The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
March 9, 2015 — 3B
Brown attack too much for
Wolverines at Oosterbaan
By SHAWN HEROOR
Daily Sports Writer
It was a game of runs for the
Michigan men’s lacrosse team
Sunday afternoon, and none of
them went in the Wolverines’
favor.
Buoyed by three 5-0 runs
through the game, Brown (4-0)
hammered the Wolverines, 22-12,
at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse.
The
Bears’
high-powered
attack, scoring more than 17 goals
per game coming into Sunday,
was on full display. It was led by
sophomore attacker Dylan Molloy,
who notched eight goals on the
afternoon. Molloy, who currently
leads the country with 6.5 goals
per game, added five assists.
Without leading scorer Ian
King, Michigan (3-3) was led by
his replacement, junior attacker
Peter Kraus. Kraus had three
goals and two assists in his first
start of the season.
Brown started its scoring
onslaught quickly, jumping out
to a 5-0 lead in the first quarter.
Michigan was able to cut the
deficit to 5-2 going into the first
break on goals from Kraus and
junior midfielder Kyle Jackson.
The Wolverines were outshot
17-10 in the first stanza.
“I didn’t like the way we came
out and competed,” said Michigan
coach John Paul. “We weren’t
really competing, and that killed
us during the first half.”
The Wolverines opened the
second quarter with another goal
from Jackson, who took a perfect
feed from senior attacker David
McCormack and buried a shot
past the Brown goalie. However,
the Bears went on another 5-0
run to jump out to a 10-3 lead. The
run included three goals scored
directly off of faceoffs.
The Wolverines were
just
15-for-38 on faceoffs on the day,
with regular faceoff man Brad
Lott going just 5-for-14. Lott was
replaced by freshman Michael
McDonnell midway through the
second.
“We’re just not getting ground
balls, it’s not just Brad and
Mike,” Paul said. “It was a big
factor in the first half, not having
possession because we weren’t
getting ground balls.”
Michigan was able to cut the
deficit to five with goals from
sophomore
midfielder
Mikie
Schlosser and senior attacker
Mike Francia, but goals from
Molloy and Henry Blynn gave
the Bears a 12-5 lead at halftime.
Kraus opened the scoring in
the third quarter with a quick goal
before redshirt junior midfielder
David Joseph beat Brown goalie
Jack Kelly to a ground ball and
fired a shot into the empty net to
put the deficit at 12-7.
Redshirt sophomore defender
Charlie Keady made the game
12-8 after catching Kelly napping
on defense, firing a shot from
behind the center circle. It was
Michigan’s first goal from a
defenseman this season.
The Bears and Wolverines
exchanged four goals each in the
rest of the third quarter, before
Brown attacker Tim Jacob netted
one with just eight seconds left in
the third, giving the Bears a 16-11
advantage heading into the final
stanza.
“The second half, we finished
a couple plays, but more than
anything, we won a couple
faceoffs and we picked up a few
ground balls,” Paul said. “If
(Jacob) doesn’t get that goal at
the end, we’re right back in the
game.”
Brown’s final run to start
the fourth put the game away.
Molloy scored three goals in two
minutes, as the Bears jumped out
to a 20-11 lead. Kraus added his
third goal with 9:33 remaining in
the match, before Molloy scored
the final two to give Brown the
22-12 win.
“Brown’s a great team. They’re
great in transition, give them a lot
of credit,” said Michigan senior
defenseman Mack Gembis. “We
didn’t limit their posessions, and
a team like that is gonna get a lot
of good looks.”
After
the
game,
Gembis
emphasized that the Wolverines
have to have a short memory,
especially with the conference
season rapidly approaching.
“Our (conference) season is in
front of us, we’re 0-0,” Gembis
said. “We’ve got to get better
from our mistakes.”
The Wolverines may have
a clean slate heading into the
conference season, but if they
can’t fix their defensive woes,
then the Big Ten season may lead
to more of the same.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan senior defenseman Mack Gembis and the rest of the team’s defense struggled with Brown’s up-tempo play.
‘M’ struggling with
transition defense
By BRANDON CARNEY
Daily Sports Writer
When Michigan coach John
Paul decided to install a new
offense at the beginning of the
season for the men’s lacrosse
team, he knew he was taking a
risk.
While the Wolverines’ new
scheme may be paying dividends
for Michigan’s attack – the team
scores 12 goals per game – a more
aggressive midfield leaves the
Wolverines’ defense vulnerable
to opponents’ transition attacks.
Paul knew an up-tempo attack
could cause problems for the
Wolverines. So when Brown
(4-0), the No. 2 scoring offense
in the nation, paid a visit to
Oosterbaan Fieldhouse on Sun-
day, Michigan’s defense couldn’t
keep up with the speedy Bears in
a 22-12 defeat.
“There’s no one in lacrosse
playing at the speed (Brown’s)
playing at right now,” Paul said.
Brown’s unique offense was
problematic for the Wolverines
from the start. The Bears’ “run-
and-gun” style caught Michigan
(3-3) by surprise as the Wolver-
ines wanted to slow the game
down, but after his team gave up
the first five goals, Paul knew his
strategy needed to change.
Michigan’s faceoff man and
midfield lines were both changed
over the course of the first half,
but that couldn’t stop Brown’s
constant waves of attack.
“Our initial game plan was
to slow everything down, and
we didn’t do a good job of that,”
Paul said. “Once we got behind
it didn’t make sense to do that.
After halftime, we just told the
boys to go.”
