Whalen's 34 Points Take Minnesota Past Iowa

No. 22 Gophers control game from start to finish, win 94-83.




Minnesota's Lindsay Whalen is fouled by Iowa's Jennie Lillis while driving to the basket in the first half Sunday.

Feb 3, 2002

By CHUCK SCHOFFNER
AP Sports Writer

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Lindsay Whalen scored 34 points and No. 22 Minnesota gave coach Brenda Oldfield a homecoming to remember by beating Iowa 94-83 Sunday.

Kadidja Andersson added 16 points and Janel McCarville 14 for Minnesota (17-4, 7-3 Big Ten), which never trailed and won for the fifth time in six games. Iowa (13-8, 6-5) lost its third straight after winning five in a row.

Oldfield, in her first season with the Gophers, grew up in Cedar Rapids, just 30 minutes away. Her sister, Marsha Frese, is one of her assistants and they had a large contingent of family members and friends cheering them behind the Minnesota bench.

Jerica Watson's career-high 25 points lead Iowa, which also got 21 points from Lindsey Meder and 17 from Jennie Lillis. But the Hawkeyes could not stop Whalen on her drives to the basket or contain Andersson and McCarville inside.

Whalen finished 13-for-18 from the field, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range.

Andersson scored on a drive to break the final tie in the game and start a 6-0 run that gave Minnesota a 55-49 lead with 14:53 left. The two teams then traded baskets until Minnesota ran off nine straight points to open an 81-66 lead with 5:57 to play.

Corrin Von Wald finished the run with a three-point play off a layup, set up when Whalen went behind her back with the dribble and fired a pass from just inside half-court. Iowa was never closer than eight after that.

Whalen scored 15 of Minnesota's final 17 points in the first half and assisted on the other basket to help the Gophers take a 43-39 lead.

Minnesota led by as many as eight points before Iowa rallied twice to it, the second time at 32-32 on reserve Jenna Armstrong's third 3-pointer of the half.

Whalen then scored the next seven points, sinking a free throw and hitting 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to send Minnesota into a 39-32 lead. Iowa drew to 41-39 on Watson's jumper with 11 seconds left in the half, but Whalen drove for a layup just before the buzzer.

Meder made five 3-pointers to raise her career total to 245, a Big Ten record. Northwestern's Michele Ratay had the old record of 244.