8 — Friday, February 15, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

As the Big Ten race tightens, the Wolverines keep their eyes ahead

This was supposed to be 
straightforward.
The Big Ten was supposed to 
run through the mitten this year. 
Michigan and Michigan State 
were the two highest-ranked 
teams in the conference before 
the season and the disparity 
between them and everyone 
else only seemed to grow as the 
season progressed — at the end 
of January, the Wolverines were 
20-1, the Spartans 18-3.
It was all supposed to come 
to a head on Mar. 9 in East 
Lansing in the second meeting 
between the teams. It couldn’t 
have been scripted any better: 
on the last day of the regular 
season, two juggernauts with no 
love lost between them would 
walk into the Breslin Center, and 
one would emerge as Big Ten 
champion.
Turns out, nothing’s that 
simple. Not in a conference 
where 10 of 14 teams currently 
harbor 
reasonable 
NCAA 
Tournament hopes.
For starters, other legitimate 
challengers 
have 
emerged. 
Purdue, which Michigan blasted 
by 19 in December, rattled off 
eight straight wins, including a 
defeat of Michigan State, before 
falling to Maryland on Tuesday. 
The Boilermakers and Terrapins 
sit at third and fourth, both 
within a game of the Wolverines 
and Spartans. Wisconsin and 
Iowa, at 9-5 and 8-5 respectively, 
lurk just beyond, and both teams 
have also beaten Michigan.
Meanwhile, the cannibalism 
that has pervaded the Big Ten’s 
middle and lower tiers has 
finally caught up to the top. The 
Spartans’ 
recent 
three-game 
losing streak included a home 
defeat to 11th-place Indiana 
and a loss at Illinois, which has 
won four straight after a 2-8 
conference start. Penn State, just 
2-11 in conference play, chased 
the Wolverines out of State 
College with a 75-69 win on 

Tuesday.
All of a sudden, the Michigan-
Michigan State prize fight is no 
longer a foregone conclusion.
“It’s great for our league to 
have a team who’s in the bottom 
of the league beat a team that’s 
going for the championship,” 
said Wolverines coach John 
Beilein on Tuesday. “It means 
there’s great parity.”
Beilein was as positive as one 
could be about a game in which 
his first-place team was, in the 
words of redshirt junior guard 
Charles Matthews, “punked” by 
the conference’s cellar dweller.
“It just shows who they are. 
They’re a top-100 team,” Beilein 
said of Penn State. “All you will 
make a whole lot about their Big 

Ten record, just look at their 
scores. They’re a basket or two 
away from being a team in the 
middle of our league with all 
those games they’ve played. 
We lose to a top-100 team on 
the road, it’s not the end of the 
world.”
Coachspeak or not, Beilein has 
a point — the Nittany Lions are 
ranked 347th in KenPom.com’s 
“luck” rating, factoring in the 
number of close losses they’ve 
suffered. Penn State might be 
just 9-15, but its KenPom rating 
of 58th is the highest of any team 
with less than 10 wins, by a wide 
margin. It was always capable 
of beating Michigan if enough 
swung in its favor.
Matthews, however, was far 

more critical in his evaluation.
“(No) sense of urgency, lack 
of focus right there,” he said. 
“Simple as that.”
But 
underlying 
these 
contrasting postgame sentiments 
is a point of agreement between 
coach 
and 
player. 
Beilein 
indirectly noted it when he 
extolled the Big Ten’s depth. 
Matthews was more explicit. The 
Wolverines aren’t flying above 
the conference’s pressure cooker 
anymore — they’ve been dragged 
back in, and their mentality must 
be adjusted accordingly.
“You got to respect each and 
every game,” Matthews said. 
“Lack of discipline, lack of effort, 
not having a sense of urgency. 
I tell my guys, all of our losses 

came to teams who at the time 
weren’t ranked. … Clearly (that) 
has to do something with our 
focus.”
The problems that were on 
display in Happy Valley didn’t 
start there, but the loss might 
serve a benefit as a much-
needed wake-up call. To take 
advantage of it, Michigan needs 
to learn from what went wrong 
Tuesday and, if Matthews is 
representative of anything, it has 
the sense of urgency needed to 
do so.
“I’m not gonna hang my head 
and quit before the end of the 
season,” Matthews said. “We 
gotta go out fighting, nothing to 
lose. Get my teammates to rally 
on with me. We gotta be better.”

