Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Tuesday, November 24, 2015 — 7

Flaherty leads historic night

By BRANDON CARNEY 

Daily Sports Writer

She missed her first four shots, 

but Katelynn Flaherty won’t 
walk away from Monday’s game 
against South Carolina Upstate 
remembering that.

Instead, the sophomore guard 

will look back at her next 16 
attempts, 13 of which she made 
on the way to a career-high 34 
points as the Michigan women’s 
basketball team (4-0) had no 
trouble taking down the Spartans 
(4-2), 119-61, finishing with the 
second-most points scored in 
program 
history 
since 
the 

beginning 
of the NCAA era.

“When I started making shots, 

then everything started flowing 
in my game offensively,” Flaherty 
said. “Not getting down when I 
miss shots has been a part of my 
growth this year. I think I’ve 
changed my mentality a lot. I 
work on shooting all the time. 
I expect myself to make those 
shots, so I just kept shooting and 
it happened.”

The Wolverines ended the 

first half with 65 points, their 
most since 1980, by shooting 
a remarkable 69 percent from 
behind the arc, making 64 
percent of their total shots in the 
period.

In the first half, 17 of Michigan’s 

23 field goals were assisted by 
eight different players.

“I think we’re really unselfish,” 

Barnes Arico said. “I think we 
always look to make the extra 
pass and get the best shot off and 
not the first shot. We did a really 
great job of that tonight. We had 
four players tonight with five 
assists. That’s pretty incredible.”

With the Wolverines looking 

flat from the start, and scoring 
threats 
like 
Flaherty 
and 

sophomore 
forward 
Jillian 

Dunston shooting a combined 

0-for-6 in the opening five 
minutes, Barnes Arico felt her 
team needed an energy spark.

Soon 
after 
introducing 

freshman guard Boogie Brozoski 
and 
junior 
guard 
Danielle 

Williams, Michigan turned on its 
press defense, went on a 7-0 run 
and never looked back.

Brozoski, Williams, Flaherty 

and junior guard Siera Thompson 
stifled USC Upstate’s offense 
and opened the second quarter 
making nine consecutive baskets.

While 
Flaherty 
was 
the 

primary scorer, Williams and 
Brozoski carried the Wolverines 
defensively. The pair combined 
for eight steals, as Michigan 
forced 27 Spartan turnovers. 
Brozoski also finished behind 
Flaherty with 16 points and 
co-led the team with five assists.

“Once we got into the press, 

the energy was there,” Brozoski 
said. “When we press, and we 
get up and have that energy, we 
definitely intimidate teams a 
little bit and get them to turn the 
ball over.”

Thompson proved to be the 

motor behind the Wolverines’ 
high-powered offensive attack, 
scoring 
13 
points, 
including 

making all three 3-point shots 
she attempted. But the guard 
drove Michigan’s attack starting 
from the defensive glass, where 
she grabbed a team-high eight 
rebounds.

Senior guard Madison Ristovski 

carried the Wolverines when they 
were cold in the opening minutes, 
scoring nine of Michigan’s opening 
11 points, all from beyond the arc. 
Watching her teammates struggle 
to score, the senior stepped up 
and lifted the Wolverines from 
a lackluster start into a historic 
night. She finished with 11 points 
and five assists.

“Madison has really been a 

spark for us in our last couple 
games,” Barnes Arico said. “She’s 
been super consistent shooting 
the ball and she’s one of the best 
passers we have. Her consistency 
has really been a staple for us and 
it’s great to see that from her as 
a senior.”

While there was much to cheer 

about Monday night in Crisler 
Center, the loudest moment came 
when fifth-year senior Halle 
Wangler scored her first career 
point with a minute left in the 
contest.

“(The team) was more excited 

for her than they were for their 
own individual success,” Barnes 
Arico said. “Halle is a great kid 
and brings a lot of energy and 
passion every single day, and for 
her to have the opportunity to do 
that tonight was special.”

Between 
Flaherty 
and 

Wangler’s 
career 
moments, 

Michigan’s offensive explosion 
will be one for the record books, 
as the Wolverines continue to 
show their attacking consistency 
early in the season.

“It was just a great night for 

the whole team,” Brozoski said. 
“Everyone 
scored. 
Everyone 

impacted the game in some way. At 
the end of the day, it doesn’t come 
down to points. It comes down to 
how hard you play, and everyone 
gave it their all out there.”

DELANEY RYAN/Daily

Sophomore guard Katelynn Flaherty shook off an 0-for-4 start to finish with a career-high 34 points Monday night.

