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February 20, 2017 - Image 7

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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”

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