8 - Friday, January 6, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam 8 - Friday, January 6, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Redshirtsophomore forward Jordan Morgan missed just one shot against Indiana on Thursday, scoring 12 points and grabbing nine rebounds at Assemhly Hall Hoosiers drop Michigan inthriller LUKE PASCH Christian Watford could not be Daily Sports Editor contained, as he finished the game 8-for-11 from the field and 3-for- BLOOMINGTON - Michigan 4 from long range. He tallied a basketball's two seniors and co- game-high 25 points. captains - guards Zack Novak Lessthan aminute intothe con- and Stu Douglass - hail from the test, Watford squared up behind Hoosier state, but Indiana was the arc and knocked down the not kind in their homecoming on first bucket of the game. The bas- Thursday night. ket electrified the crowd as if the With 25 Hoosiers had already won, and ticks left, MICHIGAN 71 indeed, the Wolverines were fight- Verdell INDIANA 73 ing from behind all night. Jones III "That guy - that dribble pull- knocked down a midrange jumper up is a monster," said sophomore to put Indiana up by four. With guard Tim Hardaway Jr. of Wat- 2.9 seconds, Douglass nailed his ford. "He's a terrific player, and a third 3-pointer of the game to pull lot of people sleep on him. Once Michigan within one, but it was you play him, you really got to too little too late. The Hoosiers guard him. You got to give him came out on top in gut-wrenching credit for what he's doing out fashion, 73-71. there on the court." "No, there are no moral victo- Heading into the first media ries," a frustrated Novak said after timeout, Indiana held an early the game. "We'll learn from our 11-point lead and all of the momen- mistakes and get better." tum, as Michigan (2-1, 12-3) Throughout the contest, Indi- couldn't find an offensive rhythm. ana (2-1 Big Ten, 14-1 overall) By halftime, that lead was backed up its reputation as one trimmed to seven, but the Hoosier of the most efficient shooting defense was still solidly contain- teams in the nation, pouring in ing the Wolverines' best shoot- seven buckets on just 11 tries from ers. Freshman point guard Trey beyond the are. Indiana forward Burke and Hardaway Jr. were a combined 3-for-15 from the field at the half. And at times, it seemed as though the thunderous crowd was getting to Burke, but Michigan coach John Beilein did not think that was the case. "I thought he was fine," Beilein said. "He didn't look like a fresh- man to me.... He had pull-up jump shots that didn't go, and they were right at the back of the rim. They weren't air balls, they weren't to the side, they were right on cen- tral. Taking the ball to the hoop against a strong chest, it's tough to score there. I thought he played well, the ball just didn't go in." Though Hardaway Jr. finished with a team-high 19 points, he is now 0-for-11 from 3-point range over the pasttwo games. Had it not been for Douglass's pair of clutch 3-pointers in the waning minutes of the half, Michigan's outlook at the locker-room break would have been a bit gloomier. The second half was kinder to the Wolverines. Michigan inched its way back into the contest, pulling within one point just four minutes into the half. And a minute later, soph- omore forward Evan Smotrycz nailed a 3-pointer in front of the Wolverine bench to knot up the score at 46 apiece and silence the Hoosier faithful - temporarily. "I hope that's always a great trademark of our teams now," Beilein said. "I hope it's not a trademark to be down by two dig- its. I thought we really hung in there.." Over the next few minutes, though, the Michigan defense had trouble containing star freshman center forward Cody Zeller, who took advantage of the shallow Wolverine frontcourt. He finished an impressive 8-for-10 from the field, with 18 points. "That was the biggest part of the game plan," said Indiana coach Tom Crean. "We had to establish an inside game - we had to go at these guys. They were averaging two blocks a game with (sophomore forward Jon) Horford injured. So we needed to go inside, and our guys did that." Though the Wolverines erased another10-point deficit withthree minutes to play on a Hardaway Jr. breakaway dunk, Michigan failed to take the lead and became the Hoosiers' 11th-straight victim at Assembly Hall. MEN'S BASKETBALL Backcourt struggles doom'M'in defeat BEN ESTES a 1-on-3 disadvantage but still Daily Sports Editor decided to push it, resulting in another missed shot. BLOOMINGTON - For most Burke played better in the sec- of the season, point guard Trey ond half, but with a minute left Burke has looked like anything in the game and Michigan down but a freshman, making plays 70-68, he once again found him- and decisions beyond his years self swarmed in the paint and and making Michigan basketball failed to hit the tyinglayup. * fans forget that the Wolverines "It was just rushing (things)," relied almost exclusively on Dar- Burke said. "The first half, we ius Morris for offense last season. rushed. If we would have played At many points early on, soph- the first half like we played the omore guard Tim Hardaway second half, maybe the game Jr. has looked like the young would have turned out different- star that opposing coaches gush ly.... There's a couple possessions about and that NBA scouts have I wish we had back, but Indiana taken plenty of notice of. played good." They're Michigan's best two For Hardaway Jr., the problem offensive threats, and the team's seems more endemic. only two players that create Againthe final stats show that matchup problems for opponents the sophomore finished with 19 everytime they're on the floor. points, and he was 7-for-12 on And Burke and Hardaway Jr.'s 2-point field goals and 5-for-6 inability to produce like they're from the free-throw line. capable of was a big reason the But the real story for the