Minnesota’s women’s basketball team has three more chances to finish the regular-season with 22 wins, and over .500 in the Big Ten, two solid qualities for an NCAA tournament team, regardless of what happens in the season-ending conference tournament.

It starts Wednesday evening against Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind. Don’t be surprised if the Boilermakers (10-16, 2-12), one of three teams desperately trying to overtake Wisconsin for the last spot in the conference tournament, come out pressing.

Turnovers have been a big issue for the Gophers (19-8 overall, 7-8 Big Ten) during a 1-5 skid that has them looking more and more like a candidate for the WNIT, the second-tier postseason tournament they nearly won last season.

After a 76-70 loss to Oregon (18-8, 9-6) on Sunday, Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said “there are a couple different things” her team has to clean up to get back on the track that had them back in the Associated Press Top 25 for a week. But turnovers stand out, and handling pressure — whether it’s full-, three-quarters or half-court — has been a glaring issue for Minnesota over the past six games.

Even in its one victory during that run, 66-56 against Indiana on Feb. 9, Minnesota lost the turnover battle, 12-6, and were outscored in points off turnovers 18-5.

The Gophers were playing well against Oregon, twice up by nine early in the second quarter, until the Ducks started trapping. Minnesota turned the ball over four times in an 18-2 Oregon run that changed the game. When asked why, Plitzuweit answered plainly.

“We were giving the ball to them,” she said. “We gave the ball back to them. We turned it over. We gave it to them.”

While Plitzuweit pointed out other issues, such as her team’s inability to find Elisa Mevius — 18 points, 4 for 5 on 3-point attempts — in halfcourt defense, turnovers are what’s killing the Gophers.

During this 1-5 skid, Minnesota has turned the ball over 91 times (opponents 67 times) and been outscored off turnovers, 113-64. In the five losses, starting point guard Amaya Battle has a combined 26 turnovers and 19 assists.

The Gophers rallied late to give themselves a chance against the Ducks; if they had taken better care of the ball, they likely wouldn’t have needed to. Minnesota lost the turnover battle 17-6 and was outscored on those turnovers 23-7.

“It was something (that) earlier in the year we were actually really good at, and lately we haven’t been as good,” Plitzuweit said. “So, (it’s) understanding how to attack, and when to attack and giving ourselves options of who to pass to. I didn’t think we didn’t do a very good job of it.”

Certainly, the level of the opposition has been tough — Top-ranked UCLA, Southern Cal and Ohio State are all Top 10 teams — and missing injured leading scorer Mara Braun, a player defenses must account for at all times, allows opponents to take more chances. But the Gophers have proven they can still compete with good teams, coming back late to put a brief scare into USC and pushing the Buckeyes to overtime.

Shooting themselves in the foot with bad decisions and/or passes has been a major difference for the Gophers during this stretch.

“We just weren’t doing the right things. We weren’t together in the back court, and getting the space,” sophomore Grace Grocholski said after Sunday’s loss. “We’re going to try to not make the same mistakes again.”

MASSIVE TURNOVER

The Gophers’ 1-5 skid has been marked by strong competition and turnovers. Here’s a look at how Minnesota did on turnovers forced, and points off turnovers, over the past six games:

Date         Opp.      TOs      POT
Jan. 30    USC       14-10    15-12
Feb. 2      UCLA     13-17    5-21
Feb. 6      Iowa       11-14     9-9
Feb. 9      Indiana   6-12      5-18
Feb. 13    OSU       17-21    23-30
Feb. 16    Oregon   6-17      7-23
Totals                     67-91    64-113                      

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