4B — November 12, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
‘M’ topples Mount St. Mary’s, 88-40
On the first possession of
the game, freshman guard
Amy Dilk lobbed a pass from
the
right
wing
to
senior
forward Hallie Thome in the
paint.
Thome failed to convert, but
it didn’t matter. Sophomore
forward Hailey Brown was
there to grab the rebound and
get her team on the board.
That opening play was a
preview of how most of the
game would turn out. The
Michigan women’s basketball
team (1-0) used its physical
advantage to defeat Mount
St. Mary’s (1-1), 88-40, Friday
night at Crisler Center.
Offensively, the Wolverines
pushed the tempo from the
start. This sense of urgency
didn’t
result
in
success
immediately, though, as the
team missed quite a few early
shots.
For instance, Brown had a
couple unsuccessful attempts
during the first few minutes.
However, she kept attacking
and the persistence paid off as
she finished with 14 points.
“At the beginning of the
game, I mean, my shot, it
wasn’t falling,” Brown said.
“So, if you’re a shooter and
your shots aren’t falling, the
next option is to drive.”
Five minutes into the first
quarter, Dilk dished another
effortless lob to Thome. And
this time around, she scored.
Thome dominated all night
with her post play and led the
team with 25 points and 10
rebounds.
“She knows the game so
well. It’s fun to definitely
play with someone who has
that much of a basketball
IQ,” Thome said of Dilk’s
passing. “So, I know every
time the guards give me the
ball, they’re putting me in the
best position to score. So, the
credit is all to them.”
Despite
its
offensive
success, Michigan’s defense
took time to settle in. This
resulted in wide-open shots
for the Mountaineers, who
capitalized to stay in the
game. The Wolverines led
12-11 heading into the first
media timeout.
Freshman
forward
Naz
Hillmon and junior forward
Kayla Robbins hopped on the
court after the break. The
duo gave Michigan the spark
it needed to start putting the
game away. The Wolverines
soon went on a 7-0 run
extending into the second
quarter,
and
resulted
in
Michigan taking a 43-29 edge
into the locker room.
Mount St. Mary’s defense
had no answer for the rest
of
the
game.
At
6-feet,
junior Alexis Wooden was
the
Mountaineers’
tallest
starter, thus they often had to
double-team the Wolverines
to compensate for the height
disadvantage.
Michigan
responded
frequently
with
effective
passing to find whoever was
was left unguarded. The team’s
solid
ball
movement
also
helped it excel in transition.
In addition to Thome and
Brown, Hillmon and senior
guard Nicole Munger reached
double digits in scoring with
10 and 12 points, respectively.
The
height
mismatch
significantly
helped
the
Wolverines with rebounding
as well. Michigan finished the
game with 46 total rebounds,
while
Mount
St.
Mary’s
grabbed 26.
As the lead grew bigger,
the
Wolverines
expanded
their rotation. Junior guard
Akienreh Johnson was the
only Michigan player who
didn’t get playing time, as she’s
recovering from an injury.
Even the newcomers found
time on the court, as freshmen
made
fair
contributions.
Midway through the third
frame, Hillmon fought for
a loose ball near half court,
pleasing both the crowd and
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico.
“How ‘bout the spark she
brought, huh?” Barnes Arico
proclaimed. “She just brought
a level of intensity and just
dialed it up for us.”
Favored headed into the
match, the Wolverines were
expected to win and did just
that. However, there is still
an entire season to go for the
Wolverines.
Michigan falls to Notre Dame, 6-2, in rematch for series split
A
hockey
game
lasts
60
minutes.
Three periods of 20, two
breaks in between.
Sixty minutes is what Michigan
coach Mel Pearson expected
from the No. 14 Michigan hockey
team
in
Saturday’s
matchup
against No. 6 Notre Dame.
Forty, or two periods, is what
he got, more or less.
The Wolverines fell to the
Fighting Irish, 6-2, despite what
Pearson thought was a good start
to the game.
“I thought we were really
ready to play tonight,” Pearson
said. “I thought great start, one
of the best starts maybe we had
this year, we were all over them,
created
some
great
scoring
opportunities, didn’t give them
much.”
There are often question marks
for a team after a successful bout
— especially with the Michigan
hockey team.
