4B — January 14, 2019
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Last month, the Michigan 
basketball 
team 
went 
to 
Northwestern 
and 
unexpectedly 
encountered 
its toughest challenge of the 
season, escaping with a two-
point victory. That night, the 
Wildcats found success forcing 
the Wolverines’ less-heralded 
shooters 
— 
namely 
junior 
guard Zavier Simpson — to hit 
3-pointers.
On 
Sunday, 
Northwestern 
tried to revive that strategy. 
This time, Michigan responded 
with an 80-60 victory — its 17th 
in a row to start the season, a 
new program record.
After 
the 
game, 
both 
coaches were asked what went 
differently for Simpson — and 
both came up with the same 
response.
“The ball went in.”
That was the only explanation 
necessary on Sunday night, as 
Simpson and junior center Jon 
Teske — both sub-30 percent 
3-point shooters on the season 
— went a combined 8-of-15 from 
deep.
“When you play them, you 
gotta figure out, ‘What are some 
things that you’re gonna live 
with?’ Because they space you so 
well, they’re really good at every 
position,” said Wildcats coach 
Chris Collins. “And we were 
gonna live with some Simpson 
threes and some Teske threes. 
And give those guys credit.”
The Wolverines (17-0 overall, 
6-0 Big Ten) opened the evening 
in the same fashion as they 
have throughout the season, 
using five inside baskets to open 
a quick 10-0 lead. But when 
Northwestern (10-7, 1-5) clawed 
back within two, the game 
turned weird, with Simpson 
hitting a three to break the 
mini-run.
Then, with four minutes left 

in the first half and Michigan 
protecting a 10-point lead, it 
took a turn nobody could have 
seen coming. Teske collected a 
pass from Simpson just beyond 
the 3-point line and — despite 
his 20.8 career percentage from 
deep — let go. It found bottom. 
Two 
minutes 
later, he let loose 
again, with the 
same 
result. 
So when Teske 
entered 
his 
shooting motion 
on 
Michigan’s 
next possession, 
every 
corner 
of 
a 
sold-out 
Crisler 
Center 
rose to its feet 
in 
anticipation. 
Yet 
again, 
the junior center delivered, 
putting the Wolverines up 18 
and blowing the roof off the 
building.
Teske’s last three put the 
finishing touch on a three-
minute span in which he single-
handedly outscored the listless 

Wildcats 
11-2, 
effectively 
ending any hopes they had at a 
comeback before half time.
“It was awesome,” Teske said. 
“Got the crowd going. … When 
we get a little roll like that, it’s 
kinda hard to stop.”
Teske’s 
3-point 
barrage 
helped 
extend 
Michigan’s lead 
to 50-28 before 
a sluggish start 
to 
the 
second 
period 
allowed 
Northwestern 
to 
draw 
back 
within 13 with 
10:47 
to 
play. 
But each time 
the 
Wildcats 
threatened 
to 
make it a game, the Wolverines 
responded with ease.
First, redshirt junior Charles 
Matthews 
drove 
along 
the 
baseline, emphatically dunking 
over Miller Kopp, and ending 
a nearly three-minute scoring 
drought. Then, it was Simpson’s 
turn, as he hit three deep balls 

in five minutes to stretch a 
14-point lead into a 24-point 
rout with four minutes to play.
“A 20-point lead can become 
a 13-point lead like that,” said 
Michigan coach John Beilein, 
snapping his fingers. “Even 
if you get good shots, it can 
become like that. And so, if 
you have good defense, and 
you learn from those mistakes 
— and we had some mistakes — 
and don’t do it again, eventually 
they’ll miss and you’ll be able to 
go out and make them.
“And obviously, Zavier made 
all those plays. That’s where all 
our scoring was.”
And 
just 
like 
that, 
the 
Wolverines have their best start 
in program history. Beilein 
doesn’t put much weight in such 
records — when he returned to 
the locker room after Sunday’s 
game, his first move was to 
update his team’s Big Ten record 
to 6-0. Eventually, though, the 
overall record followed suit.
For the first time ever, it read, 
‘17-0.’

