Wolverines fail to
pull off road upset
By BRAD WHIPPLE
Daily Sports Writer
Thursday,
the
momentum
that has carried the Michigan
women’s
basketball
team
through
its last two conference wins
appeared once again in the final
minutes against Iowa.
Senior
forward
Cyesha
Goree led the charge with 26
points and 13 rebounds, and for
a time it looked as though her
performance would be enough
to help the Wolverines claw their
way out of a 15-point second-half
deficit.
Michigan
(4-3
Big
Ten,
12-6 overall) had been given a
golden opportunity to upset the
20th-ranked
Hawkeyes,
who
missed several shots in the final
minutes of the game to open
up the door for victory. But the
Wolverines’ mishaps caught up
to them again, as they had for
most of the game, and led to a
76-70 loss.
“We couldn’t get stops when
we needed to get stops,” said
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico. “We got down a little bit
and we kind of battled back, but
we were never really able to get
over the top. We started out slow
again shooting and did a better
job in the second half.”
Guards Melissa Dixon and
Ally Disterhoft led the charge
for Iowa (6-1, 15-3), with 16 and
14
points,
respectively.
The
Hawkeyes’ offense capitalized
on easily sneaking in behind
Michigan’s man-to-man defense.
So with two and a half
minutes left, Katelynn Flaherty
came in to help. With her team
down by seven, the freshman
guard received the ball at the
top of the key and knocked
down a triple. Once again, it
looked like Flaherty — who
scored 19 points — could salvage
a sloppy performance from her
teammates.
But after Iowa center Bethany
Doolittle missed a shot, senior
guard Shannon Smith took it
coast-to-coast for a fast-break
basket, but the play was nullified
because of a travel call.
After two more Hawkeye
misses with a pair of Goree free
throws in between, Smith took it
down the court once more and
passed it to an open Flaherty,
positioned to make another
clutch 3-pointer and bring the
game to within a point.
But Smith had stepped out of
bounds, and the whistle blew.
With just a little bit more than
one minute left, she stood at
midcourt motionless. It was the
moment the Wolverines needed
to be errorless, but with the game
on the line, the line was exactly
what cost them a chance for
victory.
Michigan failed to make an
impact in the first half due to
bad passing while facing an
aggressive 2-3 zone from Iowa,
forcing the Wolverines out of the
key.
Reverting
to
shooting
3-pointers wasn’t the solution,
however, as Michigan went
0-for-7, failing to score from the
perimeter until four minutes
into the second half with the
help of sophomore guard Siera
Thompson — who combined
with Flaherty for five triples.
The
woeful
23.8-percent
3-point
shooting
prevented
the Wolverines from starting
strong, making the comeback
an uphill battle. And unlike in
Michigan’s last two wins, the
shots did not fall often enough
in the end to reverse the Wol-
verines’ fortunes.
‘M’ hopes to avoid weekend letdown
By JEREMY SUMMITT
Daily Sports Editor
The Michigan hockey team
carries the nation’s top offense
and a five-game winning streak
into
this
weekend’s
series
at
Wisconsin,
but
glaring
concerns
still
linger.
While
the
Wolverines’
offense
has
been
busy
putting pucks
in the back of
the net at an
alarming rate
—
averaging
6.16 goals per
game in conference play — the
defense has fallen by the wayside.
In the past three games,
they have conceded 14 goals.
Such porous defense usually
isn’t a recipe for success, but
the unusual scoring rate has
simultaneously kept Michigan
(5-1 Big Ten, 13-7 overall) afloat.
“We’ve got away with it
because we’ve been able to score
more goals than we gave up,
but we can’t keep playing like
that,” said Michigan coach Red
Berenson. “We’ve got to play
better without the puck.”
Typically, a weekend trip to
Madison would be the last place
a team could safely shore up
defensive concerns, but this year
is an outlier. The Badgers (0-3-
1, 2-13-3) have had a historically
poor season, and this series
represents a golden opportunity
for the Wolverines to tighten
their play in their own zone.
A combination of factors have
led to the lackluster defensive
play, including a shaky penalty-
killing unit that is achieving just
an 80.6 percent success rate this
season. Making matters worse,
senior forward Travis Lynch, a
critical piece of the penalty-kill
unit, broke his right hand two
weeks ago against Minnesota.
“I think it’s our whole team,”
Berenson said. “We’ve given
up goals too easily. Our penalty
killing has been a part of it.
It’s been our D-zone coverage,
which was just lax, and then it’s
been weak goals on our goalies.”
And though this weekend
seems like the best opportunity
to erase those concerns from
his mind — and it very well
could be — Berenson feels that
Wisconsin is a legitimate threat
to play conference spoiler. In
past weeks, the Badgers have
earned points against three
ranked opponents in Michigan
Tech, Boston University and
Minnesota, all teams Michigan
has played tight games against.
In fact, they’ve lost just
three of their last six games,
respectable for a team that has
just two wins. Despite a recent
upswing, Wisconsin still ranks
among the bottom 10 programs
in the nation for team defense
(3.61 goals per game) and team
offense (1.78).
This
weekend
functions
as more of a trap for the
Wolverines than anything else.
Avoiding a loss to the lowly
Badgers will be instrumental
in maintaining a strong RPI
ranking, the main factor that the
NCAA Tournament selection
committee uses in determining
the 16-team field.
Last
season,
Michigan
dropped three games to Penn
State, a team that won just eight
total games. If the Wolverines
had won only one, maybe two, of
those contests, they would have
likely snuck their way into the
tournament.
That being said, Berenson
has preached to his team how
necessary it will be to take six
points back from Madison. So to
avoid any more what-ifs or could-
haves at the end of this season,
Michigan needs to take care of
business when it’s expected to.
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Red Berenson hopes to see improved defense from his team against Wisconsin.
Michigan at
Wisconsin
Matchup:
Michigan
13-7; Wiscon-
sin 2-13-3
When: Friday
9 P.M.; Sat-
urday 8 P.M.
Where: Kohl
Center
TV: Friday
BTN
MICHIGAN
IOWA
70
76
Sports
8 — Friday, January 23, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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