4B — November 23, 2015 SportsMonday The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com THE MICHIGAN DAILY TOP-10 POLL 2. ALABAMA: Charleston Southern got Charlie Browned. 1. CLEMSON: The Tigers are 11-0. You know what they call that? Purrrr-fect. 9. OKLAHOMA STATE: Apparently, all you have to do to get College GameDay to come to your town is lose to Baylor. We would have liked to see Lamar get the honor. 3. OKLAHOMA: The Broadway musical or the 1-on-1 drill? 6. MICHIGAN STATE: The Spartans will play Penn State for the Land Grant Trophy. Mark Dantonio feels disrespected it doesn’t have a better name. 5. NOTRE DAME: The Irish scheduled a game at Fenway Park against Boston College, but we’re sure everybody was sober. 7. BAYLOR: Shawn Oakman made us put the Bears here. 4. IOWA: We ran out of corny jokes. 8. OHIO STATE: You had one job. 10. FLORIDA: The Gators went to OT with FAU and ... we’re out of vowels. Each week, Daily sports staffers fill out ballots, with first-place votes receiving 10 points, second-place votes receiving nine and so on. Lewis’ kick return, Wolverines’ special teams break PSU’s back By MAX COHEN Managing Sports Editor STATE COLLEGE — With 8:05 remaining in Saturday’s game against Penn State, Jourdan Lewis turned to Jim Harbaugh. The Nittany Lions had cut what was once a 21-10 deficit to 21-16, and they had just kicked a field goal from the Michigan football team’s one-yard line. If Penn State had converted the fourth down and scored a touchdown, it would have had the chance to go for the two- point conversion to tie the game. Penn State coach James Franklin preferred to cut the Wolverines’ lead to five, and settled for the field goal. So Lewis smelled blood. The junior cornerback has impacted games all season long by shutting down opposing wide receivers, but Saturday’s game was his third straight returning kicks. In the newer role, he had an opportunity to go for the jugular. In the middle of the huddle before his kick return, Lewis looked over at Harbaugh and told him he was going to break the Nittany Lions’ back. Harbaugh’s response was succinct: “Go ahead.” Lewis took his coach’s permission and ran with it. He returned the ensuing kickoff 55 yards, leaving would-be tacklers grasping for air. Lewis created space all the way to Penn State’s 40-yard line, setting the Wolverines up for a game- clinching touchdown drive. “He was just competing like a maniac throughout that return, just refusing to go down,” Harbaugh said. “That was fantastic.” The importance of special teams is not lost on Michigan. The unit does not meet alone during weeks of practice — every special teams meeting is a team meeting, and a part of game preparation that both Harbaugh and special teams coordinator John Baxter consider crucial to team building. The Wolverines have found out firsthand what happens if special teams plays — the ones that so frequently seem mundane — don’t go as planned. There was, of course, the fumbled punt that cost them a win against Michigan State last month. And Michigan surrendered return touchdowns against Rutgers and Indiana in its previous two games, though those errors weren’t nearly as costly. At some points Saturday, it appeared as if special teams issues would hurt Michigan once again. With just over four minutes remaining in the second quarter, fifth-year senior punter Blake O’Neill’s kick was blocked, allowing Penn State to take over on the Wolverines’ 43-yard line. The Nittany Lions needed just six plays to score on the ensuing possession, and they took a 10-7 lead. Penn State enjoyed the lead for just 1:10. Once the Wolverines regained the lead, the special teams performance also turned in their favor. Michigan extended its lead to 21-10 in the third quarter in large part due to a special teams miscue by the Nittany Lions. O’Neill lined up to punt with about 7:30 remaining in the third quarter after the Wolverines’ drive stalled on Penn State’s 43-yard line. His kick landed in the arms of Nittany Lions returner DeAndre Thompkins, but only for a moment. Thompkins muffed the punt, and Michigan redshirt junior wide receiver Jehu Chesson emerged from a brief scrum with the ball. The Wolverines took over possession on Penn State’s nine-yard line and scored a touchdown three plays later. After the game, Harbaugh said that Saturday’s victory might have been the one for Michigan in which the most people contributed. The Wolverines, when it mattered most, made some of the game’s routine plays count. “Everybody does a little, and it adds up to a lot,” Harbaugh said. If all goes well, as it did Saturday, the contributions add up to a broken back for the opponent. Xavier outmuscles ‘M’ By JACOB GASE Daily Sports Editor The Michigan men’s basketball team was just eight minutes into its first real non-conference challenge of the season, but Caris LeVert was fired up. The senior guard got in Xavier forward Jalen Reynolds’ face after a hard foul sent LeVert crashing into the base of the basket. The boos rained down at Crisler Center before the under-12 media timeout halted the confrontation. Reynolds and the rest of Xavier’s frontcourt certainly didn’t come to Ann Arbor to make any friends, and the end result was an immensely physical game featuring 48 total fouls and 52 free throws. Despite LeVert’s 29-point performance, the Musketeers’ physicality proved too much for the Wolverines to handle. Even with Reynolds in foul trouble for most of the second half, Xavier capitalized on its bevy of second chances — 18 offensive rebounds — and beat the Wolverines, 86-70. “(The Musketeers) hit the backboards obviously much better than us, they got loose balls, they have tremendous grit,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “They’ve got a great mix of guys who can shoot the ball with the big men. ... They’ve got a really experienced team that knows how to win.” After Xavier took over the game with an 8-0 run late in the first half, Michigan found itself in a nine-point hole after the first