Simpson shoots, scores

Last month in Evanston and 
again 
Sunday 
night, 
Zavier 
Simpson watched from the bench 
as his team closed out the final 
minutes of a victory.
Back in December, it was 
a condemnation, a weakness 
that had caught up to him. 
Northwestern left the junior 
guard open for three, knowing his 
shooting numbers were low and 
hoping to clog the lane to slow the 
offense.
It worked. Simpson went 0-for-
5 from deep before being pulled 
with 6:24 remaining. Sophomore 
guard Eli Brooks ran the offense 
the rest of the way as the Michigan 
men’s basketball team pulled out a 
62-60 nail-biter.
Sunday 
was 
a 
completely 
different 
story. 
Simpson 
left 
triumphant, an affront avenged. 
He had just made his fifth trey of 
the game. The Wolverines were 
up 20 points. It was time for the 
freshmen and walk-ons to ice the 
80-60 victory.
His 3-pointer was a dagger, in 
more ways than one.
“(The first Northwestern game) 
was the first time anybody played 
that way and it sort of shocked him 
a little bit,” said Michigan coach 
John Beilein. “ … He wasn’t as 
patient and he’s such a competitor. 
He saw that as a personal affront 
to his ability.”
From the beginning, it was 
clear that the Wildcats were 
sticking with their strategy. Six-
and-a-half minutes into the game, 
Northwestern left Simpson wide 
open from beyond the arc, leaving 
everyone else blocked. And even 
though it hadn’t worked last time, 
even though the whole team had 
shot terribly in Saturday’s practice, 
Simpson did the only thing there 
was to do: shoot the ball.
Clank.
Junior center Jon Teske was 
waiting under the basket for the 
rebound. The ball came right back 
to Simpson.

Clank.
Beilein decided it was time to 
intervene.
“Settle down, now,” Beilein 
prepared to say. “You’re gonna 
shoot it when you go back in. Just 
settle down.”
Then, Simpson was open again. 
He shot again.
Swish.
The basket was called back 
due to a Wildcat foul, but it didn’t 
matter. In that moment, Beilein 
knew that Simpson was going to 
be just fine.
Thirty seconds later, Simpson 
fired again from beyond the arc.
Swish.
This time, it counted.
“I just had to keep shooting,” 
Simpson said. “Sometimes the 
ball doesn’t drop the right way. 
I felt like they was gonna do the 
strategy because it worked last 
time, so what team wouldn’t? 
Again, I just have to do the things 
I’ve been doing, which is stay 
confident.”
Northwestern kept leaving him 
open. After all, what else was there 
to do? The Wildcats were down 
big — 22 points at halftime — and 
if they put a man on Simpson, it 
would be someone else who’d run 
up the score. It had worked before, 
and Northwestern had to bet on 
regression.
For Simpson, it was a taunt. A 
dare.
He added one more three before 
halftime, then went relatively 
quiet. But he wasn’t done.
Twelve minutes into the second 
half, Simpson stole the ball off a 
bad pass and hit another three. 
Then, with four minutes left, the 
final blow. He finished with 24 
points, a career high. His 5-for-10 
from deep wasn’t just a personal 
record for makes — it was a record 
for attempts, too.
After the game, Simpson was 
asked what he was thinking out 
there on the floor. He responded 
instantly.
“Shoot another one, make it,” 
Simpson said.
“Simple as that.”

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

MEN’S BASKETBALL

ANNIE KLUS/Daily
Junior guard Zavier Simpson scored a career-high 24 points as Michigan beat Northwestern 80-60 on Sunday.