That 
starts 
as 
soon 
as 
Saturday, when Maryland comes 
to Crisler Center with a much 
stronger team than Penn State. 
The Terrapins represent a new 
reality for the Wolverines: if they 
want to achieve their ultimate 
goals — celebrating a conference 
title in their rivals’ arena, a third 
straight Big Ten Tournament 
championship or a deep run 
in March — there’s no margin 
for error. Not in arguably the 
toughest conference in America.
The path to achieving those 
goals isn’t as straightforward 
as it once was. But on Tuesday, 
Matthews couldn’t have been 
more clear:
“Don’t get punked. It’s simple. 
Don’t get punked.”

With just under 30 seconds 
remaining in Michigan’s 67-58 
win over Indiana, Kim Barnes 
Arico pulled senior center 
Hallie Thome out of the game. 
As Thome took a seat on the 
bench, her coach approached 
her.
“Did you get it?” Barnes 
Arico asked.
“No coach, I needed one 
(more),” Thome said.
Despite 
finishing 
one 
point shy of the 2,000 point 
milestone, Thome was fine 
getting the only stat that 
mattered to her on the night: a 
fifth-straight victory.
After 
scoring 
one 
point 
against Penn State, Thome 
bounced back in a big way in 
Thursday’s win. Thome — who 
was masterful all night long 
with a 14-point, 11-rebound 
performance that also included 
three assists, two steals, and 
three blocked shots — netted 
seven points in the first half. 
Michigan, 
however, 
found 
themselves in a five-point hole 
heading into the locker room.
To try and spark a run, 
Barnes 
Arico 
started 
the 
second half with freshman Naz 

Hillmon coming in at power 
forward — pairing Thome with 
her heir and sparking a 9-0 run 
to seize the game’s momentum 
and bring the Crisler Center 
crowd to its feet.
“I think it’s a tremendous 
thing,” Thome said. “To have 
me, Hailey and Naz, three bigs, 
some guard has to guard one of 
us.”
While Thome scored just 
two points in the third quarter, 
she dominated 
on the glass and 
helped to create 
transition 
opportunities 
by forcing steals 
down low and 
registering 
a 
blocked 
shot. 
On the offensive 
end, her lone 
bucket came on 
a play that saw 
her strip a Hoosier defender 
to regain possession of a loose 
ball before banking in a tough 
layup to tie the score at 39.
In 
the 
fourth 
quarter, 
Thome came up with two of 
the team’s most important 
baskets. 
With 
just 
under 
4:30 remaining, Thome hit 
a right-handed hook shot to 
give Michigan a 56-55 lead. 

Two-and-a-half minutes later, 
Thome once again converted 
a hook shot, this time with her 
left while earning a trip to the 
line for a three-point play in 
the process. Thome’s ability to 
muscle through the contact to 
finish the tough shot reminded 
her of a certain teammate.
“I felt like Naz on that one!” 
she laughed.
As the final buzzer sounded, 
the 
Wolverines 
locked 
up 
another 
huge 
conference win 
to 
push 
their 
conference 
record to 8-6 
and, 
most 
importantly, 
improve 
their 
resume 
for 
the 
NCAA 
Tournament. 
The team’s next 
game 
will 
be 
on the road against Illinois on 
Sunday, meaning that Thome 
will be unable to secure her 
scoring 
milestone 
in 
front 
of her home fans. Thome, 
however, reiterated that she 
got exactly what she wanted:
“At the end of the day, I’m 
not worried about the points,” 
she said. “As long as we win, 
I’m a happy camper.”

Charging to victory
Michigan comes from behind to beat Indiana, 67-58, moving to 8-6 in the Big Ten and boosting NCAA Tournament hopes

