Defensive dominance continues to key decisive outcomes for the Minnesota women’s basketball team. And they’re sharing the offensive load. Amaya Battle just missed her second straight double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds, and Sophie Hart had 15 points, six rebounds and a career-high-tyi ng three blocks as the Gophers easily dispatched Purdue 88-55 Sunday at Williams Arena. Tori McKinney added 14 points as Minnesota (16-6 overall, 7-4 Big Ten) shot 60.3% to win its fourth straight heading into Thursday’s game at eighth-ranked Iowa. Their last three winning margins have been 33, 21 and 35 points. Sure, the program’s first NCAA tournament berth since 2018 is within reach, but it’s far from a focus. “It’s definitely a goal of ours, but you can’t really look all the way into March right now. The Big Ten is one of the best leagues, if not the best league, for college women’s basketball. We got to focus one game at a time. We cannot overlook anybody,” Hart said. “The minute you do that you’re going to get a loss on your record.” Minnesota had a season-high seven blocks and held Purdue to 30.9% from the field through three quarters — 37.9% for the game — in opening a 66-32 lead. Opponents are shooting just 36.2% against Minnesota this season. The Gophers just missed adding to their best-in-the-nation 11 games holding opponents to 50 points or fewer. “To be a really solid defensive team you have to have a defensive mindset. You’ve got to want to be really good defensively, because it’s not necessarily as much fun as scoring points. It’s not. And this team has started to understand that that has to be. They want it to be their identity,” coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “We’re focused on right now, helping one another. … Just trying to be in the right gaps, get back, switches. ‘Dawny P.’ talks about it. You just kind of hit a different level sometimes where it might not be an automatic switch screen to screen, but two players do it because they need to,” Hart said. KiKi Smith scored 13 points to lead Purdue (11-11, 3-8), which has lost four of five and entered averaging 70.7 points per game. Plitzuweit said Purdue likes to attack, score inside and get to the glass, “We really kind of challenged our young ladies to play at an intensity level that was higher. And I thought our young ladies responded and played really, really well.” A 14-0 run pushed Minnesota’s lead to 64-30 late in the third quarter. McKinney had five of those points, including a 3-point play after a dish from Battle. With a balanced scoring load — Makena Christian had nine and five other players finished with six or seven points — the lead reached 71-32 early in the fourth quarter. Minnesota shot 55.9% in the opening 20 minutes for a 43-23 lead. The final basket typified the first half as Grace Grocholski deflected a pass at the free-throw line, then chased the ball down just inside the sideline. One forward dribble was followed by one behind her back into a pass to a streaking Battle at the other free-throw line for an uncontested fast-break layup. Kennedy Klick and Nia Holloway cheer from the bench during Minnesota's win over Purdue at Williams Arena on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (Ceci De Young / Gophers Athletics) Gophers guard Amaya Battle dribbles the ball during Minnesota's game against Purdue at Williams Arena on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (Ceci De Young / Gophers Athletics) Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit claps during Minnesota's win over Purdue at Williams Arena on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (Ceci De Young / Gophers Athletics) Related Articles Men’s basketball: Bjerke makes 10 triples as St. Thomas gets back on track by trouncing Kansas City Gophers men hit new low in 77-75 loss to last-place Penn State Gophers blitz Badgers to complete weekend sweep Gophers blitz Badgers to complete weekend sweep Women’s hockey: Tommies finish off weekend sweep of St. Cloud State ...read more read less