Throughout the season, every
time the Wolverines have started
to be successful, they have fallen
under the trap of losing focus and
taking things for granted.
When
Michigan
beat
St.
Lawrence on Oct. 26 - 27 for
its first weekend sweep of the
season, the team went on to lose,
5-2, to Lake Superior State the
following weekend. Sophomore
Michael Pastujov noted they
weren’t ready going into that
matchup.
So the big question for the
Wolverines was about whether
Michigan was hungry enough
to play a full 60 minutes in its
rematch over Notre Dame, like
Pearson thought they had during
Friday’s 2-1 win.
The short answer is no.
To begin the game, however,
the Wolverines didn’t skip a beat
from its game the day before,
going aggressively to the net
and playing as equally physical.
Lockwood opened the period
with a shot on net after initiating
a well-crafted attack to set the
tone. The shot didn’t go in, but it
was a warning for Notre Dame to
be ready.
And
soon
after,
senior
defenseman
Joseph
Cecconi
drew
a
penalty.
Michigan
saw
success
on
the
power
play
Friday,
converting
its
first
two,
and
tonight was no
different.
In
the
dwindling
stretches
of
the power play,
sophomore
defenseman
Quinn
Hughes
shot
a
pass
towards traffic. Junior forward
Will Lockwood, who was in the
midst of battling for position,
tipped the puck and created the
early 1-0 lead.
And the great start Pearson
saw from the team was nearly
capped off by a second goal.
Cecconi had wrapped around
the
net
and
found
Hughes
lingering around the crease.
Hughes then passed the puck
across ice to Norris, who was
waiting
at
the
other side of the
net and tapped
the puck in.
The
goal,
however,
was
called back due to
offsides.
“It’s the right
call,”
Pearson
said. “But if that
goes in, it’s 2-0,
and we had them
on their heels, and that just gives
you a little more momentum.”
The overturned call marked
the turning point of not just
Michigan’s momentum, but its
efforts as well.
Michigan, who had been so
stout defensively, began to loosen
up. Notre Dame found its first
high-danger
attempt
stopped
by junior goaltender Hayden
Lavigne, who extended his leg to
stop the rebound from turning
into an easy open-net goal.
Then,
the
goaltending
heroics
ended
shortly after that.
The
Fighting
Irish scored, and
did it quickly.
“Basically
a
couple
bad
decisions,
a
couple easy goals
at the end of the
first
period,”
Pearson said. “We go from that
lead, almost two nothing, it was
offside, tough break for us, good
break for them.
“But again, we gave up two
goals within two minutes to end
the first, and then we gave up
three goals in four minutes to
start the second period. And that
was the game.”
To put it simply, the Wolverines
were demoralized after Notre
Dame’s two goals.
In hopes of turning the tides
back to how they
originally were,
Pearson switched
goaltenders,
bringing
in
freshman
goaltender
Strauss Mann.
Mann
had
held Notre Dame
to
only
one
goal in Friday’s
matchup,
and
in order to weather the storm,
Pearson hoped he’d replicate his
performance.
However, a few more bad
bounces, and the Wolverines
were only further behind.
“You have to continue to
stay in the game,” Pearson said.
“What happens usually when a
team scores is it give them a lift.
And that’s what really (ignited)
Notre Dame.
“Even the third goal, I think
the third goal was sort of a real
backbreaker, just an innocent
shot behind net and they through
it out front and it goes in. It got
away from us, in a hurry.”
The best way to get back into
a game, mentally and literally,
is to score. And toward the end
of the second, an opportunity
presented itself — a five-on-three
situation. As Cecconi put it, score
there, and the game changes.
But Michigan couldn’t.
And despite ending the second
period on a further disheartening
play, a goal off of a deflection, the
Wolverines came into the third
period in full spirit.
“I think we all knew that
the second period was pretty
embarrassing,”
Cecconi
said.
“And that’s not Michigan hockey,
that’s not how we want to play.
And some of the guys talked in
the locker room pretty much just
decided that everyone was going
to play their game and compete.”
The third period brought a
familiar look, an aggressive and
gritty team that was ready to play
and aiming to win.
Despite
only
mustering
one goal, a shot between the
goaltender’s leg from freshman
defenseman Nick Blankenburg,
the Wolverines outshot Notre
Dame 15-4 in the final period and
played a style they thought better
reflected their quality of hockey.