frame. Then, an offensive surge led by redshirt sophomore Duncan Robinson, who made his first two 3-pointers off the bench in the second half, cut the lead to just two. But the Musketeers answered with a triple of their own, and then another after LeVert connected from beyond the arc on the next possession. From there, Xavier’s physicality took over. After LeVert’s 3, the Musketeers outscored the Wolverines 25-11 the rest of the way, mostly due to their continued ability to get to the free throw line against Michigan’s overwhelmed defenders. “We’ve got to get stops,” Beilein said. “We can dial up (the offense) all we want. It’s not about the offensive end. … We cannot give up that many points, that kind of percentage, off of that many foul shots.” Xavier made runs in the first half, too, scoring the game’s first seven points. But the Wolverines battled back on the strength of LeVert’s offensive versatility. The captain scored Michigan’s first points of the game with a contested layup, peppered the Musketeers with several mid- range jumpers and took his game beyond the arc with back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Wolverines ahead 26-24 with 6:39 remaining in the first half. LeVert finished the day with 29 points, three assists and seven rebounds, but he alone wasn’t able to stop Xavier’s frequent scoring runs. Plenty of Michigan’s shots just missed the mark when the Wolverines needed to fight back in the game. Both junior guard Derrick Walton Jr. and sophomore guard Aubrey Dawkins completely missed the rim on 3-point attempts, and Dawkins missed an open layup on a fast break early in the second half. “We’ve just got to keep developing as a team,” LeVert said. “When we get layups, we’ve got to make them. We’ve got to knock down our free throws. We’ve got to hit open shots. ... But we had 70 points — that’s enough to win a basketball game.” Big men struggle to control Xavier Musketeers grab 18 offensive rebounds, dominate four Michigan bigs By KELLY HALL Daily Sports Writer With just over eight minutes left in the game, Jalen Reynolds stood on the Crisler Center steps, surrounded by Michigan fans, and flexed his muscles. Reynolds had just fouled sophomore forward Aubrey Dawkins, who continued on to make both free throws, but the Xavier big man didn’t care. The Musketeers outmuscled the Wolverines in an 86-70 victory that included 48 fouls, with 11 of them going against Michigan big men. The Musketeers grabbed 18 offensive rebounds over the course of the game, scoring 16 second-chance points off of them, and consistently grabbed the ball out of the reach of the Wolverines’ centers. Michigan coach John Beilein has wanted to slim down his 12-man roster, but he wasn’t able to Friday. Beilein has been rotating four men in at the big man spot, but that decision didn’t become any clearer after 40 minutes against Xavier. “We got into early foul trouble, so I’m sure it was tough for (the big men) to get a rhythm,” said senior forward Caris LeVert. “Mark (Donnal), I think, had three in the first half, so that was tough, definitely. I think Moe (Wagner) gave us some great minutes when he was called upon, so we’ve just gotta keep growing at that position.” Junior forward Mark Donnal started, as he did the first two games of the season, but was yanked after the first minute and a half after losing the tip to Reynolds and allowing him to drive to the basket, fouling Reynolds on the way there. “Mark certainly didn’t have a good day today,” Beilein said. “He appeared to be a bit overmatched. “We’re trying not to foul, but that’s hard for us to do with that quickness. (Xavier) just came right at us.” Beilein threw in sophomore forward Ricky Doyle after Donnal’s woes, but that didn’t help matters much. Doyle was too slow on the inside and couldn’t compete with Reynolds or Xavier forward James Farr, who totaled 13 rebounds. Six minutes after Doyle entered the game, LeVert dished the ball to him for an and-1. But Doyle missed the free throw. Seconds later, he fouled guard Remy Abell and caused an and-1 on the other side, but this time, Abell made the free throw. Little things like missed free throws add up, and entering halftime, Xavier led Michigan, 45-36. Though the Musketeers and Wolverines made the same number of field goals, Xavier outscored Michigan at the free throw line by nine points. The effects were visible on the halftime score. “It was frustrating,” LeVert said. “We had a lot of ticky- tack fouls defensively that really killed us, and they shot the lights out at the free-throw line. The 50-50 balls at the end killed us.” In the first half, Xavier had more made free throws, rebounds and assists and had fewer turnovers and fouls than Michigan. The Wolverines forgot the fundamentals. Forwards Moritz Wagner and DJ Wilson entered the game late in the first half to relieve Doyle and Duncan, but struggled to stay on the court and make and impact. Wagner and Wilson played seven and five minutes, respectively, but hardly made a dent on the box score. After Donnal collected three fouls in the first half, Doyle started the second. On the first play, he drove to the hoop for a layup, and hope returned to Michigan fans. That dream was shattered after Xavier maintained its lead for the rest of the half. Though the Wolverines got close to closing the gap in the beginning, the Musketeers pulled away in the last 10 minutes, going on a 14-3 run to seal the deal. “It was tough,” LeVert said. “Guys were knocking down shots, like we expected. But at the end of the day, we had 70 points — that’s enough to win a basketball game. We’ve gotta be better on the defensive end.” MEN’S BASKETBALL “We had a lot of ticky-tack fouls defensively that really killed us.” JAMES COLLER/Daily Caris LeVert’s 29 points weren’t enough to take down Xavier on Friday night. XAVIER MICHIGAN 86 70 ALLISON FARRAND/Daily Jourdan Lewis helped seal Michigan’s victory with a 55-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter. “He was just competing like a maniac.”