Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit wants her Gophers women’s basketball team to finish its regular season by burnishing its NCAA tournament bona fides.

Pushing No. 9 Ohio State to overtime last Thursday in Columbus, while not a win, was a good indication of how good Minnesota can be. But when the NCAA selection committee meets to choose the 68-team field for the Big Dance, they’ll be looking for differences between teams like Minnesota and Oregon.

And head to head on Sunday, the Ducks made an early case that they are the better team.

Deja Kelly scored a game-high 20 points, and Elisa Mevius added 18 while shooting 4 for 5 on 3-point attempts as Oregon held off a late charge from Minnesota for a 76-70 victory at Williams Arena.

Sophie Hart finished with 15 points and six rebounds, and Mallory Heyer scored 11 points and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds for Minnesota, which cut a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to four, 71-67, on a pair of free throws by Tori McKinney with 17.6 seconds left.

But the Gophers (19-8 overall, 7-8 Big Ten) missed some open shots and, down by six, committed a turnover on an inbounds play while on the other end, Oregon (18-8, 9-6) made 5 of 6 free throws to seal the victory,

Grace Grocholski made a 3-pointer with 3 seconds remaining to lead the Gophers with 16 points.

The Gophers took a 16-14 lead in the final seconds of the first quarter when Battle nailed a desperation 3-pointer from just inside the halfcourt line, then broke away a bit with an early run in the second.

Hart scored down low, Heyer hit a 3-pointer and Amaya Battle a jump shot for a 23-14 lead that forced a quick 30-second timeout from Oregon coach Kelly Graves. That seemed to settle the Ducks a little, and they twice cut the Gophers’ lead to six points before Heyer’s third 3-pointer made it 28-19 with 5:12 left in the half.

But that was when the tables turned.

Oregon scored the next six points — with the help of two Gophers turnovers — to force Plitzuweit to call her first timeout. But it didn’t stop the bleeding. The Ducks scored 12 of the next 14 points, again with the help of two Minnesota turnovers, to take a 37-30 with 33 seconds left in the half.

Grace Grocholski hit a 3-pointer to cut that deficit to 37-33 at intermission — despite the Gophers’ 23-9 advantage on the boards — but little changed for Minnesota until late in the fourth quarter, when the Gophers made their customary late run.

This one came up short.

Related Articles

UCLA, South Carolina, Texas and Notre Dame are No. 1 seeded teams in first NCAA Tournament reveal

Men’s basketball: St. Thomas takes Summit League lead by beating Omaha

Men’s hockey: Extra time unkind again as Gophers tie at Michigan, fall in shootout

Women’s hockey: Gophers beat St. Cloud State for program’s 800th win

Men’s basketball: Gophers use game-ending, 8-0 run to upend Southern Cal