4B — January 17, 2017
SportsTuesday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Michigan finds new physicality,
claims victory against Nebraska

After an 85-69 blowout loss

to Illinois, the Michigan men’s
basketball team left Champaign
battered, bruised and with what
now appears to have been a wake-
up call. The Wolverines were
bullied inside the paint by the
Fighting Illini’s duo of forwards,
Maverick Morgan and Kipper
Nichols — who scored 16 and 13
points, respectively.

Fueled by a dig from Morgan

calling them a “white-collar team”
and by a team meeting called by
senior guard Derrick Walton Jr.,
the Wolverines (2-3 Big Ten, 12-6
overall) responded emphatically
in their next game
against Nebraska
(3-2,
9-8)
on

Saturday.

Led by its own

duo in sophomore
Moritz
Wagner

and senior Zak
Irvin
—
who

scored
23
and

21
points
and

notched six and
five
rebounds,

respectively — Michigan took
its physicality to a new level and
pulled out a 91-85 victory over the
Cornhuskers.

“We just weren’t happy with

the way we were playing,” Irvin
said. “... Just being able to hit the
reset button. This game was the
beginning of a new season, and
that’s what we wanted to key on,
and we were able to do that.”

Irvin set the tone for the

afternoon on the Wolverines’ very
first possession, bursting into the
paint and laying it off the glass to
open the scoring. He went back
to the basket time and time again
throughout the game, forcing his
way into the middle and heading
to the rim without hesitation.

His first 10 points came off

layups, and his fearless attitude
opened up space on the outside
for the Wolverines to exploit. On
Michigan’s second trip up the
court, he put on the same move
that earned him his opening
layup. But with the defense in
ready position, he swung the
ball out to an open Wagner on
the perimeter instead. Wagner
gladly repaid him, nailing the
straightaway 3-pointer.

All seven of Irvin’s assists

on the day led to 3-pointers — a
career-high four for Wagner, two
for Walton and one for redshirt
sophomore DJ Wilson.

“Just trying to be able to make

plays for myself downhill or for
others, and really just trying to get

to the free-throw
line as well,” Irvin
said. “Get some
easy points, get
into a rhythm and
then that can set
up for an array of
other things.”

Left

completely
unmarked
later

in the first half,
Wagner
didn’t

settle for another 3-pointer. He
drove to the hoop through an
open lane and threw down a one-
handed slam with the full force of
his 6-foot-11 frame.

Wagner cut straight to the rim

again with a minute left in the
stanza, but his defender knocked
him to the ground to prevent
another highlight slam. Instead, he
went to the foul line and sunk both
attempts. He had four made free
throws in the frame and would
add three more in the second, as
nearly a third of his career-high
point total came from the charity
stripe.

“We have just emphasized,

‘Get two feet in the paint,’ ” said
Michigan coach John Beilein. “…
We’re trying to get guys to drive

through that first bump, and they
did it better a couple times today.”

The Wolverines, as a whole,

benefited considerably from their
trips to the free-throw line. They
finished the first half 7-for-7 and
the second 19-for-23 — 10 of which
came from Irvin and Walton down
the stretch while the Cornhuskers
desperately attempted to launch a
comeback.

Leading up to those free throws

that closed out the game, Irvin and
Wagner teamed up one more time
to put the nail in Nebraska’s coffin.
The pair executed a pick-and-roll,
and instead of feeding Wagner,
Irvin kept the ball and finished it
off himself, laying it up once more

to give Michigan a six-point lead it
wouldn’t give up.

“We gotta be able to fight

through adversity,” Irvin said.
“We’re in a tough stretch right
now, starting off 1-3, but being able
to get a win against Nebraska is a
step in the right direction. … This
is when we find out what teams
are made of and what we’re made
of, and for us to be able to bounce
back like this is huge.”

With the way the first two

weeks of their conference season
had gone, Irvin and Wagner
understood the stakes, and the
Cornhuskers simply couldn’t stop
them from exerting their will on
the game.

EVAN AARON/Daily

Sophomore forward Moritz Wagner scored a career-high 23 points Saturday.

BETELHEM ASHAME

Managing Sports Editor

MEN’S BASKETBALL
Wolverines motivated
by “white-collar” dig

After Wednesday’s loss at

Illinois, Fighting Illini center
Maverick Morgan said something
that ticked off the Michigan men’s
basketball team.

“They’re more of a white-collar

team, traditionally,” Morgan said.
“At Illinois we’re about toughness
and together, not that they’re not.
But we kind of pride ourselves
on defense, and that’s something
we’ve worked hard on.”

The “white-collar” comment

from Morgan didn’t sit well with
any of the Wolverines, and they
took it personally.

