6A — Thursday, January 21, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Another tough home test 
lies ahead for Wolverines

By TED JANES 

Daily Sports Writer

Two players by the name of 

Kelsey Mitchell will step onto the 
Crisler Center court Thursday 
evening — one 
of 
them 
for 

Michigan, 
the 

other for Ohio 
State. 
One 
of 

them 
recently 

notched 
personal highs 
for 
her 
first 

career 
double-

double, and the 
other is second 
in 
the 
entire 

country, 
and 

first in the Big 
Ten, in scoring.

Michigan 
senior 
forward 

Kelsey Mitchell and Ohio State 
sophomore guard Kelsey Mitchell 
will meet for the first time in their 
careers Thursday night, when the 
Michigan women’s basketball team 
(3-3 Big Ten, 11-6 overall) hosts the 
seventh-ranked Buckeyes.

Mitchell, 
the 
Buckeye, 
is 

averaging 25.3 points, 2.7 rebounds 
and 2.1 steals. Last year, she led the 
nation in scoring and helped Ohio 
State reach the Sweet 16.

“Ohio 
State 
has 
everyone 

returning from a great season 
last year,” said Michigan coach 
Kim Barnes Arico in her weekly 
interview with WTKA. “(Ohio 
State’s Mitchell) is one of the top 
players in the nation. She’s just an 
incredible scorer.”

The Buckeyes (5-1, 13-4) don’t 

need to rely solely on Mitchell, 
though, as they have a solid, 
balanced attack force alongside 
her. Guard Ameryst Alston, who 
is averaging more than 18 points 
per game, and forward Alexa 
Hart (10.8 points per game, 6.7 
rebounds per game) have been 
making themselves heard as well.

Mitchell, the Wolverine, was 

injured last season for both games 
against Ohio State. Michigan split 
the season series, with both teams 
winning at home.

This year, the two teams meet 

only once in the regular season, 

which could help or hurt Michigan. 

Last week, Michigan nearly 

took down now-No. 5 Maryland, 
but fell behind late when Mitchell 
and 
freshman 
center 
Hallie 

Thome got into foul trouble.

Michigan added a loss to the 

record, but more importantly, it 
gave up the chance to snag a big win 
against a top-ranked opponent. 
The Wolverines have put up 
performances similar to that one 
earlier this season, nearly beating 
now-No. 20 UCLA, but they still 
lack a marquee win to boost their 
NCAA Tournament aspirations.

Just like the Maryland and 

UCLA 
matchups, 
Michigan’s 

opponent Thursday is the favorite, 
but a win would significantly aid 
the Wolverines’ resume.

With 
the 
way 
Michigan’s 

Mitchell has been playing lately, 
the Wolverines will have a fighting 
chance. Against Iowa in early 
January, she had 15 points and 11 
rebounds, both career highs.

“I don’t remember playing like 

this since high school,” Mitchell 
said after the game.

The 
senior 
forward 
has 

sustained multiple injuries over 
her four years at Michigan, and 
she barely saw any playing time 
until this year. At the beginning 
of the season, Barnes Arico 
praised her impressive preseason 
performances, and even felt like 
she might have a breakout season 
similar 
to 
former 
Wolverine 

forward Cyesha Goree.

Sunday, the Wolverines left 

Penn State with their first win in 
State College since 2001, thanks 
in part to a performance from 
Flaherty, who scored 23 points on 
5-for-10 shooting. 

However, the Nittany Lions are 

no Buckeyes.

“(Ohio State is) gonna be tough,” 

Barnes Arico said. “They’re off to a 
great season. They do the dribble 
drive. They try to draw fouls. They 
shoot the 3 exceptionally well. 
They’re gonna be another great test 
and great game for us at home.”

Ohio State 
at Michigan

Matchup: Ohio 
State 13-4; 
Michigan 11-6

When: 
Thursday 
6 P.M.

