The No. 14 Minnesota women’s basketball team played the Incarnate Word Cardinals in a game at noon on Wednesday. The game was the sixth annual field trip game for the Gophers, and over 6,000 elementary school students were in attendance.

The University of the Incarnate Word is a private Catholic university in Texas, and its women basketball team entered Wednesday’s matchup with an 0-8 record. UIW is only a few years removed from a transition to Division I competition, after competing at the Division II level. 

Unfortunately for them, the Gophers didn’t seem sympathetic to their growing pains.

Minnesota opened the game with a 10-0 run, and just before the half they held a 20-4 advantage. In that first half, Incarnate Word made just 12 percent of their shots. 

At the start of the third quarter the score was 32 to 11. After scoring 32 points in the first 20 minutes, Minnesota scored 32 more points in the next 10 minutes, to push the gap to 64-28 by the end of the period.

In the final quarter of play, the Cardinals matched the Gophers in scoring at eleven points a piece to end the game with a final score of 75-39 in favor of the Gophers.

Sophomore Destiny Pitts finished the game with 15 points on five 3-pointers, while senior Annalese Lamke had a strong showing as well with 13 points in 17 minutes.

Because of Minnesota’s large lead, head coach Lindsay Whalen was able to play some players who don’t typically see as much time on the court. Junior Kehinde Bello took advantage of this by scoring her first points of the season, as well as grabbing six rebounds. 

Minnesota’s win marked the last of six straight home games for the Gophers. After beating the Syracuse Orange on November 29th, next Minnesota faces its second ACC opponent of the season, when the team plays Boston College (7-1) at Conte Forum on Sunday, December 9th.