Minnesota women break losing streak at Purdue
Published 12:30 pm Saturday, January 3, 2015
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The University of Minnesota women’s basketball team won at Purdue for the first time in nine years with an 81-68 win over the Boilermakers on Thursday afternoon at Mackey Arena.
Amanda Zahui B., the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week, paced the Gophers (13-1, 2-0) with a 21-point, 19-rebound performance.
The last time the Gophers won a contest in West Lafayette was on Jan. 13, 2005. The victory also snapped Minnesota’s six-game losing skid against Purdue dating back to 2010 and extended Minnesota’s Big Ten-leading winning streak to nine games. It is the longest streak for the Gophers since 2003-04, when they posted 15-straight wins to open the season.
Zahui scored 20 points for the third straight game. Her 19 rebounds matched a career high and tied for seventh on the Minnesota single-game record chart. Zahui added five blocks and four assists.
Shae Kelley paced Minnesota in scoring with 22 points, 14 in the second half, while freshman Carlie Wagner finished with 16 points and career-highs with eight assists and six rebounds. Shayne Mullaney rounded out the double-figure scoring with 15 points, which included a career-best 12-for-12 performance from the free-throw line in the second half.
Minnesota out-shot the Boilermakers, .536 (15-for-28) to .364 (12-for-33) in the final 20 minutes, and finished with a 42-33 advantage on the boards.
Minnesota led 34-33 at the half despite a 15-2 run by Purdue (8-5, 1-1) at one point.
Zahui finished the first half with 15 points and 11 rebounds.