8 — Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

No Mercy

‘M’ blows out Detroit Mercy, 95-62

Detroit 
Mercy 
wasn’t 
supposed to put up a close fight 
against Michigan. Yet, with 4:44 
remaining in the first half, the 
Titans (1-4) scrapped their way 
to a three-point lead over the 
Wolverines (3-0).
Michigan, 
who 
would 
ultimately win the game 95-62, 
struggled early to find its rhythm. 
The Wolverines accumulated six 
turnovers in the first 15 minutes 
and shot a mere 3-for-9 from the 
free throw line in the first half — 
a consistent issue for Michigan 
coach Kim Barnes Arico’s squad 
throughout this young season. 
Detroit Mercy capitalized on the 
Wolverines’ sloppy early play 
and shot over 50 percent from 
three in the first half. 
“I think we were playing 
to our opponent, we weren’t 
playing to our ability,” said 
senior center Hallie Thome. 
“We had three turnovers to start 
the game, so having that be the 
start of the game kind of makes 
everyone a little anxious.”
Then, as soon as the Titans 
took 
the 
lead, 
Thome 
and 
freshman forward Naz Hillmon 
took over — scoring a combined 
15 points in the final 4:30 of the 
half — leading Michigan on a 
20-0 run going into the locker 
room comfortably up 54-37. 
From 
there 
on 
out 
the 
Wolverines dominated, forcing 
turnover after turnover. Their 
active press defense forced a 
staggering 29 turnovers and 
never gave Detroit Mercy a 
chance to regain its footing and 
climb back into the game.
“(Hillmon) definitely helped 
us a lot,” Thome said. “Naz and 
the press. She definitely set the 
tone getting all those turnovers 
and those ten-second counts. So 
definitely to have someone, and 
especially a freshman, set that 

tone and give us that energy I 
think we needed at that point 
and having it carry over to all 
of us helped us be able to kinda 
(put) our foot on the gas and 
keep going.”
Thome — who scored 25 
points in just under 20 minutes 
— could not be matched by the 
smaller Titan team and scored 
nearly every time she shot the 
ball from the low post. 
Hillmon, meanwhile, injected 
an energy into the lineup that 
seemed to have been lacking 
since the opening tip. With 
Michigan running a press for 
much of the game, Hillmon 
raced all over the court, forcing 
turnovers and causing problems 
for the Titans. 
“(Hillmon’s) 
energy 
is 
contagious,” 
Barnes 
Arico 
said. “I think she just does a 
tremendous job of bringing it 
each and every single day. I think 
it’s definitely a difference maker 
in our program’s success so it’s 
great to have her and I’m glad 
she’s playing well right now.”
Hillmon’s 
most 
intense 
moment, though, came with just 
over a minute remaining in the 
first half and the Wolverines up 
10. 
Following freshman guard 
Amy 
Dilk’s 
missed 
layup, 
Hillmon collected the rebound 
and put up a shot of her own 
while getting fouled. As soon 
as the ball slid through the 
cylinder, Hillmon turned around 
and let out an emphatic yell as 
she flexed her muscles toward 
her bench. 
“I like to bring a lot of energy 
to the game and if it’s ever flat I 
want to give a yell or a high five,” 
Hillmon said. “I think that being 
able to bring some energy to the 
team, that not only helps me and 
makes me want to go harder, but 
it definitely helps my teammates 
knowing that there’s somebody 
there encouraging them.”

Hillmon, who finished the 
game with 22 points and eight 
rebounds, and the rest of the 
Michigan starters, would not set 
foot on the court in the fourth 
quarter following the slow start 
with the game decidedly in 
hand.
The Wolverines will now 
prepare for the Gulf Coast 
Showcase, where they will first 
take on Missouri this Friday, 
Nov. 23, before playing two 
more games over the rest of the 
weekend. 
“I think we just really need to 
pay attention to detail because 
we’re going to be playing against 
some 
tremendous 
programs 
in Florida,” Barnes Arico said. 
“Every possession is going to 
matter; we need to be locked in 
and we need to be focused; we 
need to know our personnel, 
know 
our 
assignments. 
We’re going to have a quick 
turnaround, not a lot of prep 
time for the games, so it’s going 
to be important that we’re 
focused.”