COLUMBUS — For a moment, 
it looked like the first goal of 
Jimmy 
Lambert’s 
Michigan 
hockey career might be a game-
winner.
The 
freshman 
forward 
capitalized on an opportunity 
while goaltender Tommy Nappier 
was out of position. He fired a shot 
from the right circle that went 
through Nappier’s legs, and the 
Wolverines (8-9-6 overall, 4-5-4-
2 Big Ten) took a 2-1 lead on No. 4 
Ohio State in the third period.
But just 28 seconds later, the 
Buckeyes (13-5-4, 6-3-3-2) tied it 
up at the other end of the ice when 
defenseman Wyatt Ege found 
twine for his first tally of the 
season. Ohio State would go on to 
win, 4-2.
“Obviously, Lambert scoring 
his first goal was awesome for 
him and it comes at a critical 
period,” said freshman forward 
Garrett van Wyhe. “(Then) they 
came back and scored next shift. 
It kind of gets everyone down, but 
we had good leadership. (Senior 
defenseman) Nick Boka trying 
to cheer us all up and stuff like 
that, stay even-keeled. Obviously, 
hockey’s kind of a game of 
mistakes, and we ended up kind of 
letting them go there.”
And just a few minutes after 
that, the Buckeyes put themselves 
in the lead on a goal from forward 
Quinn 
Preston 
that 
slipped 
through junior goaltender Hayden 
Lavigne’s pads. 
Michigan pulled Lavigne with 
just over two minutes to play and 
nearly tied the game on a shot from 
junior forward Will Lockwood 
that caught the left post of the net. 
“There’s a reason they’re one 
of the top teams in the country; 
they don’t let you get to the net 
very much,” said Michigan coach 
Mel Pearson. “I thought they did 
a good job of that all weekend. We 
really had to work hard to generate 
our scoring opportunities. Even 
tonight, with the goalie out, Will 
Lockwood has a wide-open net 
and hits the post. That’s how close 
it is.”
The opening stanza of the 

game came and went with little 
intrigue. 
Neither 
team 
truly 
threatened to score, and both 
Lavigne and Nappier held strong 
for their teams.
But in the second period, for 
the second straight night, the 
Wolverines were at a two-man 
disadvantage.
In 
Friday 
night’s 
game, 
Michigan got called for two 
penalties at the same time, 
giving the Buckeyes a two-man 
advantage. The Wolverines were 
able to kill off the entirety of both 
penalties and prevent Ohio State 
from scoring.
On Saturday, Michigan once 
again were down five-on-three 
after Boka was whistled for 
hooking and sophomore forward 
Dakota Raabe was also whistled 
for hooking 41 seconds later.
And this time, the Wolverines 
couldn’t 
stop 
the 
Buckeyes. 
Forward Tanner Laczynski fired a 
shot from just inside the left circle 
that Lavigne didn’t have a prayer 
of stopping. Just as it did Friday, 
Ohio State struck first.
“I thought we played a really 

solid game defensively,” Pearson 
said. “Had good goaltending. It 
came down to a couple breaks 
tonight a couple poor plays on our 
part, good plays on their part.”
Just over four minutes later, 
Michigan tied the game with 
its first power play goal since 
Dec. 31 against Michigan State. 
Sophomore defenseman Quinn 
Hughes slipped through the slot 
in front of Nappier and found 
Lockwood coming down the left 
wing out of the corner of his eye.
One quick pass from Hughes 
and a one-timer from Lockwood 
later, the game was even at one 
goal apiece.
The Wolverines didn’t lead the 
game until the third period, but 
it was a short-lived lead as the 
Buckeyes quickly pulled ahead 
and gained a lead they would 
not relinquish, despite how close 
Lockwood came to evening things 
up.
“I feel a little bit bad for our 
guys,” 
Pearson 
said. 
“They 
deserve better this weekend, but 
that’s sports and that’s where we 
are.”

