BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Aleksa Gulbe scored a career-high 28 points and No. 5 Indiana closed the game on a 14-0 run to complete a comeback and beat Minnesota 80-70.
It was a close game with Minnesota leading 21-17 at the end of the first, 37-36 at the half and 54-53 at the end of the third. But in the fourth, IU kicked it into full gear.
The Hoosiers turned the tides, outscoring the Gophers 27-16 in the final 10 minutes of play.
Gulbe was 4 for 4 from 3-point range, Grace Berger had 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, and Nicole Cardaño-Hillary added 14 for the Hoosiers. Ali Patberg also scored in double figures for the 84th time in her career with 11 points.
Sara Scalia scored 26 points for the Gophers, including shooting 7 for 12 from 3-point range. But she couldn't hit two late 3-pointers to bring her team back as Indiana's final run closed out the last 4:26 of the game.
"I tell you, Sara Scalia is a tough guard. Some of those 3's she hit were deep and they were tough, but we made the decision to get Wags in there and it paid off big for us. I thought that she did some nice things defensively," said coach Teri Moren.
With this win, the Hoosiers improved to 15-3 overall and 7-1 in Big Ten Games. Indiana is now 9-1 in games at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall this season.
Up next Indiana will host Purdue on Sunday, Feb. 6. Tipoff at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall is set for 1 p.m. ET.
