Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, January 29, 2016 — 7

Top line shines as ‘M’ cruises past Penn State

By JUSTIN MEYER

Daily Sports Writer

STATE COLLEGE — Just

outside the closing minute of the
first period, Michigan senior
goaltender
Steve Racine
lay
in
the

crease with
his face buried in the ice as the
crowd roared.

Off to a shaky start, Racine

had just conceded a cringe-
worthy goal to No. 15 Penn State
on a shot from outside the blue
line.

A fan held a sign up to the

glass reading: “It’s all your
fault!”

And it was Racine’s fault. He

had hit the puck with his glove,
missing an easy save, only to see
it drop behind him into the net
to make the score 2-2.

But the goalie stayed there

for only a second before picking
himself up off the ice. And,
eventually,
the
sixth-ranked

Wolverines picked themselves
up, too, besting the Nittany
Lions, 7-4.

“That was a good test for

our goalie and our team — not
to let that goal upset us,” said
Michigan coach Red Berenson.
“We didn’t.”

For the hockey purist, the

first period was one to forget.
But boy, was it exciting.

Michigan (6-1-2 Big Ten, 15-3-

4 overall) opened the scoring
amid confusion. Junior forward
Tyler Motte put away a puck
that fluttered high above the ice
and fell almost directly to his
stick in front of the left post.

Penn State’s Chase Berger

countered by working through
traffic to beat Racine to a
rebound.

Then,
it
was
sophomore

forward Niko Porikos scoring
form the high slot with his first
career goal on an assist from his

linemate, junior forward Evan
Allen. Those two had played
a combined 19 of a possible
44 games this year going into
Thursday.

The

pandemonium
was capped off
in Michigan’s
defensive end
with Racine’s
error. A long
shot
hit
the

goalie square
in the chest
and bounced.
The
senior

knocked the rebound with his
glove and watched, helplessly,
as the puck lazily drooped
backward over his head and into

the net. Not a single Penn State
player was in the offensive zone.

It was a wild way to open

the game, but that might have

been expected
given
the

recent history
between
the

two teams. The
Wolverines
have
been

frustrated
by

the
Nittany

Lions
over

the past two
seasons
—

Penn
State

eliminated Michigan from the
Big Ten Tournament in 2014 and
the Wolverines dropped three of
four regular season matchups to

the Nittany Lions in 2015.

The combination of similar

styles and impressive speed
made for a jolting contest in
which momentum was nearly
impossible to find.

“(Penn State has) earned

a lot of respect from the Big
Ten
conference,”
Berenson

said. “Particularly with us, the
way they’ve handled us. We
had to have an A-game ready,
otherwise it wouldn’t be good
enough.”

Michigan
was
closest
to

establishing
control
in
the

second period. Freshman Kyle
Connor
and
juniors
Tyler

Motte and JT Compher have
easily outscored any other line
in college hockey this month.

That trend continued with a
string of three goals when the
Wolverines’ electric first line
put Penn State in a 5-3 hole.

“It can be any line, as we’ve

seen from the beginning of the
year, with Cooper Marody’s line
really getting off to a hot start,”
Motte said. “I guess it’s our turn
now.”

Connor, alone, has 20 goals

in
22
games
this
season.

Continuing
his
streak,
the

19-year-old had two goals and
two assists on Thursday night.
He opened the scoring by
finishing a breakaway gifted by
a diving play from Motte.

Connor later found Compher

alone in front with a perfect
backhand pass and capped off

the period by batting a rebound
out of the air.

Penn State (6-3-0, 16-6-3)

finally got going again with just
over three minutes to play in the
period on a goal from Tommy
Olczyk — but it wasn’t nearly
enough.

The third period got off to

an odd start when Michigan’s
coaches were absent for the
puck drop.

“This
building
wasn’t

designed for the visiting coaches
to get to the bench,” Berenson
said. “You have to walk down
this hall and it seems like you
go around campus to get to the
visitor’s bench. So we didn’t
leave on time. We missed the
first shift. The players were all
laughing about it on the bench.

“I’m
not
sure
who
was

coaching.”

Neutral zone play opened

up in the third and the Nittany
Lions threatened throughout
the
final
period.
Michigan

answered the challenge, though,
tightening up defensively and
adding a pair of goals.

Penn State didn’t help itself

in the third period either,
conceding a long 5-on-3 power
play for the Wolverines. A late
goal simply wasn’t enough to
climb out of the growing deficit.

