The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Thursday, November 21, 2013- 7A
* The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, November 21, 2013- 7A
Career night earns'W'
'M' faces world's tallest teenager
By LEV FACHER Nicole Elmblad and Shannon
Daily Sports Writer Smith. And despite having to deal
with Anderson, Goree managed 10
It took four separate scoring points and three rebounds.
outbursts for the Michigan wom- Smith, easily Michigan's most
en's basketball team to finally put potent offensive weapon so far
away Pittsburgh on Wednesday this season, was held to eight
night at Crisler Center, and even points, making just three field
the fourth one wasn't a sure thing. goals on nine attempts. But the
But the Wolverines responded well, as
Wolverines PITTSBURGH 75 four players ended up with double
held on in MICHIGAN 83 figures, more than making up for
the end, Smith's off night.
earning an 83-75 winthanks to the "I don't think we got as much
best night of freshman guard Siera transition as we normally do,"
Thompson's Michigan career - Elmblad said. "But in the half
she scored a career-high 22 points, court, we were able to knock down
while junior guard Nicole Elmblad shots. People have been getting to
tied her career high with 19. the gym and working."
With Michigan (4-2) leading But despite Michigan's sharp-
4-0 thanks to a pair of baskets shooting, the lead didn't last long
from sophomore forward Cyesha - the Panthers (2-2) tied the
Goree, Pittsburgh coach Suzie game at 17 on a 3-pointer from
McConnell-Serio found herself in Asia Logan off an assist from Cora
need of a quick answer. It came McManus.
in the form of redshirt freshman The Wolverines jumped out to
Marvadene "Bubbles" Anderson anotherleadonan8-2 runthatwas
- a 6-foot-11 center from Jamai- charged by pairs of free throws
ca - who checked into the game from Ristovski and Thompson, as
with 16:40 remaining in the half well as a smooth Goree jump shot
The Wolverines also managed from the top of the key.
to work around Anderson on the But once again, Michigan's
offensive end, extending their momentum was short-lived - the
early lead to 10-4 on a trio of jump- eight-point lead shrank to three by
ers from sophomore guard Madi- halftime and was cut to one on a
son Ristovski and junior guards Logan jumper moments into the
second half.
The late first-half advantage
wouldn't be the last one Michigan
squandered on the evening, either.
After a pair of layups from Smith
helped put the Wolverines up nine
with 10 minutes remaining, Pitts-
burgh came storming back once
again, using a 7-0 run to whittle
the deficit to two points midway
through the half.
It was the fourth Michigan out-
burst of the evening that finally
put the nail in the Panthers' cof-
fin, but just barely - the Wolver-
ines held a lead of at least seven
for several minutes, but Pitts-
burgh trailed only 73-69 with 1:20
remaining.
"Every time we'd make a run,
they would come back and chal-
lenge us and push us," Barnes
Arico said. "But we were able to
finish it. We were able to make
free throws and get to the free-
throw line, which is something
we've been emphasizinglately."
The Panthers couldn't make
a final push as the clock wound
down. Free throws from Smith
and then Elmblad pushed the lead
to 77-69, leaving both Thompson
and Elmblad with career nights
and putting Michigan two games
over .500 for the first time this
season.
By ALEXA DETTELBACH
Daily Sports Writer
Before the start of the season,
Michigan women's basketball
coach Kim Barnes Arico said
size was going to be her squad's
biggest concern.
So you can imagine the night-
mare when Pittsburgh's (2-2
overall) 6-foot-11 redshirt fresh-
man center, Marvadene "Bub-
bles" Anderson, came to town.
Anderson holds the title for the
world's tallest teenager.
The Jamaica native usu-
ally starts for the Panthers, but
against Michigan (4-2), she came
off the bench, which allowed
the Wolverines to jump out to a
fast 4-0 start from a pair of bas-
kets from junior forward Cyesha
Goree.
In response, Pittsburgh
turned to its secret weapon,
and everyone noticed the min-
ute Anderson checked into the
game. Anderson is over a foot
taller than the Wolverines' start-
ing backcourt and stands seven
inches above Michigan's tall-
est player, 6-foot-4 senior Val
Driscoll. Her presence, though,
didn't faze the Wolverines, who
went on to beat Pittsburgh,
83-75, for their third straight
win.
When Anderson first checked
in, it took Michigan a few min-
utes to get acclimated to match-
ing up against such a big player.
Fifteen seconds after Anderson
entered the game, she had an
easy layup for the Panthers' first
points of the night. But despite
the unbalanced matchup in the
paint, the Wolverines were even-
tually able to find some offense
down low, even when Anderson
was on the court.