ANNIE KLUS/Daily
Freshman forward Naz Hillmon teamed with senior center Hallie Thome to score 20 straight points against Detroit Mercy.

BENNETT BRAMSON
Daily Sports Writer

Michigan struggles from stripe in win

The Wolverines beat Detroit 
Mercy handedly on Monday 
night, 95-62, but for much of 
the first half that result was 
anything but assured.
The 
two 
teams 
traded 
baskets deep into the second 
quarter. 
The 
Titans 
even 
managed 
a 
lead 
before 
Michigan rattled off a 20-0 
run to end the first half.
Two 
factors 
contributed 
to the Wolverines’ inability 
to 
jump 
out 
to 
a 
more 
commanding 
lead 
in 
the 
first fifteen minutes though: 
missed defensive assignments 
and poor free throw shooting. 
The former can be chalked up 
to spreading themselves too 
thin on the press — something 
they seemed to fix at halftime. 
But the latter is part of a more 
worrying trend.
Coming 
into 
the 
game, 
Michigan 
was 
27-for-45 
from 
the 
charity 
stripe, 

exactly 60-percent, a mark 
tied for 281st out of 349 
Division-I teams. A 10-for-19 
performance against Detroit 
Mercy does not help that 
average.
Within the context of such 
a blowout, poor free throw 
shooting might seem like a 
trivial problem, but as the 
Wolverines’ 
schedule heats 
up in the next 
week 
with 
games against 
Missouri, and 
possibly 
two 
other 
top-25 
teams, it may 
come back to 
bite them.
The 
struggles 
at the foul line are more 
of a confidence issue than 
anything 
according 
to 
Michigan coach Kim Barnes 
Arico.
“I think that starts to get 
in your head a bit,” Barnes 

Arico said. “The key is just to 
get in the gym to just get your 
confidence back, get your 
touch back. And try not to 
think about the misses.”
Even key contributors and 
typically-efficient 
shooters 
like 
sophomore 
guard 
Deja Church — who shot 
74.7-percent last season — and 
freshmen Naz Hillmon have 
been susceptible to the trend 
so far.
“Coach was telling us just 
now that it’s in our heads, 
so we just have to shake it 
off and make ourselves more 
comfortable at the free throw 
line,” Hillmon said. “We need 
to avoid thinking too much 
about it or too little (about it).”
Senior Hallie Thome added 
in support of Church: “She’s 
kinda struggling at the line, 
but last year she made the 
hardest free throws. We were 
down three (against Nebraska) 
and Deja got fouled at the 
three-point line, made them, 
and we went into overtime. 
So I think it’s just definitely a 
mental thing.”
The season is young and the 
sample size is small. But since 
the Wolverines seem to be 
hitting on every 
other 
cylinder, 
they are looking 
to correct their 
foul-shooting 
struggles before 
it 
manifests 
into something 
bigger.
“You’ve been 
shooting 
them 
since you first 
started playing, 
since you were a little kid, so 
it’s something you can almost 
take 
for 
granted,” 
Barnes 
Arico said. “Right now, we 
can’t so we just have to make 
sure we focus on it a little bit 
more.”

CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer

“You’ve been 

shooting them 

since you first 

started playing.”

The tired verbiage of rivalry week
J

im Harbaugh doesn’t like 
making comparisons.
He says it demeans and 
diminishes accomplishments. 
Harbaugh, as he has done 
every year 
at Michigan, 
treaded 
lightly 
Monday to 
protect the 
focus of his 
players and 
not give 
opponent’s 
fodder.
Despite 
being the 
expected road for Harbaugh 
to take, it’s still strange. 
In Bo Schembechler’s 1989 
autobiography “Bo,” being 
conservative was the antithesis 
of what made him great.
“Quarterbacks are a special 
breed,” Schembechler wrote. 
“They need to be cocky, and 
the cockiest I ever had was 
probably Jim Harbaugh.”
Sitting at 0-3 against 
Ohio State as a coach so far, 
Harbaugh could just be saving 
face and reserving judgment. 
The farthest he went in 
Monday’s press conference was 
… not far at all. The message 
was standard, but the meaning 
was evident.
“I expect our team to be very 
motivated,” Harbaugh said. “I 
know I am.”
Yes, it’s rivalry week against 
the Buckeyes, so perhaps his 
caution is rooted in experience 
— a guarantee he made to beat 
Ohio State and an impending 
Rose Bowl appearance when 
Harbaugh was the Wolverines’ 
quarterback in 1986.
Though the high-stakes 
game is fast-approaching, the 
expectations of provocative 
speech should no longer exist 
for this point of the season. Yet, 
the questions are inescapable, 
and the answers are becoming 
the same.
“It’s the Big Game,” 
Harbaugh said about what 
motivates him. “Even got a 
name for it, doesn’t it?”
Even after Michigan won 
that 1986 game, 26-24, in 

