While the Gophers have showed moments of brilliance during the season so far, Sunday's 71-58 win over Michigan State was perhaps their most complete and impressive game on both ends of the floor to date.

Minnesota attacked the Spartans' match up zone and full court press effectively through out the game, although they struggled early on with finishing lay ups to give the Spartans the early lead. Defensively, they still allowed MSU's stars Lindsay Bowen and Liz Shimek to score. But they shut down pretty much everyone else, including Victoria Lucas-Perry and Rene Haynes who have caused havoc on the Gophers in the past.

Perhaps most surprising about this, is that the Gophers did it with starters Shannon Schonrock, Liz Podominick and Jamie Broback playing an average of 13 minutes between them and scoring a combined seven points (and Liz had 6 of the 7). Schonrock's play was limited in the first half after she picked up her second foul. Broback started the game 0-5 from the field and never got on track offensively. Podominick was not able to slow down Shimek in the first half when she scored 10 of her 16 points.

The Gophers' white team (referring to the white practice jerseys of the second unit) then took over and played so well, many of the red team (named for the red practice jerseys of the starters) did not get a chance to see much more playing time in the game.

Leading the "white squad" in minutes and points was someone who did not even play in the overtime loss to Purdue on Thursday - Lauren Lacey. Minnesota coach Pam Borton and Lacey had a talk on Friday that helped motivate the sophomore when she entered the game to score 16 points in 31 minutes of action.

Also making the most of their chance were Tasha Williams, who was nearly perfect from the floor and line and was able to better contain Shimek; Katie Alsdurf, who scored two key three pointers and grabbed a career high six rebounds; Kelly Roysland, who started the run in the first half to help get the Gophers the lead (7 points in 7 minutes) and fan favorite Emmy Fox, who played 22 minutes, scored a career high 13 points and made several big plays in the second half. The bench ended up scoring 55 of the Gophers 71 points.

Two starters were also critical in the win. Shannon Bolden helped contain the Spartan's Lucas-Perry, hit three big three pointers and grabbed three rebounds (plus made a half-time appearance on court with a big crowd from her hometown of Marshall, Minnesota). But the MVP of the game may have been a player who did not score a point. Senior April Calhoun ran the point well against the Spartans' defense, dished out a career high 10 assists and grabbed 7 rebounds. She also is credited with three steals, but seemed to disrupt the Spartans even more with hustle plays throughout the game.