SC UPSTATE
MICHIGAN 

61
119

‘M’ wears orange 
in support of Carr

By TED JANES

Daily Sports Writer

Just hours before the Michigan 

women’s basketball team tipped 
off 
against 
South 
Carolina 

Upstate on Monday, the Michigan 
community was grieving. That 
afternoon, 5-year-old Chad Carr, 
the grandson of former Michigan 
coach Lloyd Carr and former Hall 
of Fame safety Tom Curtis, passed 
away after a 15-month battle with 
an inoperable brain tumor.

To honor Carr, the Wolverines 

wore 
orange 
T-shirts 
with 

“#CHADTOUGH” written across 
the chest during their game. The 
team came out of the tunnel for 
warmups dressed in the shirts 
and also sported them while on 
the bench.

The coaching staff also geared 

up in orange, representative of the 
#ChadTough Pray for a Miracle 
fundraising event that distributed 
orange rubber wristbands to raise 
awareness and support for the 
cause. Some of the Wolverines 
wore the wristbands around their 
socks on Monday, and all of the 
profits from each wristband went 
directly to pediatric brain tumor 
research at C.S. Mott Children’s 
Hospital in Ann Arbor.

A moment of silence was held at 

Crisler Center prior to Michigan’s 
win.

Chad’s fight with a form 

of cancer known as Diffuse 
Intrinsic Pontine Giloma (DIPG) 
garnered endless support from the 
Michigan community and beyond, 
most 
prominently 
with 
the 

Michigan football team writing 
“#CHADTOUGH” on the back of 
its helmets.

But as the only Michigan team 

in action Monday, the women’s 
basketball program took its chance 
to honor Chad with the shirts, and 
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico 

spoke about what Chad’s fight 
meant to her and her team.

“It was really hard,” Barnes 

Arico said. “We live in the same 
community, and my children go 
to school with their children. For 
them to share their story with us 
over the last 15 months has been 
incredible and an inspiration to 
myself, to our players and to my 
family. Our team has volunteered 
for the Chad Run last year and 
this year. We all feel like Chad and 
the Carrs are part of our family.”

The Wolverines heard the 

news during a shootaround 
earlier today, and as soon as they 
did, they decided they would 
honor Chad and the Carr family 
during the game. Many players 
tied their shoes with orange 
laces in support.

“It’s such a difficult time for 

everyone to go through, especially 
the 
family,” 
said 
sophomore 

guard Katelynn Flaherty. “(Chad) 
inspired everyone. It really puts 
a perspective on everyday life, 
and I think it reminds us not 
to take anything for granted 
and appreciate where we are, 
everyone around us and just being 
able to step out on the court.”

As Barnes Arico mentioned, 

the Wolverines participated in 
the second annual RunTough 
fundraiser last month, helping 
raise over $120,000 to benefit the 
ChadTough Foundation.

After the 119-61 win over USC 

Upstate, the players, coaches and 
two of Barnes Arico’s daughters 
put on the #ChadTough shirts and 
gathered in the middle of the court 
for a picture to show their support.

“Any way that we can honor 

them, by wearing orange and 
supporting their family, is what 
we wanted to do,” Barnes Arico 
said. “My little one came running 
up to me after and said, ‘Mommy, 
we did this for Chad.’ ”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MEN’S BASKETBALL
Beilein strives to 
solidify rotation

By LEV FACHER

Managing Editor

The 
Michigan 
men’s 

basketball 
team 
has 
been 

scheduled to appear in the 2015 
Battle 4 Atlantis for almost a 
year, but this week, its travel 
schedule seems to be a perfect 
response to the weather. 

The 
Wolverines 
left 
for 

the 
eight-team 
tournament, 

hosted by the Atlantis Paradise 
Resort off the shores of Nassau, 
Bahamas, on Monday evening — 
barely 48 hours after Saturday’s 
record-setting 
snowstorm 
in 

Ann Arbor.

While Ann Arbor is currently 

almost 50 degrees colder than 
the Bahamian beaches, Michigan 
coach John Beilein said he 
doesn’t expect the trip to prove 
distracting.

“We’ll keep (the players) pretty 

busy,” Beilein said. “Hopefully, 
we don’t have anybody coming 
back with tans. … It’s the fans 
that get to have some break time 
before the winter hits. It won’t 
be us.” 

The Wolverines can’t afford 

break 
time, 
anyway. 
Their 

86-70 loss to Xavier at Crisler 
Center on Friday highlighted 
the team’s question areas, like 
their ability to defend against 
a physical post presence, or 
run an offense heavily reliant 
on ball-screen action around 
the perimeter against a larger, 
more 
experienced 
defensive 

backcourt.

