That was a huge victory for the Gophers women’s basketball team in East Lansing, Mich., on Friday afternoon.

The U beat the Spartans 74-63. Minnesota had been 1-9 against Michigan State in their last 10 meetings. And at home, MSU was 43-6 since the 2004-05 season.

The last timeMinnesotaand MSU played was in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals on March 2, 2007. Allysa DeHaan, a 6-9 freshman center, dominated that game. She had 27 points and eight rebounds for the Spartans.

Not Friday. DeHaan was a quiet 3-for-4 from the field and finished with six points, all in the first half. She did have 10 rebounds, but none on the offensive boards. How is that possible for a 6-9 player? So it was not surprising the Gophers won 74-63 and had a 42-30 advantage in rebounds.

First-year MSU coach Suzy Merchant was clearly not happy in her post-game press conference; the audio of it is available on the team’s web site.

“Nobody should come in here and shoot 51 percent from the floor,” Merchant said. But the Gophers did, making 28 of 55 shots from the field.

And they needed all those baskets because they were a horrible 15 of 29 at the free throw line.

Merchant said her Spartanscould not get motivated, especially on the boards.”Ally [DeHaan] has to be more aggressive,” Merchant said. “She needs to get offensive boards. … They did a great job of being physical with her.”

The Gophers’ offense also impressed Merchant. “Whatever we did, man or zone, they attacked it pretty well and we did not get the stops we needed,” she said.

Other keys for the U:

* Leslie Knight, who has struggled at times on the road, had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

* Brittany McCoy, who has not been scoring much, matched her season-high with 14 points and stayed out of foul trouble which has plagued her a lot.

* Emily Fox had four assists and three teammates had three apiece. The team is sharing the ball.

Bring on Purdue on Sunday at the Barn. Should be another winnable game for the 10-3, 1-0 Gophers.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Gophers women's basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.