“We talked about a standard
of play,” Pearson said. “There’s a
certain standard of play that we
need to have each and every night
here at Michigan and I think they
just got back to that.
“I think once you chase a
game and you get behind, you
have a tendency to get away, try
to do some things maybe too
individualistic instead of trying
to stay within the team concept.
We just wanted to get back to that
and just work our defense.”
ROHAN KUMAR
Daily Sports Writer
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Senior defenseman Joseph Cecconi notched an assist in Saturday’s 6-2 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday, putting his season total at nine through nine games.
MIKE ZLONKEVICZ/Daily
Freshman guard Amy Dilk played in her first game as a Wolverine on Friday.
Wolverines beat Holy Cross, 56-37
For 20 minutes, Michigan’s
offense
was
dead
and
its
defense was porous. For 20
minutes, Holy Cross posed
questions
the
Wolverines
couldn’t answer.
Then
the
second
half
happened.
It
wasn’t
always
easy
—
the
Michigan
men’s
basketball team (2-0 overall)
often struggled against the
Crusaders
(1-1)
and
their
Princeton
offense
and
matchup-zone defense — but
the Wolverines pulled away in
the second half for a 56-37 win.
Both teams traded missed
shots back and forth to start —
neither scored until freshman
forward
Ignas
Brazdeikis
made a free throw with 17:08
remaining in the first. Then,
they swapped baskets, with an
inside jumper from Brazdeikis
giving Michigan an early 9-5
advantage.
But the Wolverines didn’t
score for almost four more
minutes. To make matters
worse, defensive lapses led to
three open treys for Holy Cross
to put the Crusaders up 18-9 at
the under-12 timeout.
A few minutes later, redshirt
junior wing Charles Matthews
hit a 3-pointer off a turnover
to narrow Holy Cross’ lead to
four, but for the rest of the half
— over 10 minutes — Michigan’s
only points came off free
throws from Matthews, Livers
and sophomore guard Jordan
Poole. Going into halftime, the
Crusaders led 24-18.
“(Michigan
coach
John
Beliein) was just telling us
to be calm, this is what we
expected,”
Brazdeikis
said.
“We prepared for this team
very well. We knew they were
gonna be in a matchup zone.
And we knew they were gonna
play a slow-paced game. But
he was just saying, attack the
seams, make our shots and
make good plays.”
And after the half, the
Wolverines started to make
those plays. Brazdeikis led the
charge with two layups, a trey,
four free throws and a mid-
range jumper in the first five
minutes. When junior center
Jon Teske received a pass from
junior guard Zavier Simpson,
beat his lone defender to the
basket and threw down a dunk,
it felt like the momentum had
shifted.
“We really changed what we
were doing offensively,” Beilein
said. “We were probably trying
to do too much, trying to create
leverage, and we just really
simplified our attack in the
second half. And just tried to,
just go off penetration.”
In the second half it was
Holy Cross that couldn’t buy
a bucket. The Crusaders went
seven minutes without scoring
and struggled to even get a
shot off due to Michigan’s
stifling defense. Holy Cross
scored just 13 points in the half
and committed nine turnovers.
“(We got) some open shots
and some easy baskets, and
they
were
missing
some
things that maybe normally
they make in the first half,”
said Holy Cross coach Bill
Carmody. “And then the second
half they just, they turned
up the heat. … We had some
empty possessions on offense
and then we just weren’t able
to handle anything with the
pressure.”
It was still ugly at times for
the Wolverines. But Matthews
and Brazdeikis took a more
aggressive approach than they
had at the beginning and it
paid off, as they finished with
20 and 19 points, respectively.
And even when its shooting
was
off,
Michigan’s
uncharacteristically
good
performance on free throws
kept the lead comfortable.
Brazdeikis,
especially,
took
advantage, going 8-for-8 from
the charity stripe.
For the final 20 minutes,
Michigan’s defense stole the
show while the offense did just
enough to hold up its end of the
deal.
And for the final 20 minutes,
it was the Crusaders who
couldn’t find any answers.
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Junior guard Zavier Simpson tallied seven assists in Saturday’s win at Crisler.
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
“I thought we
were really
ready to play
tonight.”
“You have to
continue to
stay in the
game.”