Series Split
With their season on the line, Wolverines beat Buckeyes on Friday night, 2-1, before losing 4-2 in Saturday’s matchup

COLUMBUS 
— 
With 
an 
outstretched skate and some 
faceoff grit, freshmen defenseman 
Nick Blankenburg and forward 
Garrett Van Wyhe proved in 
Michigan hockey’s series split at 
Ohio State that they’re here to 
stay.
It’s not hyperbole to say 
that the Wolverines had their 
backs against the wall coming 
into 
this 
weekend’s 
series. 
They were missing sophomore 
forward Josh Norris due to an 
undisclosed injury, needed some 
kind of momentum after losing 
to 
52nd-ranked 
Merrimack 
and 
faced 
a 
fourth-ranked 
Buckeyes team that had 14 active 
upperclassmen but no freshmen.
Rather than folding to the 
pressure though, Michigan’s own 
freshmen were largely responsible 
for holding Ohio State to 16 fewer 
shots per game in the series than 
its season average, and putting 
pressure on an experienced blue 
line.

“We have a lot of growth,” said 
Wolverines coach Mel Pearson. “I 
mention that a lot, and I’m going 
to continue to talk about it. This 
team has a lot of room for growth, 
and I think you’re going to see it as 
the season progresses.”
Early on in Friday’s game, 
Blankenburg 
found 
himself 
sandwiched in a 2-on-1 odd-
man rush deep in the defensive 
zone, 
with 
nothing 
but 
an empty zone 
between 
him 
and 
Michigan 
goaltender 
Hayden 
Lavigne. 
Just 
minutes before, 
the Wolverines 
allowed 
Ohio 
State 
forward 
Carson 
Meyer 
to score because they committed 
too much to one player in a passing 
lane, allowing Meyer to tip in a 
goal on the ensuing pass.
As the two Ohio State players 
bounced the puck between each 
other, Blankenburg, unlike what 

Michigan did on the last goal, 
played the middle of the passing 
lane. Almost without thinking, 
the freshman intercepted the 
puck with an outstretched right 
skate. Making decisions like that 
naturally takes time for younger 
players, but perhaps that time has 
come for Blankenburg.
And in the absence of Norris, 
that time might just be here for Van 
Wyhe too. Though 
he’s 
usually 
on 
the 
Wolverines’ 
fourth line, he’s 
found a niche as 
one of Michigan’s 
best players for 
faceoffs and hasn’t 
been someone that 
the Buckeyes and 
opposing 
teams 
can 
dismiss 
for 
his 
linemates. 
Van Wyhe’s seven shots on goal 
this series — many of which were 
inches from finding the back of the 
net — and his 16-28 line on faceoffs 
showcase his current ability.
“How good is he?” Pearson 
said with a touch of excitement. 
“He’s really matured. I mean, 
he’s coming into his own this 
second half. He had a couple good 
scoring chances and he’s going 
to score some goals. We have the 
confidence as a staff to play him 
against anybody. Team’s top lines, 
no issue, he’s over the boards. 
That’s quite a feat for a young 
player.”
For Michigan to return to last 
year’s form, relying on players like 
Van Wyhe and Blankenburg, not 
to mention freshman goaltender 
Strauss Mann, has become the 
norm as opposed to the exception. 
They don’t need to be Norris or 
sophomore defenseman Quinn 
Hughes right away, but as Pearson 
said, it’s important that the team 
can trust the freshmen against 
any line in any arena.
“When they’re juniors and 
seniors, they’ll be like some of their 
guys who are juniors and seniors. 
And that’s another thing. We 
came and played against a whole 
different stronger, experienced 
team, and I thought we held our 
own … that’s encouraging going 
forward.”

RIAN RATNAVALE
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Freshman forward Garrett Van Wyhe had seven shots on goal as Michigan’s freshmen helped the Wolverines split their series with No. 4 Ohio State.

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

“(Van Wyhe 
is) coming into 
his own this 
second half.” 

Michigan tops Northwestern, setting program 
record with 17th-straight win to start season

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer

“When we get 
a little roll like 
that, it’s kinda 
hard to stop.”