With 30 seconds on the clock 
and Indiana pushing the ball, the 
Hoosiers looked poised to cut into 
the Michigan women’s basketball 
team’s 63-58 lead. But then Nicole 
Munger stepped in. Literally.
With four fouls to her name, 
the senior guard planted her feet 
and took a charge right near the 
basket to give the Wolverines the 
ball back, effectively icing the 
game. 
“It’s 
Munger,” 
said 
junior 
guard Akienreh Johnson said. 
“Everybody else was probably 
like, ‘Wow that’s amazing.’ But she 
does that every day.”
Thanks to Munger’s hustle play 
and strong performances from 
Thome, who had a double-double 
with 14 points and 11 rebounds 
and Johnson — who stepped 
up in the absence of injured 
freshman guard Amy Dilk, going 
for 16 points and seven rebounds 
— Michigan (8-6 Big Ten, 17-9 
overall) got a come-from-behind 
67-58 victory on Thursday night 
against Indiana, its fifth-straight 
win. 
The Wolverines started off 
the game strong, jumping out 
to an 8-2 lead in the first three 
minutes, thanks in part to a 
pair of 3-pointers from Johnson 
and sophomore forward Hailey 
Brown. A few minutes later — 
following freshman forward Naz 
Hillmon’s layup, a pair of free 
throws from sophomore guard 
Deja Church and a Johnson 
jumper — Michigan extended its 
lead to 18-10.
Then things started to change. 
Quickly.
From the final 2:22 in the first 
period until nearly two minutes 
into the second quarter, the 
Wolverines failed to score. The 
Hoosiers (6-8, 17-9), meanwhile, 
put together an eight-point run 
during that same stretch to tie 
the game. Johnson finally ended 
the scoring drought for Michigan 
with a layup in the low post to go 
up, 20-18. 
But things didn’t change much 
for the Wolverines after that. 
During the final eight minutes of 

the first half, Michigan could only 
muster six points.
“We (talked) about (how) we 
kind of went away from what was 
working,” Johnson said. “So we 
had a lot of transition and we went 
away from that. I think it might 
have been a little bit of fatigue and 
a little bit of like we didn’t think 
that we could keep getting the 
shots that we were getting.” 
Indiana, 
meanwhile, 
got 
everything it wanted. Following 
the Johnson layup, the Hoosiers 
and Wolverines traded a pair of 
baskets each before Indiana went 
on its second run of the game, 
registering nine straight points 
during a four-minute run at the 
end of the second period. Thome 
rescued the Wolverines with 
an up-and-under layup with 21 
seconds remaining, cutting the 
deficit to five going into the half. 
A big reason for Michigan’s 
struggles late in the first and 
throughout the second quarter 
was turnovers. After committing 
just three turnovers in the first 
eight minutes of the game, the 
Wolverines committed another 
three in the last two minutes of 
the quarter. Then, in the second 
quarter, Michigan recorded four 
more turnovers in the first 4:20 of 
the period. The Hoosiers totaled 
12 first-half points off turnovers.
Michigan coach Kim Barnes 
Arico attributed much of the 
turnover issues to the team 
missing Dilk. 
“Amy was probably averaging 
about 35 minutes a game and 
she had the ball in her hands, 
especially under pressure,” Barnes 
Arico said. “A lot of decision 

making came through her and 
now we’re putting Deja there, 
we’re putting Akienreh there, 
putting Nicole there, (freshman 
guard) Danielle Rauch a little bit 
at times in that spot. … And now 
teams are pressuring us.” 
Coming into the second half, it 
looked like not much had changed 
for the Wolverines. After allowing 
an Indiana layup, Michigan then 
proceeded to turn it over on its 
first possession after the break. 
But, as quickly as things 
changed for the worse in the first 
half, they changed for the better in 
the second. 
Highlighted 
by 
Brown’s 
second 3-pointer of the night, the 
Wolverines put together a 7-0 run 
of their own to tie the game at 35. 
The rest of the quarter was a 
back-and-forth affair, with the two 
squads trading basket after basket. 
Then, with seconds remaining, 
Munger caught the ball in the 
corner and knocked down a three 
as time expired to give Michigan a 
51-48 lead heading into the fourth. 
In what continued to be a 
tense battle, the Hoosiers and 
Wolverines exchanged blows in 
the final period. 
With Michigan clinging to 
a 58-57 lead, Thome converted 
a spinning layup while getting 
fouled to extend the lead to four 
with just under two minutes 
remaining. 
“In the fourth quarter we 
brought a huddle in,” Thome said, 
“and it was pretty close and we 
said, ‘We’ve been here every game 
and we know what to do,’ ”
Then, the Wolverines went out 
and did it.

JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Editor

MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein credited Penn State as better than its 9-15 record after the Nittany Lions beat Michigan 75-69 in State College on Tuesday for just their second win in the conference.

BENNETT BRAMSON
Daily Sports Writer

TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Akienreh Johnson went for 16 points and seven rebounds against Indiana.

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Senior center Hallie Thome left Thursday’s win over Indiana just one point short of 2,000 on her career.

At the end of 
the day, I’m not 
worried about 
the points.