It wasn’t always pretty, but

Michigan played a resilient
60
minutes
of
hockey
in

State College. And they were
victorious, despite the dejected
Racine lying on the ice at the
end of the first. It just wasn’t
the same old story of the
Nittany Lions frustrating the
Wolverines.

Michigan and Penn State will

meet again Saturday night at
Madison Square Garden in New
York, part of a doubleheader
with
the
Wolverines’
and

Nittany Lion’s basketball teams.

Hopefully, next time, the

coaches can get to the bench.

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Freshman forward Kyle Connor has scored 20 goals in 22 games this season, including two against Penn State on Thursday at Pegula Ice Arena.

MICHIGAN
PENN STATE

7
4

“(Penn State) has

earned a lot of
respect from the

Big Ten.”

Dawkins blends style and practicality

By LEV FACHER

Daily Sports Writer

Thirty minutes before the

start of any Michigan men’s
basketball game, all eyes are on
Aubrey Dawkins.

As the Wolverines huddle at

center court for a final check-in,
the sophomore guard emerges
from
the
pack
carrying
a

basketball and a grin. His task
is simple: provide Michigan, and
any fans already in their seats,
with a healthy dose of pregame
energy before the team jogs
through Crisler Center’s south
tunnel en route to the locker
room.

Dawkins gets it done with a

dunk.

Some days, it’s a 360-degree

spin
leading
into
a
two-

handed slam. Others, it’s a left-
hand finish off an alley-oop
Dawkins throws himself off
the backboard. Sometimes, a
teammate throws him the lob,
and occassionally, it’s as simple
as a soaring, right-handed spike
off a jump Dawkins starts from a
distance that seems impossible.

As it happened Wednesday,

the soaring right-handed spike
did prove impossible during
the second half of Michigan’s
68-57 victory over Rutgers. Had
Dawkins converted, he would
have found himself the star
of SportsCenter. Instead, the
missed dunk became an emblem
for a flat, uninteresting game
that saw the Wolverines struggle
to put away a team still winless
in eight tries against Big Ten
opponents.

Dawkins
described
the

attempt as “Blake Griffin-esque”
after the game and said he “most
definitely” would be admonished
down the line by Michigan coach
John Beilein.

“He
has
to
understand:

You’ve got to be good before
you’re great,” Beilein said in
his postgame press conference.
“You can’t skip steps. I think he
understands that. … We had the
same thing with Glenn Robinson
(III), who had a lot of ‘my bads’
when he tried to dunk it with
one hand — and Mitch McGary.”


The comparison to Robinson,

who left for the NBA Draft

after the 2013-14 season, was
more apt than perhaps even
Beilein realized. Robinson was
Dawkins’ predecessor as the
performer of the pregame dunk,
but it’s a ritual that, bizarrely,
Michigan coaches never witness
live.

Beilein, along with assistants

Bacari Alexander and LaVall
Jordan, haven’t yet emerged
from the locker room when dunk
time rolls around. Beilein’s third
assistant, Jeff Meyer, supervises
warmups, but he returns to the
locker room before the players
and isn’t there to watch the final
minutes.

“I’ve never seen it,” Meyer

said before Wednesday’s game.
“I leave when the clock reads 36
minutes (before tipoff).”

The dunk takes place closer to

the 32-minute mark, and it might
be better that way. Dawkins, who
lost his starting spot early in the
season, displays as much raw
basketball talent as any of his
teammates. At points throughout
his two years at Michigan,
however, his athleticism has
seemed to translate to the type
of ostentatiousness on display

Wednesday. The lesson, Beilein
said, is obvious.

“Go up and dunk it with two

(hands),” Beilein said. “It’ll still
make the highlight reel. Just go
up, but get it with two hands.”

Dawkins,
for
his
part,

understands his limitations. The
miss Wednesday was more a
miscalculation than an attempt
at posterization, Dawkins said
— he jumped from seven feet
away because he expected to
draw contact once the Rutgers
defender met him in the air.

With no red jerseys nearby,

Dawkins instead found himself
hurtling through open space,
with a desperation attempt at
essentially throwing the ball
through the rim his only hope of
converting on the place.

Dawkins,
speaking
to

reporters on Tuesday, said he
doesn’t have a go-to dunk and
unknowingly
foreshadowed

Wednesday’s miss.