"I just had to get out and run
more, run and get out in transi-
tion and try to get my points,"
said junior forward Cyesha
Goree. "(On defense) I looked
to take away her strength, my
guards helping to dig in so she
felt doubled, forcing her to kick
it back out."
Anderson's other-worldly size
has plagued her with knee trou-
bles, and it shows when she's on
the court.
In transition, she is usually
strides behind her teammates
and requires more bench time
than others. Michigan used the
delay to attack the paint early in
PttEA MATnCW/naily
Pittsburgh forward Marvadene Anderson is a presence, standing at 6-foat-li.
the possession. But once Ander-
son got back on defense, the
Wolverines typically stuck with
working the perimeter.
"I thought we did a tremen-
dous job tonight of making
Bubbles try to come out on ball
screens," Barnes Arico said. "She
wasn't really leaving the paint,
so we took advantage with our
outside shot."
Anderson found herself on the
bench late in the first half, but
two quick baskets from Goree,
followed by foul trouble for Pan-
ther forward Asia Logan, forced
Pittsburgh coach Suzie McCo-
nnell-Serio to turn to her red-
shirt freshman earlier than she
wanted.
"I don't know many women
that are 6-foot-11," Barnes Arico
said. "And any time she got deep
in the paint, we knew we were
going to be in trouble, but I
thought Val Driscoll did an out-
standing job on her in the first
half."
To start the second half for
Michigan, freshman guard Siera
Thompson drained a 3-pointer
from the right side. A quick Pan-
ther turnover immediately after
gave the ball to Goree who hit an
uncontested bank shot from the
paint. McConnell-Serio turned
to her bench once again, as Goree
made the basket and motioned
for Anderson to check into the
game. On Anderson's first pos-
session, she drew a quick foul
from Goree and hit an easy shot
over her after the inbounds pass.
Anderson's presence for Pitts-
burgh is undeniable and her
ceiling is extremely high, but
her early production on the stat
sheet has been limited because
of her shorter minutes. She fin-
ished Wednesday's loss with 12
points and five rebounds, just
around averages nine-points and
four-and-a-half-rebounds.
"It was a challenge and you
look at her and you're like 'wow
she's tall,' " said junior guard
Nicole Elmblad. "She was able
to finish a lot on us and a couple
times she did stuff on us that we
didn't like, but for the most part I
thought we did a pretty good job
of boxing her out on the offen-
sive end."
Added Barnes Arico: "We
tried to limit her touches, and we
tried to double her as best as we
could. Overall, I thought we did a
very decent job on her. We made
her turn the ball over a little bit,
and we got her into foul trouble,
which I thought helped us as
well."
In the end, the Wolverines'
starting frontcourt, Goree and
Elmblad, won the battle, gener-
ating just enough offensive and
defensive power down low to
win the game. The two finished
with 10 and 19 points, respec-
tively. Elmblad matched her
career high in points and also
added six rebounds.
A third-straight win was big
for Michigan, but playing against
the world's tallest teenager will
be memorable for years to come.
TERESA MATHEW/Daily
Freshman guard Siera Thompson scored a career-high 22 points in Wednesday's 83-75 win over Pittsburgh.
A look back on Rachael Mack's career
By MATTHEWKIPNIS
Daily Sports Writer
In the first chapter of senior
forward Rachael Mack's Michi-
gan legacy, she stood on Phyl-
lis Ocker Field for the first home
game of her Michigan field hockey
career. It was Sept., 10, 2010. Mack
looked up at the scoreboard to
see the Wolverines staring at a
3-0 deficit against No. 14 James
' Madison. Unintimidated by this
disadvantage, Mack scored her
first two goals to lead Michigan
to a 4-3 victory. Only one month
into her career, she was a star, and
this was one of the first indicators
of the successful career that lay
ahead for Mack.
She was born on Jan.24,1992 to
Derek and Fiona Mack in Broms-
grove, England. Mack grew up
with a passion for sports but didn't
play field hockey until the age of11
- early compared to most Ameri-
cans, but late in England.
"I played tennis when I was
younger, and I always wanted to
play a sport," Mack said. "Any kind
of ball I wanted to play, and I never
played hockey before I went to the
(Bromsgrove) school. I started at
school when I actually didn't want
to play it, as I wanted to play foot-
ball, soccer, instead but then I got
into hockey and from minute one I
really loved the game."
Once Mack picked up the stick,
she didn't look back. Mack played
for Olton high school and a club
team in England's Women's Pre-
mier Division, among others, prior
to coming to Michigan.
