Box Score MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Belmont women's basketball (6-5) fought hard until the final buzzer in a closely contested matchup against Minnesota (8-4) Wednesday afternoon inside Williams Arena. The Bruins came up short, falling 75-74, after the Gophers sunk a pair of free throws in the final seconds to seal the deal in the hard-fought battle.
Sophomore guard Darby Maggard (Larwill, Ind.) posted a team-best 23 points and eight assists, while junior forward Sally McCabe (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) followed with 13 points and nine rebounds. The Bruins were denied their bid for a fifth-straight win.
After a Maddie Wright (Chattanooga, Tenn.) three-pointer tied the score at 64-64, the Bruins took the lead after a pair of free throws from senior Frankie Joubran (Goodrich, Mich.) made it 66-64 with 2:19 remaining. The play of Minnesota's Jessie Edwards was the story down the stretch as he scored five-straight points to give the Gophers a 71-66 edge with 56 seconds on the clock. Moments later Maggard answered the bell, making her sixth three-pointer of the game to cut the deficit to just two points with 47 seconds to go. Belmont would come oh so close to forcing a shot clock violation on the ensuing possession, but a lay in at the very end of the shot clock by Minnesota's Kenisha Bell put Minnesota back up four as under 20 seconds remained in regulation at this point. Maggard wasn't done. The sophomore guard drilled another three-pointer to draw the Bruins within one point at 73-72 with just 12 ticks remaining. After fouling on two-straight possessions in order to reach the bonus, Belmont elected to foul Edwards who entered the game shooting 52.6% from the the free-throw line. Edwards, who had a career night, connected on both free throws to put the host Gophers up 75-72. With just over six seconds at their disposal, the Bruins managed to free up sharpshooter Kylee Smith (Alpharetta, Ga.) for an open three, but her long range shot missed off the mark. Lauren Thompson (Franklin, Tenn.) scored after corralling the loose ball, but only .4 seconds remained on the clock. After calling a timeout, the Gophers would inbound the ball in front of their bench, and the clock expired once the ball was passed it.
"To be in that position, for Belmont at Minnesota, a lot of people would say I'll take that and run with it. I'll take it, but I want more for our team. Our kids want more, and we fought to the end to have a chance to win the game," said Belmont Head Coach Cameron Newbauer.
The Bruins led 37-35 at the intermission after closing the first half on a 35-21 run. Maggard caught fire in the second quarter, scoring all of her first half points in the second quarter.
"We started slow, but we kept fighting and kept going. We never gave up, we have confidence in our ability to shoot the ball and our ability to play with a great Minnesota team today. Our will to win and our ability to just keep going, put us in the position that we were in today. Overall it was a really great opportunity for us and I'm proud of our effort," said Maggard.
Edwards finished with a career-high 29 points.
The game saw six ties and six lead changes. The Bruins outrebounded the Gophers, 44-40 and outscored them in terms of bench points, 20-9.
Wright had one of the best games of her young career, chipping in a career-high 11 points off the bench to go with five rebounds. Thompson finished with eight points and five rebounds. Smith scored eight points and grabbed a season-high nine rebounds. The second year guard, Maggard, knocked down a season-high seven three-pointers and turned the ball over just three times.
"I think we all have our role on this team. Coach Cam told me before the game to get out there and get fired up. He said to get out there and do your job and bring some energy. In an arena like this and against a team like this, it was loud, you can't hear anybody, but we did what we could do to fight and stay in it," Wright.
While things were tight for most of the game, Belmont got off to a slow start and trailed 14-2 with under five minutes to play in the first. Minnesota led 20-6 with under three minutes remaining in period, but the Bruins would find their footing and finished the frame on a 7-0 scoring run. Thompson and Wright each added four points in the first quarter as the Bruins went inside early and often.
The momentum would swing in Belmont's favor in the second as the Bruins outscored the Golden Gophers 24-15. After a scoreless first quarter, Maggard found her rhythm in the second, pouring in 11 points which included three treys.
Minnesota countered and outscored Belmont, 19-11 in the third period. The teams exchanged blows in the third quarter, and neither team gave an inch. After a Joubran layin made the score 49-48 in favor of Minnesota, the Gophers employed a 5-0 run to conclude the frame and took a 54-48 lead into the fourth quarter.
Belmont stormed back with a 26-point fourth quarter, outscoring Minnesota by five. Maggard was the driving force in the final stages of the game for Belmont as she scored nine points on a trio of three-pointers. Seven different Bruins scored in the quarter and four players made a three-pointer. Edwards scored 11 points in the fourth and helped the Gophers fend off the pesky Bruins.
Bell and Carlie Wagner each scored 16 points and Gadiva Hubbard led the Gophers with six assists. Bell, Wagner and Hubbard entered the matchup averaging over 50 points between the trio, but the Bruins limited the group to just 37 points.
"Our game plan was to make somebody besides the 'Big Three' beat us. I'll just put it out there, Edwards, I hadn't seen her hit a free throw line jumper all year. I told our team we are going to make her beat us, we're going to make her shoot from the high post. She was a 58% free throw shooter on the year, I told the team to make sure we box her when she shoots. She ended up going 7-for-8 at the free throw line, 11-of-15 on the floor and it turned into a one-point game. Our game plan worked, we held the 'Big Three' between 32 and 37 points when they normally score 53 or 54. I think what really bit us in the butt were some of those offensive rebounds late in the game. Hats off to them, our kids competed and fought all game," added Newbauer. "We didn't shoot it well, but that's a testament to their defense. They took us out of some things with their athleticism and their size gave us some problems. If you look at our shooting percentage overall, we didn't play great offensively, but I think that's because of them. [Coach Stollings] has done a good job. You never know how a team is going to come back after what they faced in South Carolina the other day, but they have a good squad, and these kids played hard."
Belmont returns to action Sunday, Dec. 18 when it hosts IUPUI for its final non-conference home game at the Curb Event Center.
