds of the quarter. Braun grabbed a rebound of an Ole Miss layup that did not fall and worked her way into the lane taking a pass from Brylee Glen for a free throw jumper to put the Gophers up 14-12 with 23 seconds to play. After a quick Rebel missed shot Glen grabbed the rebound and found Braun in the corner for a three pointer as the quarter expired to put Minnesota up 17-12 at the break.
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The teams went back and forth in the second quarter. A Sophie Hart layup pushed the Gopher lead to seven right out of the break, but it would get no larger as the Rebels took advantage of McMahon’s return to the game. Five quick points from the senior closed the Gopher lead quicky. The teams would trade bombs from deep as Braun would make back to back threes split between a Tiana Thompson triple to keep the Gophers ahead by five. After another Thompson basket the Gophers got the first NCAA tournament points from Grace Grocholski who hit a three from the corner to again extend the Gopher lead to six. Finau Tonga made a layup to extend the lead to eight, but it would be the largest the Gophers would have the rest of the game. Suddenly it was Minnesota’s time to get in foul trouble. The Rebels kept getting inside position on the Gophers and in quick succession Grocholski, Battle and Tonga all picked up their second fouls of the game to join Tori McKinney on the bench after she picked up her second earlier in the quarter. Ole Miss would hit five of their six free throws to cut the Minnesota lead to 32-29 at the end of the half. Minnesota wuld shoot 50% in the opening 20 minutes, while their defense held the Rebels to just 32% shooting.
Ole Miss regrouped at halftime and figured out a way to attack the Gopher defense. They would score on six of their first eight possessions in the quarter and take advantage of a trio of Gophers turnovers in a row to jump out to a 43-38 lead causing Dawn Plitzuweit to take a time out. The biggest play of the quarte came with 2:30 eft when McMahon closed out too hard on a Mara Braun three pointer sending the Gopher to the line. While Braun only hit one of three free throws, McMahon picked up her third foul which would loom large later. The teams again would trade blows via the trey with a pair of Grocholski threes bracketed around a Sira Thienou triple to cut the lead to four at 50-46. But Ole Miss would extend the lead to eight with buckets by McMahon and Thienou to take a 54-46 lead into the third quarter break. The shooting stats had flipped as Ole Miss shot over 73% in the quarter and the Gophers just 41%. If Minnesota was going to extend their season, it would take another fourth quarter comeback.
The Gopher fans in Williams Arena were doing just about anything to will their team back into the game. Both coaches commented on it postgame and how the atmosphere was as good as you could have asked for. The Gopher fans did not give up, and neither did their players.
The Gophers dis that slowing trying to climb back into the game. Tori McKinney grabbed an offensive rebound of a Braun miss just 41 seconds into the quarter and was fouled by McMahon for her fourth of the game. She made both free throws to cut the lead to six before Ole Miss came right back down the floor and made it eight again on the Thienou bucket. Things looked grim for the Gophers after another empty possession down eight with three missed short range shots with 7;15 to play. But the Gophers did not give up. As Plitzuweit said in her post game press conference, “I remember looking at our players in the fourth quarter when they were on defense and it was after either we scored or it was a dead ball scenario and they were smiling and I think we were still down. But it was just the joy that they’re playing with, I felt like they exuded confidence. We talk act in our little kids’ camp, smile and love it, but that was also our message today. You have to love this because this is what you want to play in. This is exactly what you want, the environment that you want to be in. You have to be willing to do little things really, really well.”