“The white-collar comment

that was made, we didn’t take that
lightly,” said senior guard Derrick
Walton Jr. after Michigan’s win
against Nebraska on Saturday.
“So when we heard that, it was
basically attacking us personally.
The white-collar comment that
was made by an Illinois player
really ticked this team off.”

Added
junior
guard

Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman
on Friday: “It doesn’t feel good.
I’ve never seen myself as a white-
collar player or anything like that,
so I especially don’t like that.”

After a lackluster performance

against
Illinois,
in
which

Michigan’s
defense
allowed

the Fighting Illini to shoot 64.2
percent, the Wolverines needed
to respond Saturday against the
Cornhuskers.

In the “white-collar” comment

from Morgan, they found their
spark.

Back home at Crisler Center,

Michigan
was
aggressive

attacking the rim, which was
evident in the second half, when
they went into the bonus with
over nine and a half minutes left to
play as they beat the Cornhuskers,
91-85.

“It’s motivation, certainly, for

them,” said Michigan coach John

Beilein after Saturday’s game.
“I’ve talked about the edge. We do
not have a bunch of white-collar
kids. We have kids that are tough,
hungry and trying to get better
everyday.”

Sophomore forward Moritz

Wagner gave the Wolverines a big
size advantage inside, and they
attacked the paint early. Wagner
was able to exploit the size
advantage, scoring a career-high
23 points.

But by the end of the game, it

was Walton and senior guard Zak
Irvin who took over for Michigan.
The duo attacked the basket,
creating opportunities and open
shots that allowed the Wolverines
to stay ahead of Nebraska, despite
the Cornhuskers shooting almost
60 percent in the second half.

“Tonight, we wanted to be

more aggressive going to the
basket and showing that we’re a
group out there,” Walton said.

Now at 2-3 in the Big Ten,

Michigan finds itself at a pivotal
point in its schedule. With road
games at No. 18 Wisconsin and
Michigan State and a home
matchup against Indiana, the
Wolverines are hitting a tough
portion of their schedule.

The win over Nebraska on

Saturday
afternoon
wasn’t

perfect. The Wolverines’ defense
still gave up 85 points and 1.232
points per possession. But it was a
win, and wherever Michigan can
find motivation is good for a team
that Beilein has said “an edge”
doesn’t comes naturally to.

Come
next
Saturday,
the

Wolverines
won’t
have
any

problem finding something to get
fired up about.

Michigan will take on Illinois

once again in Ann Arbor, and
there will be no shortage of
motivation.

“We’ll have our chance to play

them again,” Abdur-Rakhman
said. “I don’t think it will be the
same.”

MINH DOAN

Daily Sports Editor

‘M’ downs Minnesota
with balanced offense

Since the start of Big Ten

play, the Michigan women’s
basketball
team
(4-1
Big

Ten, 15-4 overall) has begun
to solidify its identity as a
collection
of
highly-skilled

scorers, and that has never been
more obvious than during its
84-69 win against Minnesota
on Sunday.

While the Golden Gophers

(1-4, 10-8) were led by guard
Carlie Wagner, who tallied 38
of their 69 points, it was hard
to
notice
her
performance

at
times.
Four
Wolverines

— sophomore center Hallie
Thome, junior guard Katelynn
Flaherty, freshman guard Kysre
Gondrezick and senior guard
Siera Thompson — captured all
the attention with double-digit
performances of their own.

Just 14 seconds after tip-off,

Thome started off the game
with a layup, and she added six
more points down low in the
first quarter alone. Capitalizing
on her size advantage in the
paint, Thome set the tone for
her eventual 20-point game.

Her
interior
dominance

didn’t
just
help
Michigan

on offense, though. Thome
notched 17 total rebounds to set
a new career high, and earn her
second straight double-double
as well.

“She’s very much improved

on her rebounding game, which
I think helps us a lot,” Flaherty
said. “Because it lets (the other
team) not go and transition,
and it gives us second chance
opportunities. I’m very proud
of her.”

Flaherty had an impressive

showing as usual, knocking
down four 3-pointers on seven
attempts in the first half to
widen the Wolverines’ lead to
25 by halftime. Flaherty ended
up leading the team in scoring
— finishing with 22 points —
after bypassing Thome’s tally
with to back-to-back 3-pointers
midway through the fourth

quarter.

While
Flaherty
and

Thome were trading baskets,
Gondrezick was putting on a
show herself. She racked up
17 points, with three assists
and three boards to boot. In
the third quarter, especially, it
looked as though Gondrezick
might
overtake
her
older

teammates’ point totals, as she
scored six points and showed no
signs of slowing down.

“I think it’s just fun to have

that many people that can
score,” Flaherty said. “I think
that’s really helped our team a
lot. Kysre being added into the
mix, someone who can score
twenty points a game, that
really relieves the pressure on
us guards and Hallie as well.”

