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