Sports 6 — Tuesday, January 20, 2015 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ‘M’ holds off Northwestern By MAX BULTMAN Daily Sports Editor Plagued by sicknesses to two key contributors, the Michigan men’s basketball team found a way to get the job done. Even with junior guard Spike Albrecht out with a respiratory infection and freshman center Ricky Doyle playing minimal minutes due to a cold, the Wolverines squeaked out a thrilling win over Northwestern, 56-54. Junior guard Caris LeVert had 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds in a game that saw Northwestern in prime position to pull off a game-tying buzzer-beater on the game’s final possession. Wildcats’ guard Bryant McIntosh put up a runner with the final seconds ticking down, but his shot rimmed out and LeVert did just enough to clear the rebound as time expired. “I don’t know how (we got the win), but we end up getting it, and we’ll take it,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “I’m really proud of the way our kids played through some adversity.” Northwestern was able to stay in the game by exploiting a stark mismatch down low. With Doyle sidelined, Wildcats center Alex Olah dominated redshirt freshman Mark Donnal in the post, forcing Donnal into foul trouble and leading to big minutes for senior forward Max Bielfeldt. And though Olah held a significant height and weight advantage over both Wolverine big men, Beilein went to various zone defenses in an effort to minimize his advantage. “We couldn’t stop (Olah) down low,” Beilein said. “It’s a matchup that we just did not like, so we went away from him.” Whereas Doyle’s sickness caused problems on the defensive side of the ball, Albrecht’s absence left Beilein with a difficult decision on who to insert into the starting lineup. Freshman forward Kameron Chatman had the most experience starting, as he did for the first two months of the season, but Beilein thought it would be better to stay with the smaller lineup for the sake of consistency. Accordingly, he turned to freshman guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur- Rahkman alongside sophomore guard Derrick Walton Jr. in the backcourt. And both young guards delivered. Walton looked as sharp as he has since sustaining a toe injury against Villanova on Nov. 25, making more deliberate cuts and moving better away from the ball. He was even able to find more open space, getting free and shooting an impressive 4-for-6 from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Abdur-Rahkman held his own and kept up with the tempo of the game, even coming up with a few key buckets for the Wolverines (4-2 Big Ten, 11-7 overall). With 8:17 remaining, LeVert saw Abdur-Rahkman cutting to the rim in transition, hitting the freshman for a smooth layup to tie the game at 45. His nine points were the third highest on the team behind LeVert and Walton, and none of them were bigger than his dagger 3-pointer with just under a minute to play, extending the Wolverines’ lead to 56-52. “I think it’s big, especially for the rest of our season, to have these guys sort of out of their comfort zone playing big minutes,” Bielfeldt said. “With Muhammad doing that tonight, you know when Spike is back he’s probably not going to start, he’s probably going to come off the bench with a lot more enthusiasm.” Early in the game, LeVert and Walton appeared as though they would carry Michigan to a runaway win. LeVert unleashed a wicked crossover before finding Walton for a corner triple eight minutes into the game, then followed it up with a 3-pointer of his own on the next possession to give Michigan an early 21-11 lead. The back-to-back threes were part of an 18-0 Wolverine run in the first half. But Northwestern (1-4, 10-8) answered, riding 13 first-half points from Olah and a buzzer- beater at the end of the first frame to take a 32-31 lead into halftime. The Wildcats went on to stretch their lead to large as five points in the second half before Abdur- Rahkman tied the game and hit the eventual game-winner. LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman hit a key 3-pointer late in the game after starting for the first time this season. Behind Enemy Lines: Rutgers’ Myles Mack By DANIEL FELDMAN Daily Sports Editor Even with an injury report that grows by the day, the Big Ten schedule won’t wait for the Michigan men’s basketball team to get healthy. Tuesday, the Wolverines (4-2 Big Ten, 11-7 overall) will travel to Piscataway to take on Rutgers. While not much was expected this season from the Scarlet Knights (2-4, 10-9), they recently turned heads with an upset over then-No. 4 Wisconsin. They have since lost to Minnesota and Maryland, but Tuesday’s game may not be a cupcake game for Michigan, as it was once billed. Leading the Scarlet Knights is senior guard Myles Mack, who averages 14.7 points and 4.5 assists. The Daily sat down with Mack at Big Ten Media Day in October to talk about the transition to the Big Ten, expectations in the tougher conference and how former NBA coach Eddie Jordan has handled the switch to coaching college basketball. The Michigan Daily: Are you excited to see more of the Midwest this year after being on the East Coast a lot in the early parts of your time at Rutgers? Myles Mack: It’s a