Gophers reach the championship game again, this time against Belmont in the WBIT

Less than a month ago, in the same city they will play in Wednesday night, the Gophers women’s basketball team lost to Washington in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.

It was their second loss to the Huskies in a week. It was the team’s third consecutive loss and their eighth in ten games. Early season injuries to Mara Braun and Taylor Woodson and the grind of the conference season had worn the Gophers to the point where they slipped off the NCAA tournament bubble.

But things didn’t burst.

Wednesday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, the Gophers (24-11) will play Belmont (26-12) in the championship of the WBIT. As sophomore Grace Grocholski said after Monday’s semifinal victory over Florida, everyone wants to make the NCAA tournament.

But the Gophers are still playing.

After reaching the title game of the WNIT last season and losing to St. Louis, they are playing in April for the second consecutive year. “We are really excited to be in this tournament and make it to the championship,” Grocholski said.

People always talk about how any sort of postseason run can prime the team for the following season.

Last year’s WNIT run made the Gophers a better team this season. With all five Gophers starters slated to return, and with the return of Braun and Woodson, the Gophers should make another step. Braun was the team’s leading scorer when she reinjured her foot. Woodson was a top reserve when she hurt her knee.

But, perhaps more importantly, the past few weeks have allowed the Gophers to get over a difficult end to the regular season, get healthy and get to a point where they might be playing their best basketball of the season.

Minnesota had more than two weeks between their final loss to Washington and the opening of the WBIT at Toledo. It gave them time to rest, and then to work.

“It was a really important time for us,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “Not just to kind of get healthy again. But also, I think it allowed us to really work on us. That was a really good stretch where we could focus on who we were and how we needed to compete and needed to do things better. That really helped us.”

During their four-game WBIT run, the Gophers are shooting better both overall (44.0%) and on three-pointers (35.4%) than their season averages. They are making more than two more three-pointers per game while holding opponents to 41% shooting, 28.9% on threes.

Individually, a number of players have taken advantage of the tournament run to go to another level.

Entering the tournament Grocholski was averaging 12.7 points, shooting 42.2% overall and 34.3% on threes. In the WBIT those numbers have risen to 18.3, 46.4% and 43.3%.

Amaya Battle averaged 11.8 points before the tournament, 19.5 in the WBIT. Mallory Heyer has pounded the boards, including a season-high 15 rebounds and her sixth double-double of the season against Florida. Freshman Tori McKinney has upped her three-point shooting from 30% to 42.9%.

“We’re learning things about ourselves right now,” Plitzuweit said. “We still have to get better at sticking screens and reading screens and some of those little things. But we’re understanding the game at a bigger picture, able to make adjustments quicker.”

In the process they have created what could be a bright future.

“The lessons we got through the regular season helped us to be in these positions,” Grocholski said.

Said Heyer: “Any time you get to play in the postseason, it really builds momentum for the next year.”

WBIT championship game at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis

5 p.m., Wednesday

TV; radio: ESPN2; 96.7-FM

Belmont (26-12), the tournament’s No. 3 seed, comes from the same Missouri Valley Conference as Missouri State, the team the No. 2-seeded Gophers (24-11) beat in the WBIT second round. The Bruins beat Missouri State two out of three times this season, the second time in a conference tournament semifinal before falling to Murray State in the championship. Belmont played a rugged nonconference schedule that included Ohio State, Michigan, Kansas State, Duke and Kentucky. The Bruins have averaged 9.8 three-point field goals per game in four WBIT wins, shooting 35.8% from behind the arc. Belmont is led by sophomore guard Jailyn Banks, Tuti Jones and Kendall Holmes, who have scored 61, 58 and 57 points in four WBIT games, respectively. Banks had that game-winner with one second left in an 81-80 victory over Northern Arizona in a WBIT second-round game and scored 25 points in Monday’s 66-57 semifinal victory over Villanova.