Not
to
be
overlooked,

Thompson tallied 12 points
on 4-for-8 shooting, with four
rebounds and seven assists as
well. A product of her relentless
tenacity all over the court,
Thompson also earned four
personal fouls, but she kept
herself in the game with smart
decisions on defense.

“I feel really comfortable

today
with
my
shot
and

attacking
the
basket,”

Thompson
said.
“My
game

plan was to attack them and
make
them
uncomfortable

defensively, and I think we did
that.”

For the second consecutive

game,
this
quartet
of

Wolverines reached double-
digit scoring totals, and with a
15-point win as the result, it is
clear that any team that boasts
scorers with the same level
of productivity as Michigan
should make opposing teams
feel uneasy.

“I think we just have great

balance,”
said
Michigan

coach Kim Barnes Arico. “We
always talked about it from
the beginning of this season.
The strength of our team is the
balance of our team. I thought
tonight they all clicked together
at times, which was really great
to see.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MAGGIE KOLCON

Daily Sports Writer

Michigan remains undefeated at home

The Wolverines’ undefeated

streak at Crisler Center this season
is still intact.

The perfect mark at home is

something
Michigan
women’s

basketball coach Kim Barnes
Arico was clearly excited about.

“Woo-hoo,”
Barnes
Arico

exclaimed with a smile on her face.
“We love playing here, we love
playing at home. We’re proud. Our
fan base has increased through
the years. Our job is to protect the
block ‘M’, that’s our responsibility.
We want to get as many wins as we
can at home, it definitely makes a
difference.”

On Sunday, Michigan’s (4-1

Big Ten, 15-4 overall) latest
opportunity to defend Crisler
Center came against Minnesota
(1-4, 10-8). It marked this season’s
only matchup between the two,
and the Wolverines claimed their
victory handily, defeating the
Golden Gophers, 84-69.

Hallie Thome and Katelynn

Flaherty acted as Michigan’s

dynamic duo. The sophomore
center
and
junior
guard,

respectively, each put up eight
points by the end of the first
quarter, helping the Wolverines
earn an early 25-16 lead.

Though Michigan was only

narrowly ahead of Minnesota
halfway through the first quarter,
the Wolverines began to widen the
gap with the help of junior guard
Jillian Dunston and senior guard
Siera Thompson, who had two and
three assists, respectively.

Freshman
guard
Kysre

Gondrezick also helped to build
the lead, as she wasn’t far behind
Thome and Flaherty with five
points at the end of the first
quarter.

Roughly four minutes into the

second quarter, the Wolverines
finally broke the game open.
Flaherty hit her third 3-pointer of
the game, kickstarting a 12-point
run
that
forced
the
Golden

Gophers to call a timeout.

By the end of the half, Michigan

led by 25 points. Minnesota, on the
other hand, had been held to just
six points in the second quarter

and notched just 22 total points
by halftime. The Wolverines’ lead
proved too difficult to overcome, as
the Golden Gophers trailed by 20
or more points for the remainder
of the game.

Despite
getting
into
foul

trouble, Thompson still managed
to post 12 points and seven assists.

“(Foul trouble) is something

I try hard not to get frustrated
with,” Thompson said. “It’s hard
not to. Just feeling out the refs and
figuring out how aggressive I can
play, I have to adjust. That was my
fault, figuring out how aggressive I
need to be on defense.”

With
Thompson
playing

limited minutes, Flaherty and
Thome continued to strike as
a pair, finishing with 14 and 16
points each in the second and third
quarters, respectively.

Thome completed her fourth

double-double
of
the
season,

finishing with 20 points and 17
rebounds.

“She’s
playing
with
some

confidence,” Barnes Arico said.
“I think that’s really important.
… Her teammates, us coaches, we

just have such great confidence in
her game. She’s incredible, she has
the best hands of any post (player)
I’ve seen.

“I think we’re doing a better job

as a team of finding her and letting
her go to work because we believe
she can score against anyone
inside.”

By the end of the game, four

Wolverines — Flaherty, Thome,
Gondrezick and Thompson — had
hit double digits.

“I think we shared the ball really

well, which really, ultimately, led
to us scoring in double figures,”
Flaherty said. “In the first half we
only had three turnovers, which
is really our goal. … Today, we
really clicked on all cylinders. I
think if we can continue doing that
throughout the Big Ten season,
we’ll be really successful.”

As
expected,
Michigan’s

greatest competition came from
Minnesota guard Carlie Wagner,
who scored 38 of Golden Gophers’
69 points. But even Wagner’s
valiant effort wasn’t enough to
break the Wolverines’ perfect
record at home.

JEREMY MITNICK/Daily

Junior guard Katelynn Flaherty led the Wolverines with 22 points and led them to a victory against the Golden Gophers at Crisler Center on Sunday.

SYLVANNA GROSS

Daily Sports Editor

We gotta be
able to fight

through
adversity