8 - Friday, January 21, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wolverines hold off Northwestern Juniorguard Stu Douglass and the the Wolverines have struggled to a 1-5 conference record and have dropped their last five games. Blue looks to snap losing skid By CHANTEL JENNINGS Daily Sports Editor The Michigan men's basketball team may be rebuilding this sea- son, but there's no squad in the Big Ten that has reconstructed its Minneota starting lineup as much as No. 15 at Michigan Minnesota. Matchup: OftheGophers' No. 15 Min- five expected nesota 14-4; starters, just Michigan 11-8 two have started When: Sat- all 18 games for urday 7 P.M. Minnesota (3-3 Where: Big Ten, 14-4 Crisler Arena overall) this sea- .d son. In fact, nine TNRadio: of the Gophers B have started at least once this season. Conversely, the Wolverines' five starters have remained constant since day one. First, Minnesota coach Tubby Smith sat junior Devoe Joseph for the first six games of the season as a punishment for violation of team rules. Just eight games and four starts later, Joseph transferred. Senior guard Al Nolen sat out five games with a foot injury while redshirt junior Trevor Mbakwe sat out two starts after violating a restraining order. The forward is awaiting his court date on Feb. 7, and he faces up to 90 days in jail. But even with the shift in start- ing lineups, Minnesota has had its fair share of success in conference play. Last Thursday, the Gophers upset No. 14 Purdue, 69-59, at Wil- liams Arena. And now Minnesota hits the road tomorrow to face a Michigan squad that's in the midst of a five- game losingskid. , The Wolverines (1-5, 11-8) are coming off a tough road loss to Northwestern where Michigan allowed junior John Shurna to put up 24 points - 22 in the first half alone - off 8-of-14 shooting from the field. "Everyone's frustrated, it's tough," junior Stu Douglass said after the Northwestern game. "You can talk all day about the (tough) games you've had, the tough stretch the last nines days, whatever. But we haven't been winning and we haven't been performing the way we can and the way we should, so it's not the best of moods." But the schedule doesn't get any easier with Minnesota. Michigan can expect the same kind of hot shooting and experienced play out of Gopher senior Blake Hoffarber, who shoots nearly 40 percent from behind the arc. And when the Wolverines aren't focused on Minnesota's outside shooting, Mbakwe will be a hand- ful in the post. Mbakwe has been touted as one of the league's toughest big men and averages 13.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. In the teams' last four meetings, Michigan has come away with all four wins and three of Minnesota's four losses this season have come on the road. But if Michigan hopes to steal this win on its tough Big Ten schedule, will have to be run- ning on all cylinders in order to prepare for a very talented Gopher team. "We're treating every game like a must win," junior Zack Novak said Tuesday. "With the way the league is right now, as tough as it is, you need to get every win you can." With the loss at Northwest- ern, Michigan capped a rigor ously tight schedule where the Wolverines played four games in a span of nine days, which means each game only allowed for one day of preparation each. But by Saturday, Michigan will have had three days to prepare for Minnesota, which could prove to be imperative for a young Wolverine team that's been struggling to stick to its game plan during game time. "Hopefully this will give us some time to regroup and refo- cus," Novak said Tuesday. "Then Saturday (against Minnesota) we can come back and have a better shot." By CAITLIN SMITH Daily Sports Writer The Michigan women's bas- ketball team might not focus on records or streaks, but there are a few statistics that can't be ignored anymore. The Wolverines (4-3 Big Ten, 11-7 overall) are 11-2 when they score at least MICHIGAN 75 60 NORTHWESTERN 67 points in a game. And they did it again in their 75-67 win over Northwestern' on Thursday. Senior guard Veronica Hicks led the Wolverines with 16 points and 14 rebounds after starting the game off strong - she snagged two rebounds and tallied five points within the first three minutes of play en route to her second consec- utive double-double. "(Hicks) played pretty well," Michigan coach KevinBorseth said after the game. "She played well on both sides of the ball, rebounding well.We had arebound on the weak side and alotofthose rebounds are credit to her." The energy provided by Hicks gave Michigan the advantage it needed to get ahead from the start and hold the lead for the entire game. But the Wildcats (3-4 Big Ten, 14-6 overall) weren't an easy opponent to tame, twice coming back from