Ashley Ellis-Milan Scores 21 to Lead Gophers Past Iowa

Minnesota owned the last four minutes of the game, outscoring Iowa by a 13-2 margin, to pull off an important 64-58 victory on Sunday. The Golden Gophers are 17-6 overall and 9-3 in Big Ten play, a single game out of first place thanks to a Ohio State loss at Michigan State.   Gopher junior Ashley Ellis-Milan scored eight of those points down the stretch and finished with 21 points. Kiara Buford added 10 points, while Kay Sylva was a perfect 3-for-3 for eight points off the bench.   Iowa (14-9, 7-5) used a 7-0 run to take a 49-42 with 4:22 remaining. After a media timeout at the 3:58 mark, the Gophers went to work.   Jackie Voigt hit a free throw to start the Gophers' rally. The Gopher defense came up with a big stop with Voigt then collecting the rebound on a missed Kachine Alexander jumper.   The Gophers were successful feeding the ball in to the low block on several possessions, but on this particular one Ellis-Milan found herself wide open at the top of the key. She first looked to pass, but then gathered herself for the three-pointer, swishing the shot to notch only her second career triple.   The teams exchanged turnovers and missed shots before the Gophers looked inside to Ellis-Milan, who faked to the left then exploded to the right for a tough shot in the lane. She banked home the shot and drew the foul on Iowa 's Megan Skouby. Ellis-Milan hit the free throw to score back-to-back three-point plays.   Skouby, who played her best career game against the Gophers with 21 points and 11 rebounds, hit a big jumper from the right elbow with defenders in her face to give Iowa its final lead at 58-56.   The Gophers ran through their offense with Brittany McCoy missing a jumper. Voigt snatched the ball under the rim and found Emily Fox open on the right baseline for a 12-foot jumper to tie the score at 58-58 with 1:19 left to play.   Minnesota effective 2-3 zone hampered the Hawkeyes into a turnover in their next possession with Buford stripping the ball from Alexander. A scramble for the ball resulted in a jump ball with the Gophers' taking possession.   Ellis-Milan was the obvious choice to take the big shot in this game. McCoy found her in the lane, then Ellis-Milan quickly spun to her left, hitting a left-handed lay-in over Skouby to put the Gophers on top to stay.   Hawkeye guard Kamile Wahlin had an open look at a three-pointer, but the shot rimmed out and Voigt grabbed the rebound knowing she would be fouled. The rookie stepped to the line with 30 seconds left and calmly iced the game with a pair of free throws.   The scene repeated itself in the next Iowa possession. After Voigt snagged her seventh rebound of the game, she added two more free throws with seven ticks remaining. Voigt finished with nine points.   Minnesota didn't shoot well overall, finishing at just 37.9 percent, but the Gophers committed just nine turnovers and converted on 14-16 free throws (87.5 percent.   Most of the Gophers' struggles come in the first half where they went 8-of-29 from the floor to find themselves down 29-23 at halftime.   Minnesota hosts Purdue on Thursday at 8 p.m.   - UM -