Michigan 
fans 
will 
see 

changes 
come 
Wednesday’s 

first-round matchup against No. 
18 Connecticut, but Beilein is 
keeping them close to the vest.

After Friday’s loss, Beilein 

indicated 
that 
junior 
Mark 

Donnal’s status as the starting 
center would depend on his 
performance, and that of other 
big men, over the course of 
the next few practices. Beilein 
acknowledged there will be 
changes to the starting lineup but 
wouldn’t say at which positions.

“I do know where they’ll be,” 

Beilein told reporters Monday. 
“You just don’t know.”

Beilein said he’ll continue his 

quest to trim his team’s rotation 
from 12 closer to eight over the 
course of the tournament.

That process, however, is 

complicated by senior guard 
Spike Albrecht’s extended rehab 
process from the same surgery 
former forward Max Bielfeldt 
underwent prior to the 2014-
15 season. Given the program’s 
experience with the procedure, 
Beilein 
said 
the 
recovery 

process was initially expected 
to be similar, but listed two main 
differences.

For one, Albrecht had the 

surgery on both hips, while 
Bielfeldt only needed it on 
one. Meanwhile, the nature of 
Albrecht’s position as a perimeter 
player makes the procedures 
more difficult to recover from, 
as his role requires more overall 
movement.

Working Albrecht back into 

a rotation presents a challenge 
for a roster that currently has a 
multitude of players with a foot 
in and a foot out of the regular 
rotation, like freshman forward 
Moritz Wagner and sophomore 
guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur-
Rahkman. Several other players’ 
roles remain undefined, like 
sophomore forward Kameron 
Chatman, 
redshirt 
freshman 

forward D.J. Wilson and redshirt 
sophomore 
guard 
Duncan 

Robinson.

The experiment of playing 

12 players in a given contest is 
unsustainable, Beilein said. All 
the same, the Wolverines are set 
to play three high-profile games 
in a 48-hour window, and depth 
can only serve as an asset.

The 
Michigan-Connecticut 

matchup begins at 9:30 p.m. 
on Wednesday. With a win, 
the 
Wolverines 
would 
play 

the winner of the Charlotte-
Syracuse game in a second-
round matchup at 3:30 on 
Thanksgiving 
Day. 
With 
a 

loss, Michigan would play that 
game’s loser at 9:30 p.m.

Michigan’s Thanksgiving report 
card: Offense remains strength

By JUSTIN MEYER

Daily Sports Writer

Campus was emptying on 

Monday 
as 
students 
skipped 

out early for the holiday. But 
Michigan hockey assistant coach 
Brian Wiseman’s voice echoed 
throughout practice at Yost Ice 
Arena, his presence as evident as 
ever.

“Come on — harder!” Wiseman 

said. “We’re going to play hard.”

The college hockey season can 

be a grueling affair: 25 weeks of 
non-stop practice and travel to 
hostile barns in various frozen 
parts of the country each weekend. 
Even coming off a tough series 
against No. 10 Boston University, 
any letdown is unacceptable.

The Wolverines set out to 

capitalize on a weak schedule 
early this season. Their progress 
toward that goal has been the 
subject of much debate.

An upcoming series against 

Dartmouth marks the end of the 
first third of Michigan’s (6-2-1) 
regular season. The Daily grades 
the Wolverines’ performance so 
far.

Offense: A-minus

The obvious bright spot before 

a single practice commenced 
this season was that Michigan’s 
offense is a juggernaut that can 
hang with the best in the country. 
Early this season, the production 
has been driven by a plethora of 
young talent.

The Wolverines are led in 

scoring by breakout freshman 
forward Cooper Marody, who has 
tallied six goals and five assists. 
At 1.22 points per game, Marody 
ranks third among all Division I 
freshmen.

The top three point-getters 

for the team, Marody and fellow 
forwards 
Kyle 
Connor 
and 

Brendan Warren, are all freshmen.

Some of this performance is 

due to the quality talent Michigan 
brought in this offseason, but a 
greater part is attributable to the 
Wolverines’ depth.

Michigan is the fifth-ranked 

scoring offense, and 12 different 
players have found the back of 
the net this season. The stats 
Marody and Warren record are 
both significantly inflated by 
playing for the third line, and 
consequently 
against 
inferior 

competition.

JT Compher, a junior, continues 

to be a sparkplug. The captain 
opens games at a breakneck 
pace and has helped the top line 
generate 13 goals.