Wolverines failed to upset Indi- Miami, Fla. native was his out- ana in the team's 73-71 loss on side shooting. Hardaway Jr. Thursday night. went 0-for-7 from 3-point range, Neither player could seem including a miss with just over to get in a rhythm in a raucous a minute left that would have Assembly Hall. For Burke, it was given Michigan the lead for the evident early on. The Colum- first time all game. bus native missed his first shot His shooting struggles are a minute into the game. Later, becoming a pattern. Against Burke found himself guarded by Penn State, though he finished lumbering Indiana backup 'eni with 26 points, Hardaway Jr. ter Tom Pritchard and couldn't went just 1-for-7 from deep. And score, failing to use his mas- the guard had one of his worst sive quickness advantage to get performances of the season a better look than a fadeaway against Minnesota last Sunday, jumper. scoring-just seven points and Several times against Indiana, missing all four of his 3-pointers. Burke would run up the floor, For a player that was so produc- only to immediately launch up tive from the outside in Big Ten a shot or try to force a play that play last season, Hardaway Jr.'s just wasn't there for the offense. recent shooting problems are He finished the game shoot- curious. ing just 4-of-15 from the field, "He's continuing to learn and went 0-for-3 from the free what his right shot selection throw line. But Burke's difficul- is," said Michigan coach John ties went beyond the box score. Beilein. "While he struggled A perfect example was late in from (3-point range), he did some the first half, when the fresh- other things to get us on the man got the ball in transition on board. But he's still learning." Blue looks to gain ground in .. CCHA race in LSSU series LIZ VUKELICH Daily Sports Writer There couldn't be a better time for the Michigan hockey team to start the second half of its sea- LSSU at son. January Michigan means it's a Matchup: chance to start LSSU 11-8-3; fresh. The Wol- Michigan verines' last loss 12-8-2 five weeks ago When: Friday is something of and Saturday a hazy memory, 7:35 p.m. and winning Where: Yost the Great Lakes Ice Arena Invitational on TV/Radio: Dec. 30 has No. MGoBlue.com 16 Michigan rid- ing a wave of momentum heading into this weekend's series with Lake Superior State. But it's still not all smiles - at least, not yet. Even though it won four of its last five games, Michi- gan (5-6-1 CCHA, 11-8-3 over- all) currently sits at eighth in the CCHA. According to Michigan coach Red Berenson, the weekend will be important for the team to prove that its GLI win wasn't just a "fluke," and that it can indeed contend with the best of its confer- ence. "You can dig yourself a hole and there's not much of a cushion in the bottom of that hole," Beren- son said. "We've got to dig ourrway out of where we were. Everyone we're looking at in the upcoh- ing weekends is ahead of us in the standings, so we've got to make up ground." Making up ground becomes easier for the Wolverines when they can compartmentalize the year. For players like fifth-year senior goalie Shawn Hunwick, the new year essentially feels like a new season - and this seasonis the one that really matters. "The first half is over (and) th'e guys have to be excited for the opportunities ahead," Hunwick said. "You want to have a nice sec- ond-half run. You're not going to remember the first half of the year, you're going to remember how Fifth-year senior goalie Shawn Hunwick boasts a .917 save percentage in net. you've finished." Michigan kicks off its second- half run against No. 18 Lake Superior State (7-6-1, 12-8-2) in the first home series of 2012. The fourth-place Lakers sit comfort- ably toward the top of the CCHA. Though four points separate them from the Wolverines, the two bear a striking resemblance. The Lakers and Wolverines have similar margins of wins and losses over the same schools. They both boast reliable goalies - Hun- wick and Lake Superior State's Kevin Kapalka have save percent- ages of .917 and .916, respectively. Even the top scorers for Michigan and the Lakers - freshman for- ward Alex Guptill and junior for- ward Nick McParland - are only separated by one goal, and they bothhave accumulated 16 points. But the Wolverines have to work harder to play catch-up. Lake Superior State wasn't plagued with a seven-game winless streak like Michigan was this season. Berenson said Michigan hasn't spent time discussing measur- able achievements, like how many points players should be putting on the boards or the number of games needed in the win column. The Wolverines aren't lament- ing any mistakes they may have made back in October or Novem- ber, either. But Berenson still needs to stop his players from reverting back to detrimental patterns from the first half. Instead, he's put focus on bringing the team back to what he calls "Michiganhockey" - playing strong defense and aggressively chasing after the puck. "Hockey is a habit," Berenson said. "(You have to) repeat good patterns. Right now I think our team is more in good habits than we are bad. Our team is starting to come together (and) I like where we are." C For Hunwick, a return to Mich- igan hockey has more to do with self-assurance than anything else. The pressure on Michigan for a strong "second season" run isn't unfamiliar - two years ago, the team's NCAA tournament berth was only made possible by their winningthe CCHATournament. Hunwick prefers not to look too far down the road. But with this series being just one of three that the Wolverines will host at Yost Ice Arena, Berenson knows Michigan has to make an early statement to maximize the few home-ice advantages it has left. "You make the most of whatever (the schedule) is," Berenson said. "We didn't help ourselves at home (duringthe firsthalf).You've gotto find ways to win and take advan- tage of your home games."