8A — Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

WRESTLING
‘M’ comes back to 
defeat Maryland 

Coming off a 31-7 loss to third-

ranked 
Iowa, 
the 

Michigan 
wrestling 
team bounced back Friday with 
a convincing 25-16 win against 
Maryland at Cliff Keen Arena, 
with the group winning seven 
out of 10 individual matchups.

“We talked all week about 

how we were approaching our 
matches, how we were going to 
compete, and I think for the most 
part, our guys competed hard 
for seven minutes tonight,” said 
Michigan coach Joe McFarland. 
“It was overall a really good team 
effort and it ended up showing in 
the final score.”

Michigan gained a wave of 

momentum early on, taking an 
11-0 lead with a trio of victories 
from juniors Myles Amine and 
Ernest Battaglia and freshman 
Jackson Striggow. However, the 
tide quickly shifted. Freshman 
Dan Perry was pinned in the 
heavyweight 
division, 
and 

freshman Austin Assad forfeited 
the 
125-pound 
match 
when 

he sat out due to injury. At the 
intermission, the Wolverines fell 
to an 11-12 disadvantage.

Coming out of the break, 

freshman Sal Profaci and senior 
Brian Murphy helped push the 
dual meet back in Michigan’s 
favor with a couple of close 
victories in the 141- and 157-
pound divisions, winning 8-4 
and 6-3, respectively.

Locked at a 4-4 tie after the 

first period, Profaci broke the 

draw in the final moments of the 
second period to take a 7-4 lead. 
The freshman added a final point 
in the last stanza.

“I knew if I wrestled my pace,” 

Profaci said. “I was going to be 
able to not only tire him, but just 
get in on his legs. Just giving up 
two takedowns, I knew I wasn’t 
out of it. … I just knew I could 
keep plugging away and tiring 
him out. There’s just more of an 
overall pace and just plugging 
away.

“Nothing 
fancy, 
nothing 

overthinking it. Just getting after 
it.”

Murphy also found himself in 

a closely-contested match, as he 
faced a 3-3 tie in the final period, 
but he went on to score three 
unanswered points to secure the 
win.

“(Murphy) stayed tough,” 

McFarland said. “He’s a solid 
wrestler. I thought he was 
in command of that match for 
the most part, even though 
the score was tight. (Murphy) 
ended up getting the takedown 
at the end, rode him out and put 
it away.”

Michigan held a 20-16 lead 

going into the final match. 
Serving as the team’s closer 
was redshirt freshman Logan 
Massa, who entered the contest 
as the nation’s second-ranked 
165-pound wrestler. He crushed 
any remaining chance of a 
Maryland comeback, winning 
by technical fall, 20-5.

The 
Wolverines 
showed 

promise with the bounce-back 
victory over the Terrapins, 
proving that they can remain 
unfazed even after the sting of 
a tough loss.

EFE EDEVBIE

For the Daily

MARYLAND 
MICHIGAN 

16
25

Koenig scores ten points too many

MADISON 
— 
Sophomore 

forward Moritz Wagner sat at a 
table in the bowels of the Kohl 
Center. He rested his head on his 
fist, looking off into the distance 
as a question was directed at 
his teammate, senior wing Zak 
Irvin.

Then his shoulders dropped, 

and his head fell to his chest. 
In the simplest sense, he looked 
like a man who had just had 
his heart broken. And in all 
likelihood, there isn’t a much 
better way to describe what he 
was feeling.

Because Tuesday night the 

Michigan 
men’s 
basketball 

team had its heart broken, and 
it has Wisconsin guard Bronson 
Koenig to blame for it.

There are a lot of “what ifs” that 

could come from both benches 
after Tuesday night’s matchup.

For 
Michigan, 
what 
if 

Wagner and redshirt sophomore 
forward DJ Wilson didn’t pick 
up their third and fourth fouls, 
respectively, within 43 seconds 
of each other and with 12 
minutes still left to play?