Junior Boo Nieves has elevated 

his game as well. Nieves centers 
one of the best possession lines in 
the NCAA, flanked by Connor and 
senior Justin Selman.

The result is that any line is a 

threat to score.

For the forwards, the biggest 

misstep of the season came in a 
4-0 loss to Robert Morris. The 
Wolverines came out sluggish and 
looked hesitant in the offensive 
zone.

That 

anomaly 
aside, 
though, 

Michigan 
consistently 
crashes 
the 

net hard and 
moves the puck 
with 
fantastic 

efficiency. Few teams in the 
country have a chance at shutting 
down this high-powered unit.

Defense: B-minus

There is good news for the 

Wolverines: The defensive unit 
looks improved. The bad news is 
that it still has a long way to go.

Through 
nine 
games, 
the 

defensemen 
have 
learned 
to 

comfortably protect the puck and 
break out fluidly. But some areas 
have improved at a crawling pace. 
Clearing rebounds and moving 
the puck in the defensive end 
remain points of focus in practice. 
Turnovers in the offensive end 
have led to a few bad odd-man 
rushes.

There are marginal statistical 

improvements 
as 
well 
as 

intangible additions. This season’s 
unit is allowing 3.1 goals per 
game. At this time last year, the 
Wolverines were allowing 3.3.

Michigan also added quite 

a bit of speed and finesse with 
freshmen Nicholas Boka and 
Joseph Cecconi. Both are NHL 
Draft picks and have played 
significant minutes this year.

Overall, Michigan has to be 

happy with the progress.

Sophomore 
standout 
Zach 

Werenski has looked tremendous 
at times and a bit overwhelmed 
at others. The 18-year-old is still 
a bright spot, though, adding a 
scoring threat to the defense.

As a team, the Wolverines are 

allowing opponents to convert 
far too high a percentage of shots. 
Part of this problem stems from 
a lack of physicality. Michigan 
ranks 55th out of 60 NCAA teams 
in penalty minutes this season.

The best defensive games so 

far came in a 5-2 win against 

Rensselaer 
Polytechnic 
and 
a 
4-2 

win Saturday 
at 
Boston 

University. 
Both 
times, 

an 
energetic 

Wolverine 

squad smothered chances and 
cleaned up in the front of the net.

This defensive unit won’t rank 

as one of the best in the NCAA, 
but it is on track to finish ahead of 
last season.

Goalie: C

Michigan’s 
goalies 
haven’t 

quite slept through games this 
season, but it’s been easy at times 
to forget they are there at all.

Senior 
Steve 
Racine 
has 

emerged to take the starting 
job in the last three games after 
a deflating battle with junior 
Zach Nagelvoort. Neither goalie 
handled the competition with 
consistency, displaying flashes 
of brilliance and long periods of 
sloppy play.

Racine and Nagelvoort rank 

59th and 73rd, respectively, in 
save percentage among eligible 
goalies 
this 
season. 
That’s 

inexcusable, but the C rating is 
justified because the play is not as 
bad as the numbers suggest.

Subpar defending has hurt 

both Racine and Nagelvoort. 
Sharp 
defenders 
can 
easily 

mask a goaltender’s deficiencies, 
while poor play often leaves the 
netminder shouldering all the 
blame.

Racine made several show-

stopping saves over the weekend, 
but posted just a .893 save 
percentage in the series. The 
senior is lighting quick out of his 
butterfly, and can move post to 
post well. At times, though, his 
focus seems to wane.

Make 
no 
mistake: 
The 

improvement in net over the last 
month has been marked. Still, it’s 
hard to imagine Michigan relying 
on its goalies to win a tight game 
this weekend. There is a sense of 
optimism that goaltending is on 
the upswing, but the evidence has 
yet to arrive.

***

The non-conference schedule 

has been a rollercoaster for 
the Wolverines. At times they 
have showed talent, resilience 
and desperation; some games 
would be better described by 
complacency. 
The 
question 

remaining is whether the team is 
complete enough to be great.

“I didn’t know where we would 

be (at this point),” said Michigan 
coach Red Berenson. “I knew 
we didn’t have a tough schedule 
and that we would have to take 
advantage of that. You might have 
a good win-loss record and not be 
the real deal. I think our team is 
the real deal.”

Michigan 
hosts 
Dartmouth 

on 
Friday 
and 
Saturday 

before starting Big Ten play. 
The Wolverines appear to be 
tentatively passing the eye test at 
the early-season break. They’ll 
have to do much more by the time 
March rolls around.

“I think our team 
is the real deal.”