Columbus, Harbaugh sings a 
different tune, as well as in the 
years following his declaration. 
Dating back to his introductory 
press conference in 2014, 
he doesn’t make guarantees 
anymore: “I’ve learned from 
that.”
About an hour after 
Harbaugh stepped away from 
the podium Monday, senior 
running back Karan Higdon 
stood in the same spot, with 
tight end Zach Gentry hulking 
him to his right. A reporter 
asked the question — goaded, 
essentially — that now serves 
as a prerequisite in a sound bite 
media landscape: Like your 
coach, will you guarantee a 
win?
Higdon and Gentry shared 
a look. What came after was 
expected.

“Yeah, I do. I do,” Higdon 
said, followed by a laugh. 
“That’s how I feel. I believe 
firmly in my brothers and this 
team and this coaching staff. 
And as a captain, I’ll take that 
stand. Why not?”
It was 
definitive, but 
it was hardly 
the assertion 
Harbaugh made 
32 years ago. 
Higdon is a 
captain of the 
No. 4 team in 
the country 
with conference 
and national 
title hopes at stake. Yet, it has 
already grabbed headlines and 
incited social media furor.
It was not an unprompted 
guarantee, and with the game’s 

implications, should not be 
treated as such. The only 
notable aspect is that it breaks 
the character of a seemingly 
unbothered Michigan team.
“Having done it, I don’t 
recommend it,” 
Harbaugh said of 
guaranteeing a 
win in The Game 
in 2016.
Though more 
subtle, junior 
linebacker Devin 
Bush also made 
a lofty claim, 
referencing the 
2016 overtime 
loss on Monday.
“That was one of those 
games where we didn’t finish,” 
Bush said. “We’ve got another 
opportunity to go in there.
“And I believe we’re gonna 

finish the job.”
It’s not breaking news. 
With everything to lose, the 
past shouldn’t be considered, 
and there is every reason to 
think the game will be close. 
Junior left guard Ben Bredeson 
said “It’s just different in this 
game,” with the exasperation of 
three years of getting the same 
question.
Ohio State coach Urban 
Meyer also spoke with the 
media in Columbus on Monday. 
He assumed the same demeanor 
as Harbaugh, even talking about 
mutual respect.
“I can only speak for myself, 
but I think the ‘R-word’ is 
critical here,” he said. “… How 
do you respect them and The 
Game? You work so very hard to 
do your best.”
There is never truly a 

breaking point of the exhaustive 
responses and unsettled debates 
for this rivalry. It’s interesting 
to hear Bredeson reflect on how 
getting flipped off energizes 
him, or how Bush feeds into the 
boos. Sharing experiences and 
the boredom of sameness are 
not mutually exclusive.
Another reporter asked 
Harbaugh then if it was just 
another game on the College 
Football Playoff hunt.
“Of course not,” Harbaugh 
replied with disgust, like it was 
blasphemous that the question 
was asked at all.
Rivalry week doesn’t need to 
have a different tone. It speaks 
for itself.

Wolfe can be reached at 

eewolfe@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @ethanewolfe.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Senior running back Karan Higdon was asked Monday if he would be willing to guarantee a win against Ohio State, and after some internal debating, he obliged, saying he’ll “take that stand.”

ETHAN 
WOLFE

“And as a 
captain, I’ll take 
that stand. Why 
not?”