Paul continued to tinker, and
he wanted to see his team pick
up the pace. The Wolverines out-
scored Brown in the third quar-
ter, 6-4, as halftime adjustments
were beneficial to Michigan as it
nearly dug itself out of a seven-
goal deficit.
“We were going to come out
(in the second half) hard and fast
and try to narrow the score a lit-
tle bit,” said redshirt junior mid-
fielder David Joseph. “We got in
our motion offense, and moved
the ball well and finished, too.”
The Wolverines quickened
the pace, picked up more ground
balls and made plays that built
confidence and momentum in
the young team.
But before Michigan made
adjustments in the midfield,
which included increased play-
ing time for quick players such
as freshman Chase Young and
junior Riley Kennedy, the glaring
problem of a midfield that strug-
gled to move the ball and stop the
Bears from pushing the tempo
remained.
The main factor missing from
Michigan’s game was urgency,
especially in forcing turnovers
and keeping possession. Picking
up groundballs was especially
problematic for the Wolverines
in the first half, as Brown out-
gained them 28-19.
“We were throwing the ball
away unforced,” Paul said. “A
lot of the turnovers they caused
were in the middle of the field
because whenever we picked a
groundball up they’d check it
right back out.”
Michigan took chances across
the field Sunday and got pun-
ished for playing into its oppo-
nents’ hands. A conservative
approach to transition defense,
an issue the Wolverines knew
they were going to have, doomed
the team from the start.
“We’re close,” Joseph said.
“We did make some good plays
today, hustled and never gave up.
We’ll practice hard, learn from
the mistakes today and make up
for it in future games.”
MEN’S LACROSSE
with his first career double-double,
putting up 14 points and a career-
high 11 rebounds.
“You’ve got to have a little extra
pep in your step when they’ve got
your framed jersey, everyone’s
clapping
for
you,
everyone’s
concentrating on what you’re
doing,” Bielfeldt said. “It’s a little
extra energy.”
While the trio contributed most
of the Wolverines’ scoring in the
first half, it was truly a team effort
as Michigan dished out 13 assists
against only one turnover in the
first 20 minutes.
Though the victory doesn’t
match the feeling of last year’s
Senior
Day,
when Michigan
defeated
Indiana before
holding
an
on-court
net-
cutting
and
celebration
to
mark
the
team’s
Big
Ten
regular-
season title, it
could still be
important.
The Wolverines will enter the
Big Ten Tournament as the No.
9 seed. To have any chance of
a NCAA Tournament bid, they
will have to win the tournament
to
clinch
an
automatic
berth.
After
the
team’s
performance
against
Rutgers,
Beilein believes
Michigan
has “a chance
against
everybody.”
And if his team plays like it
did Saturday, it will have an even
better chance.
MICHIGAN
From Page 1B
“If I made the
first one, I’ve
got to shoot the
second one.”
Beilein. “So it’s been difficult for
him to get out there.”
It was fitting, then, that in the
Wolverines’ 79-69 victory over
Rutgers on Saturday, Bielfeldt
finally had the chance to enjoy
the spotlight for a few moments,
crossing off many bucket-list
career items in the process.
He made his first career start
in place of freshman forward
Ricky Doyle, who was sidelined
by an intestinal virus. Even if
Doyle had been healthy, Beilein
said Friday that Bielfeldt would
have gotten the start.
After a brief, understated
pregame ceremony in which
Bielfeldt and his parents were
honored at midcourt next to a
framed No. 44 maize jersey, the
man known to his teammates as
“Moose” started out hot.
Bielfeldt began the game
by pulling down a rebound
on Michigan’s first defensive
possession, and he scored the
first points of the game on the
ensuing sequence with a smooth
right-handed hook shot.
“Once that first basket went
down, all the pressure is kind of
off my shoulders,” Bielfeldt said.
“I’m glad that first one went
down, so I could do some other
things with my game.”
Bielfeldt
never let his
foot off the
gas pedal, and
finished with
his first career
double-double
in
his
67th
game played,
recording
14
points and 11
rebounds.
Beilein
didn’t
seem
surprised
by
Bielfeldt’s
performance,
recalling
that
in
light
of
Michigan’s
heartbreaking,
double-overtime
loss
to
Northwestern on Tuesday, he
saw
exceptional
enthusiasm
in practice from Michigan’s
veterans
—
particularly
Bielfeldt, junior guard Spike
Albrecht and sophomore guard
Zak Irvin.
“If you do the right things,
and you have high character,
and you just keep working and
working and working, getting
through all these injuries, good
things can happen to good
people,” Beilein said. “That
showed today.”
The milestone could have
snuck up on Bielfeldt, he said,
if it weren’t
for
some
interjections
from
the
bench.
“My
teammates
were
very
adamant
about
telling
me,” Bielfeldt
said. “I’d look
over
to
the
bench to look for a play, and
you’d have (junior guard Caris
LeVert) and the bench telling
me, “Two more!’ ”
The fans in attendance at
Crisler Center were just as
aware as the bench, if not more
so. Though no announcement
was made and no graphics
were shown on the scoreboard,
Bielfeldt’s
ninth
rebound
generated a buzz throughout
Crisler, a buzz that turned to a
roar once he secured his 10th.
“It’s
awesome,”
said
freshman
guard
Aubrey
Dawkins. “I’m happy for him.
The team’s happy for him.
The fans are happy for him.
It shows. He has so much
appreciation for the program,
and you’ve got to love him.”
BIELFELDT
From Page 1B
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Senior forward Max Bielfeldt starred in his last career home game Saturday.
“It’s awesome.
I’m happy for
him. The team’s
happy for him.”