For Wisconsin, what if its 

own 
forward 
— 
sophomore 

Ethan Happ — had played more 
than just 12 minutes in the 
second half after getting into 
foul trouble himself?

Though those questions can 

never be answered, it’s fair to 
say with near certainty that if 
Koenig hadn’t done what senior 
leaders are meant to do when 
their team has its back against 
the wall, the Wolverines could 
be heading back to Ann Arbor 
with their best win of the season 
against the 17th-ranked Badgers.

Michigan had led by as much 

as eight before Koenig hit the 
first layup. But little did the 
Wolverines know that one layup 
could open Pandora’s box. The 
first came with 5:51 remaining 
in the game.

Thirty-five 
seconds 
later, 

Koenig took a ball in transition, 
beat his man off the dribble and 
overpowered Michigan to the 
rim for another lay in.

Then Wagner missed a three 

after a Wolverine timeout, and 
Koenig grabbed the rebound 
himself. This time, the Badgers 
used an elevator screen to let 
their senior guard run with 
the hot hand. Koenig obliged, 
pulling up three feet behind the 
arc and burying one from deep.

Then the Kohl Center woke 

up, so much so that senior guard 
Derrick Walton Jr. needed to 
walk up to his teammates on the 
next possession just to scream 
the play directly in their ear.

Once again, Michigan missed. 

The Badgers came down the 
floor, and Koenig caught the 
ball in an open position in the 
corner. He pulled up, let it fly, 
and as the ball fell through 
the hoop, he gave everyone an 
indication of how this game was 
going to end.

Michigan had led for over 11 

minutes. Koenig turned that 
into a consolation prize for the 
trip to Madison.

That’s what makes this one a 

heartbreaker. Michigan had the 
golden goose in its crosshairs 
when it was never expected to 
have it in the first place.

For all intents and purposes, 

Wisconsin did exactly what was 
expected of them heading into 
Tuesday night. Its blueprint for 
success has always been to play 
through the post — something 
Beilein 
admitted 
Monday. 

And with the way Michigan’s 
big men have been playing, it 
seemed that blueprint would be 
the precursor to a blowout.

Yet 
on 
Tuesday 
night, 

Michgian 
convinced 
viewers 

that they had better stay up until 
the final buzzer. It all started 
on Wisconsin’s first possession. 
The Badgers fed Happ down 
low, and Happ backed down 
Wilson, before pivoting to shoot 
a hook.

Except the result was entirely 

unexpected — Wilson rejected 
Happ 
and 
the 
Wolverines 

claimed possession.

It was just a microcosm of 

a night that was filled with 
deviations from the expected.

And those deviations nearly 

were enough.

But, in the end, Bronson 

Koenig scored 10 points too 
many.

Michigan leaves Madison with close loss

MADISON – Entering Tuesday, 

John Beilein had coached 17 games 
against Wisconsin in his career. He 
had won just two of those contests, 
with each loss adding to the 
mounting frustrations of the last.

“Two games,” Beilein said, 

expressing his frustration. “Two 
great wins, though, those games 
were great, freaking wins. There 
was a whole bunch of close ones. 
...They’re just really good. They’ve 
had better teams than us, and they 
have tremendous coaches.”

With Tuesday’s game knotted 

at 
43 
points, 
junior 
guard 

Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman 
and redshirt junior guard Duncan 
Robinson each hit 3-pointers on 
back-to-back possessions to extend 
the Michigan lead back to six. The 
Wolverines regained momentum 
after the Badgers erased an eight-
point lead and silenced the rowdy 
Kohl Center crowd.

An away win against a top-25 

conference opponent, a .500 Big 
Ten record and massive résumé-
boosting win were all within reach.

But Wisconsin responded with 

a 15-0 run, led by one of its senior 
leaders, Bronson Koenig, leaving 
Beilein and the Wolverines baffled 
again. The Badgers were able 
to maintain the lead from there 
despite Michigan closing within 
two points, and Beilein once again 
leaves the Kohl Center with a loss, 
68-64.

