Minnesota had a big test on Tuesday night with its first game against a Power Conference opponent. The Gophers passed with flying colors, blowing Marquette out 90-47 to move to 3-0 on the season. Here’s what we learned.
The Gophers jumped out to an 11-0 lead, and McKinney scored nine of their first 13 points. Marquette cut the lead to 15-12, but Minnesota responded with a 7-0 run to close out the first quarter and led 22-12 after 10 minutes of play, behind 11 points from McKinney. She finished Tuesday’s game with 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting from the field.
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Tuesday night was Minnesota’s first game of the season without veteran forward Taylor Woodson, who was ruled out for the season on Monday with a knee injury for the second straight year. The Gophers had a 10-player rotation in the first two games of the season, and they just knocked it down to nine in the first half against Marquette. UAB transfer Tracey Bershers and true freshman Zoey Bershers were both ruled out before the game, but it seems like the Gophers could just stick with nine.
Skylar Forbes and Jaidynn Mason entered Tuesday’s game averaging 19.0 points and 18.0 points, respectively, for Marquette. They combined for just five first-half points on 3 of 9 shooting from the field. The Golden Eagles combined for 14 first-half turnovers, and it was clear that Dawn Plitzuweit and her staff had a high-level game plan. They ended the game with only 15 combined points on 6 of 20 shooting.
The health of Braun has been a huge storyline hovering over the Gophers in each of the last two seasons. She averaged 17.0 points per game in her last season with more than 20 games played, so Minnesota is obviously a better team when she’s healthy. She started slow with only five points in the season opener against North Dakota, but responded with 17 against Manhattan.
Minnesota proved on Tuesday night that it doesn’t need Braun to be a scoring machine in order to beat top programs. She had a solid night with nine points, six rebounds and seven assists, but the Gophers are a deep team that can attack you with a multitude of different options, which makes their outlook for the rest of 2025-26 so exciting.
When Minnesota added Glenn from the transfer portal, it didn’t seem like a huge pickup, but it’s going to pay dividends this season. After starting more than 90 games at Kansas State over three seasons, she missed all of last season due to injury. She has picked up right where she left off in 2023-24 with 8.3 points per game this season. Her veteran presence off the bench is something that will help this team as the season carries on.
