March 21, 2013
THE OPENING TIP - QUICK NOTES
• The Minnesota women's basketball team will host Ball State at Williams Arena in the opening round of the 2013 WNIT Friday at 7:00 p.m.
• There will be a free live stream of the contest available on Gopher All-Access on Gophersports.com.
• The game can also be heard live on Gophersports.com via the Stretch Internet player, with Corbu Stathes and Lynnette Sjoquist on the call.
• The Golden Gophers make their second WNIT appearance Friday with an 18-13 overall record, which is the team's best mark since the 2008-09 season.
• Ball State enters the WNIT with an even 15-15 record on the season and will be making its fourth appearance in the postseason tournament and its first since 2007.
• It will be just the second meeting all-time between Minnesota and Ball State, with the Gophers trailing 0-1. They fell to the Cardinals, 79-70, in Minnesota's 1999-2000 season-opener in Minneapolis.
• Minnesota holds a 1-1 overall record in the WNIT, with the team's only other appearance coming during the 2006-07 season.
• Big Ten schools have won the WNIT Championship three times since its inception in 1998, including Penn State (1998), Wisconsin (2000) and Ohio State (2001).
• A Big Ten team has played in the WNIT Championship Game six times in the 15-year history of the event.
• The Gophers boast a .444 field goal percentage entering postseason action, which not only leads the Big Ten, but also ranks 15th nationally.
• With 1,231 career points, Rachel Banham needs 51 points to surpass Ashley Ellis-Milan for the No. 13 spot on the career chart. Ellis-Milan concluded her career with 1,281 points from 2006-10.
• Over 70 percent of Sari Noga's scoring has come from beyond the arch this season, as 156 of her 217 total points have been of the three-point variety.
• Micaëlla Riché has more than doubled her point total from a year ago and improved her scoring average by 7.2 points per game from her sophomore year. She has also upped her rebounding average by 3.5 boards per game.
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