8A - Friday, November 19, 2010

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

First-half run leads Blue to ,Fouls help and hurt

home victory over Falcons
Smotrycz heats up
from beyond the arc,
Novak steps up on
the defensive end
By CHANTEL JENNINGS
Daily Sports Ediror

Somehow (and even he's unsure
as to how it happened) junior
guard Zack Novak is leading the
Michigan men's basketball team in
blocks. _____
"I'm BOWLING GREEN 50
gonna MICHIGAN 69
enjoy it
while I can," Novak joked after
Michigan's 69-50 win over Bowl-
ing Green last night. "It probably
won't last very long."
They aren't the kind of blocks
that greet fans in the front row or
the ones that ricochet off the back-
board.
Rather, they're simple blocks on
hustle plays. But they're the type
of plays that have the ability to
turn a game around.
The Wolverines allowed they
Falcons (1-2) to keep the game
'close going into the half. Redshirt fri
Novak had one little block that
stopped the Falcons from taking in large p
the lead. and distri
His save allowed the Wolver- point guar
ines (2-0) to push the tempo and ished the
hit sophomore Matt Vogrich in the 11 assists.
corner for a three, sparking a 22-5 "That's
run for Michigan. always
In the final three minutes of focus, 'Ho
the first half, the Wolverines went I get my
from a modest one-point lead to mates
a more comfortable 39-31 lead on What can
the coattails of two Evan Smotrycz to make
3-pointers. better?' "
Halftime didn't slow the Wol- ris said."
verines, as they jumped out to an try to d
11-1 run in the first five minutes simple th
and never looked back en route to When I k
their first-round win in the Leg- simple,
ends Classic. when I'm
The first half featured the hot best. Tha
shooting of Smotrycz as he scored their best.
12 of his team-high 14 points off On the
4-of-6 shooting from the field contained
On the game, Michigan shot 47.1 center Ca
percent from behind the arc, due him onlyi

Wolverines In will
By ZAK PYZIK Bowling Green.
Daily Sporta'Writer "We want to be aggressive
and go right at them," McLimans
The Michigan men's basket- said after the game. "Hopefully
ball team didn't need any extra we get to the foul line more and
points in its 69-50 win over Bowl- knock them down. That's some-
ing Green on Thursday, especially thing we definitely want to take
uncontested ones. advantage of because we are a
But getting to the foul line is great free throw shooting team.
something that the Wolverines Everyone on this team can shoot
must do in order to win the close free throws."
games they found themselves in so The chances of making free
frequently last season. throws are the same, whether
Midway through the second it's against the Falcons or Michi-
half, redshirt freshman forward gan State. Those are chances that
Jordan Morgan took the ball Michigan cannot afford to sac-
through the lane and went up with rifice this season. However, that
it in traffic. He was fouled on the also means it can't afford to give
drive but finished the layup any- them away.
way and cashed in his freebie to Though the Wolverines got
make it a three-point play. to the line a lot, Bowling Green
"When you get me and (redshirt had almost twice the amount of
freshman Blake McLimans) seal- attempts.
ing up hard, we can draw fouls a The Falcons made 16 of 23 free
lot," Morgan said. "Then we get throws. Michigan became the one
our team to the bonus. That's giving away points. On top of that,
important for our offense because some Michigan players got into
sometimes our offense won't foul trouble.
work." Freshman Tim Hardaway Jr.
The Wolverines took 14 shots committed two fouls in the first
from the foul line and made nine two minutes of the game, forcing
of them. That's essentially nine Michigan coach John Beilein to
free points, which - if they come pull him.
at the right time - can change the Hardaway Jr. didn't see the
game. floor again until the second half.
Last season Michigan had six He then scored nine points, all in
games in which it finished with- the second stanza.
in four points of its opponent. "We were just hacking early,"
The Wolverines lost five of those McLimans said.
games. "There were still a little bit of
One of those contests came in first-game jitters. And the refs
the Big Ten tournament against were calling them."
Ohio State when Evan Turner hit Luckily for the Wolverines,
nearly a half court shot to con- Hardaway Jr.'s foul trouble was
lude Michigan's season. If the not as significant against Bowling
Wolverines would have made it Green as itmay be in closer games.
to the line just one more time, the To make matters worse, Michigan
outcome could have been differ- fouled offensively and that turned
ent. the ball over.
Thursday night showed there is "Blake McLimans had his first
hope for Michigan in those inevi- charge maybe in his life today,"
table tight matchups. Beilein jokingly said after the
Capitalizing on the opportunity game last night.
is equally as important as getting And while it may not be McLi-
to the line is. mans's first-ever offensive foul,
If Michigan's two games thus it was one more that turned the
far are any indication, there ball over and gave Bowling Green
shouldn't be an issue. The Wol- extra chances.
verines made 86 percent of their That's something the Wolver-
free throws against South Caro- ines themselves got a lot of, but
lina Upstate and nine of 14 against gave out much more.

01

eshman Jordan Morgan had 12 points and eight rebounds in last night's 69-50 victory over Bowling Green.

art to the ball mo
ibution from sop
rd Darius Morris
game with a care
my
ow can "T
team-
open?
nIdo Im
them
Mor- c
"I just
io the
ing....
keep it
that's
at my
t's when the tea
e other end, m
the Falcons' 6
ameron Black,
two rebounds ai

ovement ing him off of the scorers list in the
rhomore first half.
He fin- The Wolverines had a harder
eer-high time with reserve A'uston Cal-
houn, a South-
field, Mich.
native. Calhoun
had a game-
hat's always high 14 first-
£ half points,
fOcus, HOW but in the sec-
ond half, the
an I my defense held
Calhoun to just
two points.
op n With the
clock running
down, the Fal-
cons moved
am is at into a 1-2-2 extended press in an
attempt to cut the lead, but Michi-
ichigan gan responded well and converted
i-foot-10 the overextended pressure into
allowing a couple of easy layups and a few
ad keep- wide-open threes.

"In the last couple of days we
could really see things gelling a
little bit in practice as far as the
speed of our defense, the speed of
our fast break, the confidence in
it," Michigan coach John Beilein
said.
With the increased speed of the
offense and fast break, the Wolver-
ines accounted for 13 turnovers.
Beilein remains optimistic that
his team "is starting to understand
a little bit about college basketball
and all the things you need to do to
be competitive."
Michigan's next chance to prove
that will be Sunday when it faces
Gardner-Webb at 2 p.m. in the
second game of the Legends Clas-
sic. Gardner-Webb is coming off a
25-point loss to Florida State. But
the Runnin' Bulldogs feature a tal-
ented scorer in senior Jon Moore,
who had 21 points in the loss to the
Seminoles.

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