Gophers upset No. 13 Hawkeyes

Published 3:01 am Wednesday, February 18, 2015

MINNEAPOLIS — Amanda Zahui scored a career-high 39 points and grabbed a conference-record 29 rebounds as Minnesota upset No. 13 Iowa 93-80 on Tuesday night.

“I just decided that I had to step up from the other games that we had played,” Zahui said. “My teammates helped me out, and they had confidence in me. I just had to score and grab the boards.”

Zahui’s rebounding record eclipsed the former Big Ten single-game mark of 26 set by Jerica Watson of Iowa in 2001. She notched her 19th double-double of the season.

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Minnesota (21-6, 10-5 Big Ten) led 48-42 at halftime. Melissa Dixon opened the second half with three 3-pointers as the Hawkeyes (21-5, 12-3), who had come in with a four-game win streak, battled to stay close, pulling to 57-54 with about four minutes gone.

Zahui added a jumper and a free throw but Samantha Logic nailed a 3-pointer to close to 60-57 before Minnesota’s Carlie Wagner added a trey followed by a pair of jump shots from Zahui and a 67-57 lead with 11:25 to go.

Iowa once again closed to 73-72 on a Logic 3-pointer with 7:31 to play, but the Gophers pushed their advantage back to 10 on a Mikayla Bailey 3-pointer with 2:18 left.

Wagner finished with 17 points for Minnesota, Shae Kelley added 13 and Bailey, 10.

Logic led Iowa with 26 points and 13 assists for her 28th career double-double. Logic also grabbed eight rebounds. Bethany Doolittle added 18 points and 11 boards for her seventh double-double of the season. Dixon finished with 17 points on five treys.

Zahui surpassed 1,000 career points in the game.

Minnesota has a 21-win regular season for the first time since the 2004-05 season and 10 wins in the Big Ten for the first time since 2008-09.