Injured leading scorer Mara Braun watches Gophers women’s basketball team win without her

The Gophers women’s basketball improved to 6-0 with an 81-52 nonconference victory over Eastern Illinois on Wednesday at Williams Arena.

That’s the good news.

The bad: Guard Mara Braun watched the game from the bench, a walking boot on her right foot — the same foot she injured last season.

It put more chill into a wintry night in an otherwise hot Gophers performance against the winless Panthers (0-4).

The Gophers started slow — trailing by a point after one quarter — but took hold of the game with a 29-6 second quarter. The Gophers led by 22 at halftime and by 28 entering the fourth quarter.

Grace Grocholski, who had struggled from behind the three-point arc through five games (3-for-22), went 4-for-7 on threes and scored 16 points. Freshman Tori McKinney, who started in place of Braun, drew seven fouls, got to the free-throw line eight times and scored a career-high 14 points.

For the fourth time in six games, Annika Stewart (14 points) scored in double figures. The Gophers (12-for-22) had a season high in made three-pointers.

“It certainly feels good to come out on top,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “But I also think we see a lot of areas where we’ve got to continue to grow and get better at.”

Braun’s injury is a sobering reality.

Braun broke a bone in her right foot Jan. 28 in Illinois. After hitting a three-pointer early in the fourth quarter that put Minnesota up by seven, Braun was hurt when she landed on an Illinois defender.

After surgery, Braun missed almost a full two months. She returned for two victories as the Gophers began their WNIT tournament run before hurting the foot again.

Braun was the team’s leading scorer when injured last year and is again this year, averaging 13.6 points.

She got hurt during morning shoot earlier Wednesday; Plitzuweit said she just stepped wrong. Tests were done Wednesday afternoon, and there will be more before the extent of the injury is known.

But, for at the least the short term, the Gophers are faced with playing without Braun.

“I feel for that kid,” Plitzuweit said. “Because she worked so hard and had done everything right to come back. And now we have to figure out our rhythm and rotations and all those things.”

It will be a challenge for a team that is 21-5 since the start of last season with Braun in the lineup, 5-10 without her.

But the team might be better prepared to deal with the injury this season. The Gophers’ improved depth showed. Stewart led a bench that scored 30 points. She and Taylor Woodson (nine) scored 23 of those.

Mallory Heyer (eight points, five rebounds), Grocholski and Amaya Battle (eight points, five assists and one turnover) have already been through this.

“We just have to continue to play unselfishly,’’ Grocholski said of a team that had six players score eight or more points, got assists on 19 of 26 field goals and had six players hit a three-pointer Wednesday. “Just letting the game come to us, not trying to do too much.”

McKinney, a freshman from Minnetonka, did all that and more. She used her quickness to draw seven fouls, which led to eight free-throw attempts. She defended well on the perimeter, had a block, made three of five shots.

“I’m not surprised,” Stewart said. “I told her, ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re starting or coming off the bench, just go be yourself.’ And she did that. She killed it.”