Where: Crisler 
Center

TV/Radio: 
BTN

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Michigan coach John Beilein’s team didn’t play its best basketball Wednesday, but pulled out a win over Minnesota.
‘M’ overcomes 
shooting woes

Wolverines fail 
to pull away from 
Minnesota, but 
hold on for win

By LEV FACHER

Daily Sports Writer

To kick off Wednesday’s 

halftime entertainment, two 
fans were given the opportunity 
to make a half-court shot and, 
in 
doing 

so, win a 
free Delta 
Airlines flight to a U.S. city of 
their choosing. Within seconds, 
as one feeble attempt after 
another failed to reach the free-
throw line, much less the rim, 
it became readily apparent that 
neither contestant was leaving 
the state of Michigan for free 
any time soon.

The duo’s only success was 

in impersonating the half it had 
just witnessed — a mistake-
riddled period that saw the 
Michigan 
men’s 
basketball 

team’s 15-point lead whittled to 
a 37-30 deficit by halftime.

Unlike 
the 
fans, 
the 

Wolverines (4-2 Big Ten, 14-5 
overall) figured it out in the end, 
denying the Golden Gophers 
(6-13, 0-7) their first Big Ten 
victory, 
74-69. 
Michigan 

appeared lucky to be playing a 
Big Ten bottom dweller, though, 
as it struggled in all aspects of 
the game.

Though 
the 
Wolverines 

turned the ball over just six 
times, their mistakes came 
mainly in their shot attempts, 
as even their elite shooters had 
little success finding twine.

It took some shaking and 

baking 
from 
junior 
guard 

Derrick Walton Jr. to get the job 
done. Walton saved possessions 
late in the shot clock numerous 

times with twisting, scooping 
baskets at the rim, finishing 
with 22 points.

“I tried to steal a little bit from 

the Stephen Curry package,” 
Walton said.

But even Walton struggled 

from the field, shooting just 
1-for-6 from 3-point range. As 
Minnesota kept the margin 
in 
single 
digits 
throughout 

the game, Walton’s 11-for-12 
free-throw shooting made the 
difference. The point guard’s 
performance 
from 
the 
line 

brought Beilein a sigh of relief, 
having minced no words with 
sophomore guard Muhammad-
Ali Abdur-Rahkman moments 
earlier before Abdur-Rahkman 
shot a one-and-one.

“I had tried to be positive 

with him and told him to make 
his damn foul shots in the 
huddle,” Beilein said. “So that 
really worked. He went out 
there and made them.”

Sharpshooting 
redshirt 

sophomore 
guard 
Duncan 

Robinson shot just 3-for-12 
from the field and missed an 
uncharacteristic seven times 
in 10 attempts from 3-point 
range. 
The 

Wolverines 
collectively 
shot 
23-for-

63, 
and 

the 
teams 

combined 
to 
shoot 

an 
anemic 

15-for-53 from 
3-point range.

“He 
got 

some really good looks,” Beilein 
said of Robinson’s seemingly 
flukish 
performance. 
“He 

practices so much. … He’s got 
to pick his pockets to practice. 
They tell me how many 3s he 
makes before the game — it’s like 
hundreds. I can assure you, and 
I was away recruiting, that on 
the day off (Monday), he found 

his in there, with obviously no 
instruction from us, and had 
some manager come, and made 
a couple hundred.” 

As strange as Robinson’s 

performance was, the first half’s 
final sequence, which entailed 
junior walk-on Andrew Dakich 
attempting a jump shot with his 
foot on the 3-point line, was odd 
as well. The shot rimmed out 
and into the hands of sophomore 
forward 
Ricky 
Doyle, 
who 

missed a point-blank attempt at 
the buzzer.

Another peculiar moment 

saw redshirt freshman forward 
D.J. Wilson miss a second-half 
dunk only to find the ball in 
his hands seconds later in the 
same spot. The ensuing missed 
layup might as well have been 
the theme of the night for 
Michigan, which didn’t put 
Minnesota 
away 
until 
the 

game’s final minutes.

Walton’s 3-pointer with just 

over six minutes remaining 
in the game gave Michigan a 
nine-point lead that it clung to 
as it the clock dwindled toward 
all zeroes.