“There’s only so many dunks

you can really do,” he said.
“Especially ones you can make
consistently.”

Modest as he is, Dawkins’

arsenal is hardly limited. Given

his athleticism and the dunking
ability he possessed as a true
freshman, there was never much
doubt as to who might replace
Robinson.

“Usually the most athletic

guy does it,” said junior guard
Derrick Walton Jr. on Tuesday.
“It was kind of obvious that once
that time of warmups comes,
everybody would pretty much
back up and let (Dawkins) do
what he does.”

Junior forward Zak Irvin

said Tuesday that Dawkins is
the Wolverines’ best jumper,
echoing Walton’s recollection
that Dawkins became the natural
choice to succeed Robinson as
soon as he arrived on campus.

The vast majority of the

time,
the
abilities
Dawkins

displays in warm-ups and in
practice translate seamlessly to
his in-game performance. The
mentality, of course, is different.
Dawkins gets a second chance
if he misses his pregame dunk.
He was afforded no such second
chance Wednesday.

Then again, there was no

need for second chances against
Rutgers.

Foul trouble hurts
‘M’ in loss at Iowa

By LELAND MITCHINSON

Daily Sports Writer

Foul trouble has been a

problem
for
the
Michigan

women’s basketball team the
entire
season, and
Thursday’s
game
against Iowa in Iowa City was
no exception.

The
Wolverines
received

a 31-point performance from
sophomore
guard
Katelynn

Flaherty — her fourth 30-point
game of the season — but it
wasn’t enough for Michigan to
overcome its foul trouble in the
post, as the Wolverines fell to
the Hawkeyes, 85-69.

The sophomore guard shot

5-of-6 from 3-point range on
her way to 24 points in the first
half.

Michigan only trailed by

one at the break, but it was all
downhill from there.

“We were up, I think our

confidence was good, I think
we were getting in transition,”
said
Michigan
coach
Kim

Barnes Arico in an interview
with MGoBlue.com. “Katelynn
was really shooting the ball
exceptionally well, and then we
had a bunch of fouls where we
might have been up 10 at one
point, and then they started
making their foul shots and
they cut the gap.”

Michigan was in foul trouble

early, specifically in the post,
as
senior
forward
Kelsey

Mitchell and freshman center
Hallie
Thome
committed

three and two first-half fouls,
respectively.

The
team’s
foul
trouble

pushed Iowa into the bonus
with 2:36 left in the first half,
sparking a 13-4 run to end the
opening stanza, with five of
those points coming from the
charity stripe.

Michigan started the second

half cold, missing its first five
shots as Iowa extended its lead
to 10 with 4:36 to go in the third

quarter.

Thome quickly committed

her third foul less than three
minutes
into
the
second

half, further adding to the
Wolverines’ trouble in the post,
as she headed to the bench yet
again.

With Thome taking another

seat,
Iowa
forwards
Chase

Coley and Megan Gustafson
took advantage of the foul
trouble inside, as both players
posted double-doubles in points
and rebounds.

“Defensively we did a decent

job on them in the first half,”
Barnes Arico said. “But in the
first half they made seven 3s,
so (in the second half) they
weren’t making as many 3s,
they were really trying to attack
inside, and that’s been an area
of struggle for us all year.”

With two starters looking

to avoid fouling out, Michigan
needed to get production from
other sources.

But the team did not receive

much support from its bench
in the loss. The Iowa reserves
outscored
the
Wolverines’

bench, 33-6, and even though
four
Michigan
starters

made it to double digits, it
wasn’t enough to counter the
Hawkeyes’ advantage off the
bench.

A crucial part of Michigan’s

downfall was Iowa’s 84-percent
shooting from the free-throw
line, as the Hawkeyes took full
advantage of Michigan’s 23
total fouls.

Though
the
Wolverines

were able to cut the deficit to
six in the final minutes, Iowa
imposed its will on the game
and pushed its lead to 16, the
Hawkeyes’ eventual margin of
victory.

“Losing is never fun, and

it’s never easy for anyone and
I just think that it’s a process,”
Barnes Arico said. “Instead of
looking at the wins and losses,
a lot of times we’ve just got to
look at ‘OK, let’s be better next
game.’ ”

LUNAANNA ARCHEY/Daily

Sophomore guard Aubrey Dawkins has displayed remarkable athleticism in his first two seasons at Michigan.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MICHIGAN
IOWA

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