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.