“Being on the road, we knew. 

Wisconsin being a great team, we 
knew they were going to make a 
run,” said senior guard Zak Irvin. 
“They made a run in the second 
half, and we made ours. We were 
going back and forth. Just late, 
when (Beilein) said they made 
some shots we weren’t able to. They 
(just) got a couple breaks.”

What will bewilder Beilein the 

most following this most recent 
unraveling against the Badgers is 
how the Wolverines got in trouble 
to begin with – by fouling.

“It’s all confusing. Confusing,” 

Beilein said. “We lead the country 

in not fouling. It was confusing 
what happened, so we’ll just let it 
go.”

Michigan 
entered 
Tuesday’s 

contest leading the nation in fewest 
fouls committed per game. With 
14:26 to go in the second half, the 
Wolverines put the Badgers in 
the bonus. Minutes later, redshirt 
sophomore forward DJ Wilson 
and sophomore forward Moritz 
Wagner each picked up their fourth 
fouls, leaving Michigan searching 
for options on the bench.

Without their starting big men, 

the Wolverines couldn’t maintain 
their established lead off the 11-0 
run they had opened the second 
half with.

After shooting 0-for-3 from the 

field in the first half and looking 
visibly frustrated with himself, 
Wagner came out of halftime 
looking like a different player. He 
helped erase a five-point halftime 
deficit, and boosted Michigan’s 
offense after an uncharacteristic 
low-scoring half.

Despite the struggles offensively 

in the first half, the Wolverines 
looked like a completely different 
team defensively in the first 

half compared to their prior five 
conference games. Michigan held 
the Badgers to just 26 points in 
the first half, forcing them into 
shooting 38 percent from the field 
and 22 percent from behind the 
arc.

Wilson and Wagner led that 

defensive effort by making their 
physical presence known down 
low. Wilson blocked two shots in 
the first half, and both were doing 
well to control difficult matchups 
guarding 
two 
of 
Wisconsin’s 

leading scorers – Ethan Happ and 
Nigel Hayes.

“I thought as a group we played 

really well defensively, especially in 
the first half,” Irvin said. “We knew 
in order to put ourselves in position 
to win tonight we had to play well 
defensively and I thought we did 
that.”

But 
that 
aggression 
boiled 

over in the opening minutes of 
the second half. Wilson picked 
up his third and fourth fouls on 
two consecutive possessions with 
12 minutes to go. Wagner played 
victim to his bad habits, picking 
up unnecessary fouls going for 
rebounds, and was benched with 

his fourth foul shortly after Wilson.

“We’ve got to find a way to be 

physical without fouling, especially 
in the second half,” Wagner said. 
“I think there was a four-minute 
battle where we just gave up too 
many easy foul calls in the post and 
rebounds and stuff like that.”

The 
Wolverines 
only 
had 

Irvin to rely on for consistency 
throughout the game. Scoring 20 
points on the night, Irvin made an 
impact early and played a key role 
in Michigan steadying the ship 
after massive Wisconsin runs. 
Irvin scored the Wolverines’ first 
six points, extended Michigan’s 
leads in the second half and came 
up with scores in tight situations 
down the stretch.

But down the stretch, Koenig 

and the Badgers put together the 
most dominant run of the night, 
and that was enough for Wisconsin 
to defend its own court.

Beilein once again leaves 

Madison scratching his head, as 
a win over the Badgers seems as 
elusive as ever despite the game 
being one of the Wolverines’ 
most complete performances of 
the season.

ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily

Sophomore forward Moritz Wagner found himself in foul trouble in the second half and sat out down the stretch.

BRANDON CARNEY

Daily Sports Writer

ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily

Wisconsin guard Bronson Koenig stopped Michigan short of a possible upset.

KEVIN SANTO

Managing Sports Editor

Michigan

assists

REB

REB

TOs

TOs

FG %

FG %

3FG% 

3FG% 

assists

10

32
32

10

8

43

45

48

38

11

64
68

Wisconsin

