The start couldn’t have been much better for Minnesota; the finish was exhilarating.

Amaya Battle scored a career-high 35 points, including four free throws late in overtime, and the Gophers beat Gonzaga 82-77 in a Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament quarterfinal on Thursday at Williams Arena.

Grace Grocholski finished with 20 points and Tori McKinney had 19 for Minnesota.

The Gophers (23-11) advance to the WBIT semifinals against Florida on Monday at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The title game is Wednesday. Minnesota lost to St. Louis in last year’s lower-tier WNIT championship.

Grocholski scored on a jumper with 2:09 left in the extra session for a 75-72 lead. Yvonne Ejim scored to get the Bulldogs within one, but Battle made a pair of free throws with 1:28 left. Battle also tied a career high with 10 assists.

Two more free throws by Battle, one by Kennedy Klick and two from Grocholski finished off the Bulldogs. Klick’s point was the only bench point for Minnesota.

Both teams had a chance to win in the final minute of regulation.

Tied at 70 coming out of a timeout with 40.5 seconds left, Battle missed a jumper with 31 seconds left. Gonzaga got the ball and called a timeout.

As they did most of the game, the Bulldogs patiently worked their offense. But Ejim was forced into a low-chance, off-balance desperation jumper and the game went to overtime.

Ejim, the player of the year in the West Coast Conference, led the Bulldogs (23-11) with 27 points and 15 rebounds.

Battle had 13 points and McKinney 10, and Minnesota shot 71.4% in the opening quarter for a 25-16 lead.

But the Gophers made an offensive U-turn in the second quarter, being outscored 19-9. Minnesota made just 3 of 16 shots, missed all six attempts from deep and found themselves down 35-34 at the break.

Down by six after three quarters, back-to-back layups by Grocholski and Battle — on a feed from Grocholski — got Minnesota within 56-54 early in the fourth quarter, but Gonzaga scored nine of the next 12 points for an eight-point lead with 5 minutes left.

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