great opportunity to come out to the Midwest and play these great teams. (I’m) just happy to have the opportunity to do that. TMD: Is it going to be a hard transition to play in your third different league in three years? MM: No, I mean, the transitions haven’t been that bad. I mean, it’s just basketball, so at the end of the day it’s the same thing. TMD: Are people buying into his message? Is he teaching different things? What exactly is he trying to do to connect the team? MM: He’s just trying to connect the team the best way he can. He’s getting us to do more things off the court together. (He wants us) to make better bonds, better chemistry. He’s just doing a lot more different activities off the court and getting after us in practice also. TMD: Coach Jordan has said he’s always willing to talk about his career. Are there any stories that have stuck to you or your teammates? MM: Yeah, man — him making it to the Final Four in ’76. He just talks about that all the time. He says anything is possible, so we’re just trying to work hard and get there one day. TMD: In 1976, Rutgers lost to Michigan in the Final Four. Since you play Michigan twice this year, do you think he might bring that up, try to rev you up before those games? MM: Yeah, I’m sure he will. He doesn’t bring it up that often, but I’m sure on that occasion he will bring it up just to put something in our heads about the opportunity. TMD: What’s the goal for this year? MM: Of course, the goal is to make the NCAA Tournament, just like every college team. We’re just trying to get as many wins as we can. That’s all we can really worry about right now. MEN’S BASKETBALL BEHIND ENEMY LINES Michigan improves in conference debut By CINDY YU Daily Sports Writer From the uneven bars to the balance beam and the floor exer- cise to the vault, the No. 4 Michi- gan women’s gymnastics team showed improvements on each event in its first Big Ten meet. The Wolverines hit all 24 of their routines on Saturday, took home top honors on every event and swept the podium in the all- around competition. Senior Sachi Sugiyama and freshman Brianna Brown scored their career-best totals of 39.450 and 39.375 to place first and third, respectively. Sophomore Nicole Artz finished second with a score of 39.400. Michigan (1-0 Big Ten, 3-0 overall) scored 196.975 to defeat No. 20 Ohio State (195.025) and West Virginia (194.175) at St. John Arena in Columbus. Though the margin of victory may not seem significant, the improvements in scores don’t begin to do their performances justice. At No. 10 Georgia last weekend, the Wolverines tallied 196.600 to set their highest-scor- ing season opener in program history. Michigan started out on bars, an event in which the six com- petitors in the lineup swept the top six spots. Freshman Nichelle Christo- pherson set the tone for the rest of the lineup by leading off on uneven bars. Her score of 9.825 matched the performance of junior Briley Casanova in the anchor position. Sandwiched in between their routines, Sugiyama and Artz both scored 9.850 to improve upon their scores from the pre- vious week. Brown — named Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the second consecutive week — set a career-best 9.875 on bars to rank among the top 20 in the country. Junior Lindsay Wil- liams also topped her career high by earning a 9.925. After the first rotation, Michi- gan led the Buckeyes and the Mountaineers 49.325 to 48.900 and 48.725, respectively. Beam was an especially impressive event for the Wol- verines. Michigan’s 49.225 score propelled it to the top nationl ranking for the event. A West Chester, Ohio native making her homecoming to the state, Brown led the team with a career-high 9.875 routine. “As a freshman, Brianna con- tinues to just impress me tremen- dously,” Plocki said. “She’s proven to be a really dynamic competitor and very, very consistent.” In her return to the beam line- up, Casanova led off with a score of 9.800. Sugiyama scored her career- best 9.850 in just her second competition on the beam since freshman year. “Sachi has really just come into her own this year,” Plocki said. “She just competes with so much more aggressiveness and confidence than she had when she came in as a freshman.” Artz and her sophomore coun- terpart Talia Chiarelli tied Sugi- yama in back-to-back routines, with both currently tied for No. 7 in the NCAA standings on the event. Just like the bars squad, the entire Michigan floor lineup in the six-up five-count format placed in the top six. The scores escalated throughout the night, with Williams leading off with a 9.800 routine and Artz capping the rotation by tying her career high with a score of 9.950. “My favorite part of compet- ing is cheering on the sidelines of floor,” Brown said. “I love doing everybody else’s routines and then cheering them on, giving out high fives and seeing their faces at the end of their routines. They’re just so happy and there’s such raw emotion. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” Heading into the final rota- tion, Michigan led by over a point with a total of 147.800. On vault, Sugiyama highlight- ed the event with a stuck Yurch- enko 1.5 in the anchor position, earning her a 9.925 score. WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS