'U' women beat No. 13 Nebraska for second top-25 upset of season

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Gophers women's basketball team notched its second big upset in two weeks.

Led by the 21 points from freshman Rachel Banham and 16 from senior co-captain Kiara Buford, the Gophers held onto an early lead and held off No. 13 Nebraska for a stunning 64-58 upset on Monday at Williams Arena.

Banham finished with four rebounds, two assists, three steals and a block. Buford had two assists, two steals and a rebound.

Brianna Mastey grabbed 11 rebounds and scored nine points in her first start of the season. Kionna Kellogg scored six points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

The victory marks the Gophers' second upset over a top-25 opponent this season after defeating No. 9 Ohio State on Jan. 29, 76-65 at the Barn.

"Playing in Williams Arena brings a little magic to our game," Gophers coach Pam Borton said.

The Gophers wore white uniforms with pink accents and pink shoes in the game to honor of breast cancer awareness day in partnership with CDI Breast Care.

The skinny

After trailing by as many as 16 in the second half, the Cornhuskers tied it up at 58 with just over three minutes to play.

The Cornhuskers missed on their next two possessions, while the Gophers hit a field goal and later grabbed an offensive rebound to regain possession with a two point lead with 15.3 seconds left to play.

The Gophers hit all four free throws in the final seconds to seal the victory.

"I thought we handled it better than we did in the Penn State game down the stretch," Buford said, referring to a near upset of No. 19 Penn State on Feb. 5. "Making plays, getting rebounds."

The Gophers outrebounded the Cornhuskers 42-31, the first time outrebounding an opponent in five games.

"We got ourselves back in the rebounding column," Borton said. "We haven't been rebounding the ball very well the last five games and I thought we really redeemed ourselves tonight."

Mastey led the Gophers on the boards and also managed to score the Gophers' first five points of the night, shaming her 3.8 points per game average within the first five minutes of play.

"I felt like we needed to make a change," Borton said. "I think we got off to a poor start at Iowa and I think it really affected us throughout the game. Bri brings us rebounding. That's been something that we needed to get back to in the last five games."

Missing senior co-captain Jackie Voigt due to a concussion during the team's last matchup against Nebraska (Jan. 22), Mastey is a welcomed addition to the floor.

"She feels like a senior on the floor," Buford said.

On one of the Gophers' final advances, Banham missed a layup, but Kionna Kellogg scored on the put-back to give the Gophers the two-point lead with 1:01 to play.

"Everyone stepped up and hit shots," Banham said. "All around everyone was making plays.

"When (the game) relies more on me and Ki at the end," Banham said, "that's when we end up losing. But when everyone's stepping up and other people are doing things, I feel like that's when we end up winning games."

The Gophers play their final game at Williams Arena against Illinois on Thursday before hitting the road to take on Ohio State for the second time.

"After we get through Thursday's game," Borton said, "hopefully we can take a little bit of this magic on the road with us."

The Cornhuskers rolled off a 7-0 run to take an 11-5 lead early.

Both teams locked down on defense, making scoring sparse and leading to a combined 19 turnovers in the first half.

The Gophers closed the first half on a 7-0 run -- including two aggressive drives to the hoop by Buford and a 3-pointer by Banham with 40 seconds left on the clock -- to take a 27-24 lead at halftime.

The Gophers extended their lead on a 13-0 run to start the second half.

Turning point

Mastey grabbed the offensive board to give Gophers' possession of the ball with a 60-58 lead and 15.3 seconds left to play.

Numbers game

• 16.4: average minutes played by Mastey this season. She played 36 on Monday.

• 100: percent 3-point shooting by Banham on Monday on 3-of-3 attempts.

• 4-0: Gophers' record against the Cornhuskers at Williams Arena, despite holding a 6-6 all-time series record.

• 13-3: the Gophers' overall record when leading at halftime this season.

Health watch

The Gophers hope Jackie Voigt will return on Thursday. She was not cleared to play after necessary testing Monday morning. She is currently practicing with no contact.

Coming up

The Gophers will play the second of the two game homestand and their final game at the Barn of the season against Illinois at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Williams Arena.

The Gophers previously fell 72-67 to the Fighting Illini on Feb. 2 in Champaign, Ill.