Game 5: Gophers Host Cornell (11-23-18)

Home for the Holiday

Like Arkansas Pine-Bluff, this is the first meeting between Minnesota (4-0) and Cornell (2-1). (Earlier, inclement weather forced the postponement of the Big Red’s game with Colgate).

Cornell rolls into the Twin Cities for the Thanksgiving holiday sporting four Minnesotans on the roster: Danielle Jorgenson (Orono), Laura Bagwell-Katalinich (Holy Angels (a transfer from Penn)), Theresa Grace Mbanefo (Blaine) and Annika Hoff (Northfield).

The Big Red are coached by Dayna Smith now entering her 17th season (178-264). Cornell were Ivy League champs in 2007-08. Last season’s 7-20 (3-10 conference) record tied them for 6th in the Ivy League. In 2017-18 a 16-11 (7-7 conference) record was good for a 4th place tie. This season’s preseason poll projected the Big Red 8th in the Ancient Eight.

This year’s team returned three starters and are averaging 57.3 points/game and allowing 53.3. They are 11-47 from three point land. Of note: they held Albany to 34 points while scoring 48.. It must have been a pretty dreadful game featuring 7-4 Cornell lead ending the first quarter. For the game, both teams combined for 41 turnovers, a .314% from the field and .160% from behind the arc.

At point guard is Danielle Jorgenson who started all 27 games last season. The leading scorer is Samantha Widmann (13.0/game) who also led the Big Red in scoring last season. This should be a warmup for the Gophers before another more formidable upstate New York team arrives for the ACC/B1G showdown.


Wins: Albany 48-34; U Mass Lowell 63-54.

Loss: @Binghamton 61-72.


Starters:

5’11” G Jr Samantha Widmann
5’9” G Jr Danielle Jorgenson: (Orono)
6’0” F Jr Laura Bagwell-Katalinich: (Holy Angels)
6’1” F So Haily Miklos
5’11” G Jr Dylan Higgens


Other:

5’8” G So. Kate Sramac
6’0” F Fr Theresa Grace Mbanefo (Blaine)
6’2” F Fr Annika Hoff (Northfield)
5’9” G Sr Samantha Clement

Looks like Colgate is another vertically-challenged team. Should be some scoring and rebounding opportunities for Lamke and T. Bello. I'm hoping that the Gophers can cut down on the turnovers, as that's not going to play when Syracuse visits a week after.

40-16 MIN at the half

How did Lamke manage to shoot 1-6 against this team? I guess the first game was kind of a head fake.

Yeah she missed a lot of bunnies. She does not go up strong with her legs and is short on many of her close in shots. Gophers seemed to be playing down to the level of competition. Cornell made too many clean breaks to the rim for lay ups. Hope they bring their A game next Thursday.

Nothing is accomplished in games like this. It's OK to schedule a couple of cupcakes but when almost your entire non-conference schedule is full of teams like this, that's not good and it's not fair to season ticket holders. If the Gophers are a bubble team this year, I'm sure the NCAA will frown on this sham of a non-conference schedule. The Gopher men's program has seemed to finally get the message on the importance of some competitive non-conference games. I only hope that the women's program follows suit beginning with next year's schedule.

To be fair, this schedule is almost entirely inherited from Stollings. Whalen will change things up next season.

After a couple of crazy early game turnovers from Kenisha Bell, it was Taiye Bello and Destiny Pitts jump starting the scoring. First, Taiye scored off a nice pass from Pitts. Next, Taiye jumped a Cornell pass and drove for a fast break bucket. Stepping up on defense, Taiye also forced a five second call for a Cornell turnover which Destiny capped by knocking down a three.

Of Note: Staples was the first guard off the bench. Pitts took a hit to the face late in the game. Destiny said she is fine.

adamj95 said:

To be fair, this schedule is almost entirely inherited from Stollings. Whalen will change things up next season.

Click to expand...

Xavier, San Diego, Rhode Island and maybe BC would be inherited games. The rest, I'm assuming, were the result of Whalen's staff scrambling to line up opponents.

https://gophersports.com/documents/2018/11/23//WBB_vs_Cornell_Postgame_Quotes_11_23.pdf


Minnesota Head Coach Lindsay Whalen

Opening Statement:

”I thought in the first half we got off to a nice start. Defensively, we were solid and held them to 31
percent from the field. We’d like to shoot a little better percentage but we took care of the ball tonight
which was good. Overall, we’re happy. It’s a win. There’s a lot we can learn from tonight and the second
half. Just staying consistent for 40 minutes is something that we’ll focus on from this game.”

On the takeaways from the game heading into next week:

“Defensively, I’ve thought we’ve been really hard to play against all season. Our pressure on the ball and
our taking things away from people has been really good and it’s going to be really tested on Thursday
against Syracuse. We’ve put ourselves in a good (position) with some good momentum on that end of
the floor. Offensively, they did a good job. They mixed it up on us a lot. Taiye (Bello) got in foul trouble
early so we’ll take a look at some things where we could make things a little bit easier for us on the
offensive end and try to stay out of foul trouble as much as we can.”

On preparing for Syracuse:

“This team played some big games last season so I think we’ll take this week, it’s nice we have some
time now. We have some practices that we really have to focus in on Syracuse, and we have three or
four practices here to have some time to really get ready for them. Like we say, the next game is the
most important game on the schedule, the most important game of the season because it’s the next
game. It doesn’t matter who it is. Tonight was our most important game of the season and we came
away with a win so we feel good about that. Now we will turn the page towards Syracuse and we’ll
make sure that we’re ready for them.”


Minnesota senior guard Kenisha Bell

On rebounding and transitions against Cornell’s offense:

”I thought getting rebounds was really important and getting buckets in transition. It helped us speed
the game up a little more because they were trying to slow us down with the press. Getting a rebound
and going in transition, it was harder for them to guard that, so I thought that was really important to
this game.”


Minnesota senior center Annalese Lamke

On the importance of making free throws:

“I think it’s super important because they’re just free points at the basket. We’ve been working hard on
them for the past two weeks making 50 at each practice, so it’s been really important through practice
and now it’s showing in games.”

The entire schedule was inherited. The new staff has been working on next year’s schedule.