When Mack started to serious-
* ly consider her choices, she knew
that she would somehow end up
in the United States. Mack had
dreamt of coming to the United
States at a young age. When her
father took a job working for an
American company, a nine-year
old Mack was afforded the oppor-
tunity to live in Texas for a sum-
mer, which just enhanced that
dream.
"It was right at that age where
everything in America was amaz-
ing and big so that was really fun,"
Mack said. "I always wanted to
come to America, whether it was
for hockey or for tennis. It was
something I wanted to do."
Mack's coach of three years at
Olton, Michael Boal, gave the tip
to an old coaching friend, Michi-
gan assistant coach Ryan Lang-
ford, that Mack decided she was
going to leave England for college.
"First impression was kind of
a 'wow factor'," Langford said. "I
saw this girl playing for England's
under-18 national team, and when
I saw her step on the field I thought
she held such a great presence,
and it looked like she had an aura
around her of strength and confi-
dence and that translated directly
into play. She was very talented
from the first day I saw her."
Langford knew from that point
on that he needed to recruit Mack,
and invited the family to visit.
Like many students who tour Ann
Arbor, Mack fell in love.
"We were driving up State
Street, and my mum was look-
ing around and she was just like
'Yeah, I think you should go here,
Rachael,' " Mack said. "Every
new thing I saw, every step along
the way of my visit made it more
prominent in my mind that Michi-
gan was where I wanted to be."
While Michigan was on a
road trip to Louisville, Langford
received a call from the future
phenom - Mack was coming to
Ann Arbor.
Unlike most international play-
ers playing field hockey in Amer-
ica, Mack knew she was going to
stay for four years. Some athletes
may only stay for a year or two
to work on their game and head
home to play professionally.
"I wanted to get a great educa-
tion, and Michigan offered that, so
I did come thinking that I would
stay here four years in my mind,"
Mack said. "After my first year,
I knew I was going to stay here
because it's awesome."
Not only was there the added
pressure of being a freshman play-
ing James Madison in front of the
home crowd, but the coach stand-
ing on the other side of the field
was none other than the reason
Mack wound up at Michigan -
Boal.
"I scored my first two goals,
and funny enough the two goals
I scored were the ones me and
Michael had worked on before I
came here," Mack said. "It was
kind of cyclical that it would come
back to that. It was really nice to
have him there and be able to see
my first goals even though he was
the opposing coach. I told him,
'I am sorry, but I am not really
sorry."'
Mack finished her freshman
year with 16 goals and 36 points,
and led the Wolverines to the
Big Ten title. She won the Big
Ten Tournament MVP award,
NFCHA All-American third-team
honors, All-Big Ten second team,
Michigan Rookie of the Year and
the Michigan athletic academic
achievement award.
"I scored a lot of goals my fresh-
man year, and my dad was like
'You should look up the record, go
see it,' so I did," Mack said. "He
was the one that initially set my
mind that you are going to break
that record by the end of senior
year."
And so Mack continued to
score en route to the Michigan
goals record. She led the team in
scoring every year after her fresh-
man year. Mack continued to win
awards each season while getting
closer to achieving her objective.
It was only fitting it would
finally be broken against archrival
Ohio State in overtime.
Redshirt junior Lauren Hauge
fed Mack the ball just outside the
circle, and she carried it, spun
around a defender and fired a shot
to the top-right side of the net to
make her mark as Michigan's all-
time leadingscorer.
As an added bonus, Mack was
awarded Big Ten Player of the
Year and was a unanimous choice
for Big Ten Offensive Player of the
Year.
In the field hockey team's final
banquet, the player who held the
record before Mack, April Fanzo-
ni, was in Ann Arbor and present-
ed Mack her own record-breaking
ball she scored against the Buck-
eyes.
Fanzoni and Mack had been
talking prior to the goal, and Fan-
zoni was there cheering Mack on.
"It was funny, she had scored
68 goals and I have 73 now, and
she said, 'You know I am glad that
you have overran my record by
five, because if it was just one then
it would have been painful," Mack
said. "But now you have done it by
a few more so I'm okay with that.'
Now that Mack's career as a
Wolverine is over, she looks for-
ward to the senior game, as it
will be her last opportunity to
represent Michigan. Once she
graduates, Mack hopes to join
the British national team. Hav-
ing played for the junior national
team before college and improv-
ing her game in the states, Mack
is on the right track to achieve her
goal.
And so in the final chapter of
Mack's Michigan legacy, on Nov.
3, 2013, Mack stood on Phyl-
lis Ocker Field for the last home
game of her Michigan career. The
Wolverines were staring down a
3-1 deficit, just like her first home
game. Mack scored the final two
goals of her career, leading Michi-
gan to a 4-3 victory and finished as
the Michigan field hockey team's
all-time leadingscorer.
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