8 - Friday, January 18, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 0 MICHIGAN 79, LIVING ON A PRAYER New coaches Last-second heave forces overtime in'M' win square off By CHRIS MESZAROS Daily Sports Writer MADISON - Luck is the only word to describe it. And the Michigan women's bas- ketball team found it in the form of a 40-foot 3-pointer by sophomore Krista Phillips. The basket forced overtime for the Wolverines (4-2 Big Ten, 11- 5 overall), who eventually edged Wisconsin, 79-73. Michigan is now tied for second in the Big Ten behind Ohio State. "Our team was a bit deflated," Wisconsin coach Lisa Stone said. "(That shot) kind of breaks your heart." Just seconds earlier, with the score tied at 65, the Badgers (1-5, 8-8) were poised to win. Wisconsin guard Rae Lin D'Alie drained a 3- pointer with seven seconds left. But after two consecutive Mich- igan timeouts, the Wolverines stole the momentum right back. Phillips received an inbound pass and immediately pulled the trigger on a straight-away shot midway between the three-point arc and halfcourt. The Wolverines and the crowd were astounded when the shot fell. At 6-foot-6, Phillips was an unlikely candidate to take the shot. But the sophomore, who had 15 points and seven rebounds, was confident enough to put the game on the line for Michigan. "Like coach said, it wasn't designed for me," Phillips said. "But I got lucky." The Badgers were demoralized heading into overtime, and Michi- gan capitalized with a seven-point run. Junior Carly Benson nailed a three to give Michigan a quick lead. A Janelle Cooper layup and a Jessica Minnfield mid-range jump- er widened the margin. The Badgers kept the game alive with a clutch 3-pointer by Jolene Anderson, who shredded the Wol- verine defense like she has against the rest of the Big Ten. She dropped 30 last night. But it was all for nothing as the Wolverines hung on, sinking their game-ending free throws. The win for Michigan seemed almost impossible earlier in the game. At one point in the second half, the Wolverines dug them- selves an 11-point hole. But senior Janelle Cooper kept Michigan in' the game withtwo baskets near the end of regulation. More important- Beilein, an offensive wizard, faces Iowa's D'-minded Lickliter By IAN ROBINSON Daily Sports Writer When John Beilein left West Virginia to coach at Michigan, everybodytalk- ed about him as IoWa at a master of X'sM .g and O's. His Michigan players com- Matchup: pare his mind Iowa 8-10; to a computer, Michigan 5-12 churning out When: Sat- thousands of urday 7 P.M. plays without Where: pen and paper. Crisler Arena When Todd .a Lickliter left TNRadio Butler for Iowa, everybody talked about his team's passion on defense. His players said that lead- ing up to the season, defense was about all they worked on. The two coaches, both in their first year at newschools, will clash tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. when their squads square off at Crisler Arena. Michigan's offensive style is different from anything else Iowa will see in the Big Ten this season. Beilein's offense is a custom ver- sion of the Princeton Offense that keeps his players on the perimeter. As Oakland coach Greg Kampe said about matching up against the Wolverines, "It's the only game all year when our 6-10, 6-11 guys are going to be guarding at the 3-point line." In the conference season, when teams have just a few days between games, Beilein's offense requires a coach to spend a large amount of time on game preparation. But because Beilein's players don't have the skill set to match his schemes, Big Ten teams haven't had trouble stopping the Wolver- ines. Illinois coach Bruce Weber said he spent extra time preparing for Michigan - and it paid off. Against Beilein's uncommon 1-3-1 and other zone defenses, the Illini got the ball inside to big men Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle, who had a size advantage over the Wolverines (1-5 Big Ten, 5-12 over- all). The strategy proved sound, as the duo combined for 38 points in Wednesday night's 18-point Illi- nois win. On defense, the Illini held Michigan's leading scorer, fresh- man Manny Harris, to a career- low five points. The Hawkeye defense could be equally stifling tomorrow. At home against then-No. 6 Michigan State last Saturday, Iowa held the Spartans to a post-Sputnik-low 36 points - the team's lowest scor- ing total since the 1950s. In an 11-minute conversation on the Big Ten Media Teleconference, Lickli- ter described the performance as, "defense with a purpose." But just a few nights later, in a loss at home to Purdue, the Hawk- eyes (1-4, 8-10) allowed 67 points. Injury update: Senior Ron Cole- man returned to action Wednesday night after sitting out the North- western game due to a sprained ankle. The senior checked into the game for the first time with less than 10 minutes to go in the first frame but was held scoreless. "It's been a tough week for him," senior David Merritt said. "But it lifts the team up just to see him." Coleman said his ankle was all right, but sounded unsure about what lies ahead. "We still have a lot of work to do on it," Coleman said. "So we'll see what happens." Sports Editor H. Jose Bosch contributed to this report. MORE MICHIGAN HOOPS... For the latest information on injuriesto Coleman, Harris and juniorJevohn Shepherd, check the Michigan Daily sports blog at www.michigandaily.com/thegame J ROB MIGRIN/Daily Sophomore Krista Phillips' 40-foot shot kept the Wolverines alive as they went on to beat Wisconsin in overtime. ly, she settled down the offense, which looked rushed in the middle of the second half. Phillips, who sat for much of the second frame with foul trouble, proved to be the difference, get- ting easy buckets down low and chipping away at the Wisconsin lead. With less than three minutes remaining, Michigan held a 64-61 lead. "Out on the floor, we huddled up together," Cooper said. "We would always say, 'It's only six points, it's only five points. Let's go and get some stops."' The Wolverines had trouble putting the Badgers away, miss- ing some clutch free throws that would have ended the game, but Phillips' shot