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The Gophers dug deep and found a way to start clawing back. A Braun jumper cut the lead to six After a Thienou free throw Glenn hit a long triple and the lead was down to four. The teams traded free throws to extend the Rebel lead to five with just under 4:30 to play when the second biggest play of the game by Battle occurred. McMahon had beaten the Gophers several times with the shot clock running down with last second power moves past a Gopher defender for a layup. It looked like it was going to happen once more when Battle came in and took position on the left block. McMahon came in powerfully and plowed through Battle and was called for the charge and her fifth and final foul of the game. The best player for Ole Miss was out of the game permanently with 4:22 to play and a five point Rebel lead. Battle said postgame, “Yeah, she got a ton of buckets out of me, on us, and it was because she was powering through. I was like all right, I’m just going to try to fall and see what happens and it worked out.” Ole Miss head coach Yolette McPhee-McCuin strongly disagreed postgame and then took it from a reasonable argument to bringing a whole different level of delusion into it. “From my point of view, the last call was incorrect. We watched it 1,500 times. One of the things I do understand is that officials are human and environments create them to officiate in a particular type of way. I don’t think that’s why we lost the game. I just know that Cotie is leading scorer, newcomer of the year, all of the things, and she plays 20 minutes. I was in the locker room thinking about other star players on teams. I’ve just never seen them fouled out in a March Madness game. I just haven’t. Paige, Caitlin. I mean, I don’t want to call current ones because then someone will say I’m tampering or something like that. I just haven’t seen the best players get fouled out.”
The charge by Battle sent the Williams Arena crowd into a frenzy and the players seemed to feed off of it. The Gopher defense sure did. After a Thienou jumper with 3:44 to play make it 61-56 Rebels—they would not score for the next 3:41. A pair of Battle free throws cut the lead to three with 2:41 left. After a pair of empty posessions, Mara Braun got the ball in her hands with 1:25 left in the game and decided she was not going to let the Gophers lose this game. She went towards the hoop, and pulled it back out. She went right, and pulled it back out. She looked to drive, stopped stepped back and drained a three pointer with 1:17 to play that tied the game at 61 and sent the Barn into a whole another level of frenzy. Braun described her thinking on that possession. “I just knew I wanted to make a play and do whatever it took. I didn’t want to lose that game, so just had to focus and stick that shot even when I was tired.”
The Barn was hyped. How hyped? Ole Miss brought the ball down and it was so loud that none of the players on the court could hear one another or the coaching staff. Coach McPhee-McCuin yelled in vain as Thienou has the ball near the free throw line but did not realize the shot clock was running down until it was too late. The Barn crown induced a shot clock violation and if it was possible sent the decibel level even higher in exultation. Plitzuweit talking to the fans postgame said that nobody on the court could hear the buzzer. It was so loud the only way you could tell the clock had expired was the light on the backboard.
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Minnesota took a timeout to move the ball to halfcourt for their next possession with 41 seconds to play. Minnesota used plenty of clock trying to find the shot they wanted to take. Grocholski worked the ball inside to Hart with 22.5 seconds left and she went to work on Latasha Lattimore. Hart went to the middle of the lane and then pivoted to her right spinning and going up and under Lattimore to put the Gophers in the lead 63-61 with 18 seconds to play.
The Rebels called a timeout to try and figure out how to tie the game or take the lead. The ball worked around to Lattimore in the corner who drive the lane on Grocholski who had four fouls. She did not want to commit her fifth or give the Rebels an and one opportunity so Lattimore went up uncontested and make the layup with 3.5 seconds remaining in the game to tie the score at 63. Minnesota called time out and advanced the ball to half court once more. Grocholski inbounded the ball into Battl who was guarded by the 6’4 Lattimore. She dribbled twice before pulling the ball spinning and elevating over Lattimore on a 15 feet jump shot what would be nothing but net. Battle fell to the Williams Arena floor with a look of absolute exultation as the rest of the Gopher roster piled onto her in celebration. She said postgame that these were the things that any little boy or girl dreams about. “I think any basketball player, when you shoot on your own, you’re like, okay, three, two, one, throw it up there and see what happens. It was real life today. (Laughter)” Braun had full confidence that the shot was going down. “We practice it almost every day before every game so it’s nothing really new. She hits those shots every day in practice over our scout guys. So honestly when she took that shot, it took her two dribbles and pullup, everyone I think knew that it was in.” Plitzuweit had all the confidence in her as well. “ When we run that, we ran it today and there were two options. We ran it twice and that was option number one and option number two I’m not going to tell you what that is because maybe we’ll have to use that at another time. There are two primary options within that that are quick hitters. 3.5 seconds isn’t a long time, but certainly she made the play and that’s kind of a patent Amaya Battle baseline pullup jumper. That’s exactly what’s she’s really, really good at.”