behind to bring the con- test within reach. "(Hicks) is from Chicago and she's never beaten Northwestern (in Evanston) before," Borseth said. "But she inspires the other kids, especially in practice. Yester- day she was guarding everybody very hard and that kind of fuels their fire." According to Borseth, the key to holding the lead was not throwing the ball away. The Wolverines had only nine turnovers all night and tallied 16 points off Wildcat turn- overs. Northwestern pulled within seven points with just over three minutes left in the first half after trailing by as many as 14 points. But sophomore guards Jenny Ryan and Kate Thompson hit jumpers late in the half to push the Wolverines ahead. Michigan gained its momen- tum off Thompson's shot, which she hit as the buzzer sounded. And the Wolverines never looked back - leading by double-digits for the majority of the second half. But even with the Wolverines shoot- ing just under 50 percent and snag- ging 30 rebounds, the Wildcatshad another comeback. They went on an 8-0 run with just over two min- utes left in the game - cutting the score to single digits for the first time since the first half. "Thompson had a three at the end of the first half - that was one way to fend (Northwestern off)," Borseth said. "The other was that we got a couple of hits and made from free throws at the other end late in the game. We just didn't throw the ball away." The Wildcats were on fire from behind the 3-point arc, burying shot after shot in ordercto stay alive. And with 30 seconds left on the clock, it was down to a two-posses- sion game - the closestithad been since the scoreboard read 14-9. But the Wolverines kept North- western at bay by sinking free throws down the stretch. Sopho- more forward Rachel Sheffer sealed the deal with a layup in the final 16 seconds of the game. Shef- fer was another hot offensive play- er for Michigan, tallying 14 points in just 26 minutes of play. Though the Wildcats won the battle on the boards, 42-30, it was a successful showing by the Wol- verines. For the most part, Michi- gan kept Northwestern off the glass during the first half, limiting the Wildcats to just five offensive rebounds. The Wolverines also held All-American candidate Amy Jaescke scoreless and only gave her one rebound all night. "Any win in the Big Ten is a big win," Borseth said. "And on the road it's even bigger." 'M' opens against four top-15 teams Coming off nine-goal weekend, Michigan battles Alaska at home ByMAX HEILBRUNN For theDaily Most top-tier coaches prefer to start their seasons with easier competition to build momentum during the early stages of the season. Someone forgot to tell Michi- gan water polo coach Matt Anderson. When asked about the incon- ceivable onslaught of games this weekend, Anderson seemed excited, to say the least. The Wolverines will take their No. 8 ranking and splash into their season this Saturday with games against No. 15 Cal State North- ridge, No. 7 San Jose State, No. 4 UCLA and No. 1 Stanford. It is understandable to be a little nervous playing such elite opponents so early in the sea- son, but Anderson is very much looking forward to the oppor- tunity for his team to be tested. The early season kinks that may worry some are an opportunity for success to Anderson. In his eyes, practice can only do so much. "I know that there aresome areas we need to work on", Anderson said Wednesday. But until we play teams that are better than us they won't be exposed. Practice can lull you into thinking you've covered everything, but then you play a team better than you are they show you what you need to work on." Luckily for Anderson, three of Michigan's first four games pit his team against higher-ranked opponents. This season, the Wolverines are equipped with a bevy of tal- ented players, including a senior class led by Alison Mantel and Lauren Orth, who are on pace to graduate with the most wins in Michigan water polo history. Last season the duo combined for 103 goals and 88 assists. Combine those two with a star-studded young team, including sophomore Kiki Gold- en and the Wolverines' chances looks bright. Last season, Gold- en played in every game, while scoring 39 times, tossing out 29 assists and grabbing 78 steals. All of this gives Ander- son some breathing room and helps ease the pressure of playing such good competi- tion this weekend. "We'll be fine," Anderson said. "This is what we do. Every year we play whomever, whenever, wherever and it doesn't matter if its our first three games of the year. We're No. 8 in the nation. We'll take a loss or two, but we will have some victories and we will look to get better. If you look at our schedule, there isn't anybody we fear and we believe that we can play with anybody." "If