The Wolverines showed an 

impressive 
ability 
to 

fight through 
Minnesota’s 
uncommon 
approach 
on 

guarding ball 
screens.

“They 

defended 
it 

differently 
than 

anybody’s defended all year 
long,” Beilein said, divulging 
only 
that 
the 
speed 
of 

Minnesota’s frontcourt players 
afforded the Golden Gophers 
extra flexibility in how they 
helped and switched.“We’ve 
just got to have a different 
strategy or be better at what 
we do.”

Irvin, Walton make 
difference in victory

By JACOB GASE

Daily Sports Editor

If 
the 
Michigan 
men’s 

basketball team’s upset of then-
No. 3 Maryland was a pretty 
performance — just the right mix 
of 3-point bombs, high-energy 
defense and timely shooting 
— 
Wednesday’s 
win 
over 

Minnesota at Crisler Center was 
downright ugly.

The Wolverines couldn’t rely 

on the 3, shooting just 29 percent 
from beyond the arc — 13 percent 
below their season average. Even 
their most prolific sharpshooter, 
redshirt sophomore guard Duncan 
Robinson, clanked multiple wide-
open attempts off the back of the 
rim in the first half and shot an 
abysmal 3-for-12 from the floor in 
the game.

And they certainly weren’t 

playing 
high-energy 
defense 

either, 
allowing 
the 
Golden 

Gophers — who remain winless 
in their seven Big Ten games — to 
close the first half on a 9-0 run 
and stay in the game well into the 
second half.

But luckily for Michigan, even 

when the rest of its offense seemed 
to be asleep — Minnesota outshot 
the Wolverines 42 percent to 37 
— its two on-court junior leaders, 
forward Zak Irvin and guard 
Derrick Walton Jr., came ready to 
play, and that was enough to allow 
Michigan to narrowly escape with 
a 74-69 victory.

On a night when his teammates 

shot a combined 15-for-46 and tied 
the rebounding battle with one of 
the worst rebounding teams in 
the conference, Irvin came out 
strong with 19 points and a team-
high 11 boards. Irvin didn’t make 
a basket in the last 17 minutes of 
the game, but he helped carry the 
Wolverines with 15 points in the 
first half.

“Guys need to step up,” Irvin 

said. “I had to go through that a bit 
last year with Derrick and (senior 
guard Caris LeVert) being out, 
so I’m used to it now. It’s a team 
game — all of us are just trying to 
do what we can.”

In the second half, it was 

Walton’s turn to take over. Like 
most of his teammates, Walton 
didn’t have a great shooting 
performance — he made just five 
of his 13 shots — but in the second 
half, he made 10 of 11 free throws 
and a big 3-pointer to help ice the 
game for the Wolverines.

“Derrick’s been playing with 

great poise, especially once we got 
into the Big Ten (season),” Irvin 
said. “He’s been able to be there 
when things are going tough for 
us. He was able to make some big 
shots tonight when we couldn’t 

really get the ball in the basket.”

And 
crucially, 
Walton’s 

performance at the line proved to 
be the difference for a team that 
hadn’t gotten into many free-
throw battles late in games — 
Beilein said the only true example 
of that this year was at North 
Carolina 
State 
in 
December, 

where LeVert sank eight of eight 
foul shots down the stretch to seal 
a victory.

The victory wasn’t especially 

pleasing to Beilein, the fans or 
the players, but in the end the 
Wolverines were still proud to say 
they had successfully closed out 
the game.

“It wasn’t a pretty win,” Irvin 

said, “but it was gritty. We had to 
do the things we don’t normally 
have to do — we had to fight.” 

MINNESOTA
MICHIGAN 

69
74

“I tried to steal 
a little bit from 

the Stephen 

Curry package.”

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Zak Irvin led Michigan with 19 points and 11 rebounds against Minnesota.

SINDU KILARU/Daily

Kelsey Mitchell faces another Kelsey Mitchell, Ohio State’s star, on Thursday.