But the game was not over. While the clock said triple zero, the referees went to the scorers table and checked the clock. They would put 0.8 seconds back on the clock and Ole Miss would call a timeout to advance the ball to halfcourt. The Rebels got a really good look at the shot due to some miscommunication on Minnesota’s end. Plitzuweit said “We missed an assignment in the last possession with 0.8 seconds left so very thankful that shot didn’t go in. We weren’t supposed to switch on that — anyway. We missed an assignment on that. Thank apply that didn’t go through because that would have been really anti climactic when we all celebrated thinking the game was at that point.” Coach Mcphee-McCuin agreed that they got the shot they wanted. “Well, it was a back screen for Tash and I told Sira to just throw it at the rim because Tash is super athletic and can out-jump anybody on their team, but I said if T is open, you can pass it to her because we’ve also seen her bang seven threes in one game. She hasn’t had a good tournament but we’ve seen her do it. She got the look and as a coach, that’s the look you want.” Tianna Thompson came off of a screen and found herself free on the wing with a wide open look for a three point shot. It would fall just short, and the celebration was on. The Gophers were headed to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2005!
The Minnesota natives plowed the way through for the Gophers. Braun ended with a team leading 17 points on 4-5 shooting from beyond the arc. Battle added 14 points and 11 rebounds along with five assists to complete the double-double. Sophie Hart added 10 points.
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Battle and Braun came into the Gophers in the fall of 2022 in the Fabled Minnesota Four recruiting class of Lindsay Whalen. Three of the four remain as Nia Holloway is on the Gopher bench and Mallory Heyer could only look on from Oregon as she sits out the season after transferring. This group came to the U determined to turn the program around. And they accomplished their mission. Battle and Braun were both asked about it postgame. Amaya put it like this, “Yeah, I think it just means a lot. We came here and the first season was not how we planned it. Every year we did a little something but there was a lot of rough times. I’m just super proud that we all stuck to it and the fans because look at what happened. I think it just goes to show if you really want to do something, find people who want to do it with you and stick to it you and you can do it.” Mara concurred, “We came under Coach Whay. We have so much respect for here. She’s still rooting us on every single day. We both get texts from her all the time. She’s paved the way for us, honestly, and when we came here, we wanted to do what she had done and bring the hype back to Minnesota. I think we’re doing that and a lot of it does go to her. It’s just the pride we have for our state, and honestly, just not wanting to let that crowd down. They came out, they showed out for us, like Amaya said, when we really needed them. We love this place. That’s why we stayed. We stuck together and I’m so happy we could do what we just did in front of that crowd and just going to the Sweet 16, it doesn’t seem real.” Plitzuweit also talked about her relationship with Whalen. “I just think she’s someone who I have a lot of respect for, someone who I consider a friend. Someone who has built this program and did it as a player and certainly has done it as a coach and certainly we’re very thankful for what she’s done.” For her part, Whalen also agreed with her former players.
Battle perfectly summarized the game and the Gophers season in one last statement. “Yeah, I think this whole season, honestly, this whole season is a perfect way to wrap up the four years here. We had a lot of ups and downs but we all stuck together and the fans stuck with us. They filled it out today when we needed them. Today will be — it’s bittersweet. I’ll never play at The Barn ever again, but we’re leaving it — I’m leaving it with a win. We’re leaving it with a win and we’re about to go to the Sweet 16 so what better way?”
What better way indeed. Minnesota will play the winner of Monday night’s game between #1 seeded UCLA and #8 seed Oklahoma State next Friday night in Sacramento. That game will tip off at either 6:30 or 9 PM and will air on ESPN.