you look at our sched- ule, there isn't anybody we The game of the weekend will be the matchup against Stanford, who has received the most praise of any of Michigan's opponents. Rather than fearing the talented Car- dinal, Anderson views it as a credit to how far his Michigan program has come. "If they (Stanford) didn't think it was going to be a good game, they wouldn't have flown out here to play us," Anderson said. "That is fortunately the respect that we have earned. Teams don't have to fly out here if they don't wani to, but they are choosing to do so. Stanford is hands down the best team in the nation, and we are going to use that game to see how we do. "Hopefully we will have a chance to play them again in May when we host the final eight for the NCAA champi- onships." By CASANDRA PAGNI Daily Sports Writer The No. 6 Michigan hockey team has only been shutout once this season. It happened back in Novem- ber, but the team that managed to blank the Wol- verines' potent offense is back AlaSka at to take a second Michigan crack at them. Michigan (12- Matchup: 4-1-0 CCHAAlaska 10-8; 4-1-0 CCHA, Michigan 15-6 15-6-4 overall) split its initial When: Friday series with Alas- 7:35 P.M. ka-Fairbanks Where: Yost the first week- Ice Arena end of Novem- TV/Radio: ber, after being FSD Plusw shutout 3-0 in the first game. But when the Nanooks and Wol- verines suit up to play on Friday, both teams will be riding their recent successes right into the confines of Yost Ice Arena. The Wolverines outscored opponents 13-3 during their cur- rent three-game win streak and look to continue their recent offensive outburst against Alaska, who split last weekend's series with conference leader No. 8 Notre Dame. Sitting in 5th place in the CCHA, Alaska beat the Fighting Irish 4-1 last Saturday in South Bend, snapping Notre Dame's four- game win streak. The Nanooks scored twice in the first period and twice in the third period on Saturday and head into this weekend's matchup with their offense red-hot. "I think Notre Dame got sur- prised at how good Alaska was in both games," Michigan coach Red Berenson said Wednesday. "Now (Notre Dame) squeaked out the game on Friday, but supposedly Alaska was pretty much the better team all weekend. That's a pretty good statement, when you go in and outplay and outshoot a first place team in their building. That's what we're up against." While the Nanook offense showed its flair in South Bend, Alas- ka's biggest strength has been is its defense this season. Currently, the 4 a SALAM RIDA/Daily Junior forward Luke Glendening skates in a game last Friday against Ferris State at Yost Ice Arena. Nanooks boast the nation's fifth- ranked defense and only give up an average of 2.14 goals per game. The Alaska defense has been stingy, thanks in large part to junior netminder Scott Greenham. A major cornerstone of Alaska's success this season, Greenham has played in 22 games for the Nanooks and boasts a .926 save percentage with a 10-8-4 record. "This team isgoingtobetoughto score on," Berenson said. "Goals are goingto be precious onboth ends. If you look at the stats ... if you look at special teams, they're pretty much identical to us. "Goals against, they're pretty much the same. We might have a little edge on the goals for, 5-on-5, but that's it." But if there ever is agood time for the Wolverines to take on a top-5 defense, it's when their own offense is coming off a nine-goal weekend sweep. After falling behind 2-0 on Fri- day in a home-and-home matchup with Ferris State, the Wolverines rallied in front of the Yost crowd and scored three second-period goals to overtake the Bulldogs, 3-2. They carried Friday's offensive momentum into the road game in Big Rapids and scored six goals to secure the sweep,6-1. "You want to be careful about over-confidence," Berenson said. "But on the other hand, you want to encourage the momentum. I'm telling our team, 'We've got to keep getting better. We can't be happy with what we did Friday night.' Maybe we got better Saturday, but ...you just don't do that. "There's a mindset, it's the whole team. It's not just the coach or one player, it's the whole team. I want us to get out of our comfort zone. Where we're not as comfortable, we've got to get better." But Michigan is taking it one step at a time this weekend. After garnering its first sweep since Nov. 20 against Lake Superior State, the Wolverines are counting on their offense to help stifle the Nanooks and repaythe favorfrom Fairbanks. "I think we need to focus on the little things again, because that's what we did against Ferris," junior forward Luke Glendening said. "It started in the defensive zone. "We didn't let up too many goals and that translated into offense, which was good for us."