Gophers take on Manhattan in semifinals of WBI

The Gophers women’s basketball team will host the Manhattan Jaspers at 7 p.m., Friday in the semifinals of the Women’s Basketball Invitational.

The No. 2 seed Gophers defeated No. 7 seed Charleston Southern 80-51 on March 16 and No. 3 Bradley 85-59 on March 18.

“I’m expecting us to come out and play hard. I expect us to get better. I expect us to come out and dominate in every area. I expect us to continue growing as a team,” head coach Pam Borton said.

The Gophers have never faced the No. 8 seed Jaspers, who are coming off of defeats of Robert Morris and Holy Cross.

“We haven’t really faced a 1-3-1 [zone] defense at all this year so we’re preparing for something we haven’t seen all year long,” Borton  said.

With a win, the Gophers would advance to the finals to take on either Seattle or Northern Iowa.