breathed new life into the team and rendered those late-game struggles irrelevant. Michigan was lucky Phillips did not pick up her fifth foul. Without her, they wouldn't have been lucky enough to win. Senior diver sets bar high Blue seeks to snap another streak By COURTNEY RATKOWIAK Daily Sports Writer The Wolverines are hoping Notre Dame's luck ran out last St. Patrick's Day. on that night in March, in the CCHA championship game, Notre Dame killed a 6-on-4 Michi- Notre Dame gan advan-a .n tage with two minutes Matchup: Notre left to nar- Dame 18-7-1; rowly escape Michigan 20-2 with a 2-1 When: Tonight victory. The 8:05 P.M. Wolverines Where: Yost left Joe Louis Ice Arena Arena winless TV/Radio: against Notre CSTV Dame for the season, going 0-3 against a team that captured both the conference tournament and the CCHA regular-season title. Three months earlier, Notre Dame crushed the Wolverines 7-3 in a game where Michigan goalie Billy Sauer was yanked after two periods. Two days later, the Irish came back from a one-goal, third-period deficit to seal the weekend sweep. "Last year, Notre Dame was just about unbeatable," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "Nobody was going to catch them. Notre Dame put on such a stretch run that even when we were playing well, it didn't matter." This year, it's Michigan (13-1 CCHA, 20-2 overall) that will come into its biggest series of the season to date with a nearly impeccable record. Notre Dame arrives in Ann Arbor with just two wins in its last six games. Regardless, the outcome of the next two games could dictate the By RUTH LINCOLN Daily Sports Writer When senior Elyse Lee first walked to the edge of the Michi- gan springboard three years ago, she wasn't sure what kind of splash she would make in col- lege diving. After a successful high school career, Lee LEE wasn't sure how competitive she could be at the collegiate level. But she knew the diving board would keep her coming back. "Everyone can run, everyone can swim, but diving is a talent sport not everyone can do," Lee said. "There's a lot of fear with diving. You don't have to be scared running down the track." But Lee wouldn't let anxiety impede her competitiveness. Coaches and fans saw just how much talent the Albion native had almost immediately. Lee qualified for the NCAA Diving Championships just three meets into her freshman campaign and has improved each season. An NCAA Honorable Mention All-American in 2007, the senior has established herself as a domi- nant diver. Lee has collected a slew of accolades in her four years at Michigan, including a spot on the 2007 All-Big Ten Second Team and two Conference Diver of the Week honors. Nationally recognized for its diving talent, the Big Ten boasts top diving powerhouses like Indiana, Purdue and Ohio State. The high level of competition has allowed Lee to polish her tech- nique and performance. "She's just so consistent and a great competitor," Michigan diving coach Chris Bergere said. "She gets up there, focuses, and she's able to block out any distrac- tions." Lee leads by example in her training, work ethic and graceful movements off the board. With five underclassmen on this year's diving roster, the team has relied on her talent and leadership. "She brings a lot of poise and self-confidence and (they) see that," Bergere said. "She's also exceptionally strong, but femi- nine at the same time." Her smooth yet precise diving style makes judges take notice. Lee has found plenty of success so far this season, including eight first-place finishes while posting four NCAA qualifying marks in the one-meter and three-meter events. But the senior has her sights set on the honors that have eluded her so far. Lee said she wants to cap off her career with All-American honors and stand atop the podium at the Big Ten Championships in either one of the events. Lee will have a chance to show- case her competitiveness when the Wolverines take on Michigan State today at Canham Natatorium. PETER SCHOTTENFELS/Daly Junior goalie Billy Sauer looks to defeat his second least favorite team this weekend when the Fighting Irish come to Yost Ice Arena. CCHA race for the rest of the sea- son. This weekend will be the last challenging conference test of the regular season for No. 8 Notre Dame (11-4-1, 18-7-1), which will spend the rest of its Conference schedule playing mediocre teams like Alaska, Ohio State, Ferris State and Bowling Green. The first-ranked Wolverines still have two games against No. 2 Miami (Ohio) and four against No. 7 Michigan State before the end of the season. Michigan has shown few weak- nesses this season, and after scor- ing 11 goals in two games against Western Michigan last weekend, the team has focused on minimiz- ing turnovers this week. "I think we were taking too many chances and kind of hanging out Billy to dry, thinking he's going to save everything they throw at him," junior forward Travis Turn- bull said. "That's not fair to Billy and that's not fair to the team." After Sauer found success skat- ing far out of the crease to chal- lenge Western Michigan shooters last weekend, he plans to continue playing aggressively while taking away scoring chances before they become threats. "I know they're going to try and crash the net quite a bit," Sauer said. "I'm just kind of worried about my rebounds, trying to make sure I take care of that and work on it in practice." The Wolverines have already showed they can improve every weekend while ending historic losing streaks. A six-game slump against Minnesota. A 1-5 mark of subpar play in the Showcase. An 11- year stretch without a GLI title. Next to those, snapping a three- game winless stretch against the Fighting Irish seems almost easy. Sauer,who calledNotre Damehis second least favorite team (behind Minnesota), said he expected the series to be an emotional one. "We don't really like them," Sauer said. It's a big weekend, and any time you playa big school ... it's more on a personal level when you play these games." DAILY SPORTS BLOG: MONDAY'S NEWS, NOW. Go to www.michigandaily.com/thegame for live blogs of this weekend's hockey and basketball games. 0