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The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | February 20, 2017

Not good enough

The Michigan hockey team 

traveled to Madison and 

showed improvement, but 

the Wolverines still returned 

to Ann Arbor carrying the 

burden of two losses.

 » Page 3B

New expectations
Kim Barnes Arico has helped 
turn around the Michigan 
women’s basketball program, 
simultaneously bringing new 
standards to the team.
» SportsMonday Column 
Page 2B

MINNEAPOLIS 
— 
Down 

three with the final seconds 
ticking away, Duncan Robinson 
had nowhere to go.

The redshirt junior wing — 

one of Michigan’s most reliable 
3-point shooters — was double-
teamed behind the arc, and had 
no choice but to pass the ball to 
an open DJ Wilson positioned 
30-feet from the basket. 

With limited time and options, 

the redshirt sophomore forward 
could only square up and cue up 
his best stroke from well beyond 
the 3-point line in NBA range.

To the surprise of everyone in 

Williams Arena, Wilson’s shot 
found nothing but net.

It looked like Michigan would 

be able to grab momentum 
heading into overtime and turn 
its comeback into a memorable 
victory.

“It wasn’t drawn up for me at 

all,” Wilson said. “It was drawn 
up for (Robinson). They did a 

great job as far as running him 
off the line. I ran to the back of 
him, and he pitched it back. I 
thought about it for a second and 
looked at the clock and let it go, 
and it went in.”

But what may have been 

dubbed 
the 
“Miracle 
in 

Minnesota” wasn’t to be, as the 
Golden Gophers outscored the 
Wolverines 11-6 in the extra 
period to pull out the 83-78 win.

“Time and time again, this 

team has a resiliency about 
it,” said senior guard Derrick 
Walton Jr. “We thought once it 
got to overtime, the game was 
ours. We were making the right 
plays, and down the stretch, 
even though a lot of stuff didn’t 
go our way, we still got a chance 
to win.”

Junior guard Muhammad-Ali 

Abdur-Rahkman gave Michigan 
its only overtime lead with a 
3-pointer 1:42 into overtime, but 
he also missed two consecutive 
free throws with 1:40 remaining 
that 
would 
have 
put 
the 

Wolverines back on top.

Abdur-Rahkman’s 
misses 

encapsulated 
Michigan’s 

uncharacteristic struggles from 
the 
free-throw 
line 
Sunday 

night. The Wolverines shot just 
50 percent from the charity 
stripe despite entering the game 
with the second-
highest 
free-

throw percentage 
in the conference 
at 77.8 percent.

In 
a 
contest 

with 
18 
lead 

changes and eight 
ties, 
there 
was 

never a moment 
when 
either 

team felt it had 
fallen too far behind. But for a 
moment, Michigan’s coaching 
staff appeared to have lost its 
collective mind, and may have 
ultimately lost the Wolverines 
the game.

With 
4:39 
to 
go, 
senior 

forward Mark Donnal was called 
for a controversial defensive foul 
at the top of the key. In disbelief, 
Michigan coach John Beilein 

and his assistants appeared to 
have crossed the technical area 
while chasing after the referees 
for an explanation and were 
called for a technical foul.

Following 
the 
technical, 

Minnesota gained its biggest 

lead of the night 
— eight points — 
on a stretch that 
included four free 
throws 
directly 

after 
the 
call 

on 
Michigan’s 

sideline 
and 
a 

four-point play.

Michigan, 

though, 
showed 

no 
quit 
and 

continued to try and find a way to 
fight back, with Walton leading 
the way. Eight of Walton’s 16 
points came with under four 
minutes to play in regulation, as 
he once again attempted to will 
his team out of a deficit late in a 
game. He and Wilson combined 
to score 15 of Michigan’s final 17 
points in the fourth quarter to 
extend the game for another five 

minutes.

“Everybody on the team loves 

the moment,” Walton said. “The 
moment was there, so everybody 
wanted to step into it. I couldn’t 
be more happy for (Wilson) for 
making those big shots to even 
give us a fighting chance after so 
much didn’t go our way.”

In the extra period, Walton 

had 
the 
Wolverines’ 
best 

opportunity to send the game 
into a second overtime. With 
Michigan facing yet another 
three point deficit and the final 
seconds of the first overtime 
winding down, Walton had an 
open look from just beyond the 
arc.

His shot looked just as clean 

as Wilson’s, but it ended up 
rimming 
out 
with 
multiple 

Golden Gophers below the rim 
to grab the ensuing rebound. 
Minnesota made its free throws, 
and that was enough for the 
Golden Gophers to put away the 
Wolverines.

“Of course I wanted to take 

the shot, but it was about taking 

what the defense gave me,” 
Walton said. “Most of the guys 
were into (Wilson), so I had a 
clean look. It felt like one of the 
better shots I had taken all night. 
It rimmed out. That’s all I can 
say about it.”

With Michigan, Minnesota, 

Michigan 
State 
and 

Northwestern all emerging in 
recent weeks as contestants 
to fight for fourth place in the 
Big Ten and final double-bye 
in the conference tournament, 
Sunday’s game will go a long way 
in shaping that race.

Though Wilson’s heroics may 

have increased the Wolverines’ 
chances to get the win and pull 
into pole position, Michigan’s 
poor free-throw shooting was 
the loose string that led to 
the 
Wolverines’ 
undoing 
in 

Minneapolis.

“We wanted to win so bad and 

everybody showed that,” Walton 
said. “We showed a different 
type of resiliency and fight that I 
think we should carry over going 
forward.”

BRANDON CARNEY

Daily Sports Editor

Michigan pushed the Golden Gophers to overtime at Williams 
Arena but couldn’t convert during crunch time, falling, 83-78

MINNY

IN

“We wanted 
to win so bad 
and everybody 
showed that”

