Gophers win Subway Classic Tournament

Minnesota held opponents Binghamton and NDSU to 81 points on the weekend.

Published: 2011-11-21

Adam Richard arichard@mndaily.com Charlie Armitz carmitz@mndaily.com


The Gophers women’s basketball team defeated North Dakota State 80-41 on Sunday in the Subway Classic championship and improved to 3-2 on the season.

Minnesota dominated the glass, forced 26 turnovers and played tough defense in the lopsided championship win.

The Gophers defeated Binghamton 65-40 on Saturday behind Sari Noga’s hot shooting to propel them to Sunday’s title game.

“I’m really happy with where we’re at,” Borton said after Sunday’s win. “I think we have a team that isn’t going to settle. We have a team that has bought in.”

In the win over NDSU, Minnesota went on a 21-0 run that lasted nearly 10 minutes to jump-start the team to a 39-16 lead at halftime. That allowed the Gophers to put the game in cruise control in the second half.

Freshman Rachel Banham played inconsistently on Saturday but showed flashes of her abilities Sunday. She scored 23 points and had 17 rebounds for the tournament. She was most effective in transition and showed room for improvement in her half-court game.

“She needs to work through some things,” Borton said. “I think she’s doing a great job. She’s pushing tempo and keeping our team playing fast, and that’s what we want to do.”

Kiara Buford only shot 7-for-20 on the weekend but had nine rebounds, six assists and eight steals. Buford has scored in double digits in every game this season and was named the Subway Classic Tournament MVP.

Minnesota used its size advantage over the weekend to out-rebound its opponents 101-76. The Gophers also shot 41 percent during the tournament — an improvement from last weekend.

“Obviously, our offense has a long ways to go — it usually does this time of the year,” Borton said. “Our defense and our rebounding is way ahead of our offense, and we’ve got a lot of work to do [on offense].”

Noga was the highlight Saturday, when she scored 16 points and shot 7-for-13. She followed that up with an 11-point performance Sunday that included some intense defense.

“I think I brought some toughness. It was just something we needed today,” Noga said after Saturday’s win. “I was more aggressive compared to last weekend in taking the ball to the basket and learning to finish a little bit better. [I got] my confidence up by getting some shots in the lane.”

The Bison only shot 26 percent Sunday night. A small student group heckled North Dakota loudly throughout the game, and their chants grew with each missed shot.

Minnesota allowed the Bison 12 offensive rebounds, but that was 10 fewer than the Gophers’ total of 22.

The victories were a team effort with significant contributions inside from Katie Loberg and drives from the perimeter by Leah Cotton. Minnesota’s bench scored 49 points, 34 of which came Sunday.



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