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.