8 — Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

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Similar mistakes cost Wolverines

Michigan could not stop 
Cassius Winston. Again.
Michigan State stymied the 
Wolverines’ ball-screen game. 
Again.
Michigan blew a second-half 
lead. Again.
The 
difference 
between 
Feb. 24 in Ann Arbor — a 77-70 
Wolverine loss — and three days 
ago in East Lansing? Saturday 
was not only for bragging 
rights but for a conference 
championship.
Michigan lost to Michigan 
State, 75-63, and came away 
with neither. The reasons why 
either had roots stemming from 
the team’s first 
meeting or were 
taken 
directly 
from the game 
two weeks ago.
First 
up: 
Winston — the 
newly-minted 
Big Ten Player 
of the Year — 
who scored 27 
points and eight 
assists 
in 
the 
first meeting while playing 
from tip-off to final buzzer.
Postgame 
Saturday, 
sophomore 
forward 
Isaiah 
Livers was asked what the 
Wolverines’ biggest takeaway 
from two weeks prior was. He 
sighed and gave a no-doubter of 
an answer.
“Can’t let Cassius take us 
across the court on a ball-
screen,” Livers said. “He did it 
again and again and again in 
the second half, 
and we had no 
answer for the 
run.”
Michigan 
looked to have 
an answer early 
on. 
Instead 
of 
hedging 
ball-screens 
— 
sending 
junior 
center Jon Teske 
with 
Winston 
on the perimeter to push him 
away from the basket, which 
the Wolverines had done in the 
first meeting — they switched 
them, taking away many of the 
easy assists to a wide-open roll 
man that Winston tallied in 
February.
Junior 
Zavier 
Simpson, 

meanwhile, was his normally 
rugged 
defensive 
self 
once 
again. 
When 
Winston 
and 
Simpson went at it, Michigan’s 
point guard usually won the 
battle. Winston shot just 1-for-
5 with seven points in the first 
half.
But ultimately, Winston was 
too good and too much. As the 
Wolverines bricked their lead 
away, Winston — just as he had 
done two weeks ago — slithered 
around defenders and got to 
the rim with ease in the second 
half. His 23 points and seven 
assists led both categories.
If there’s one person who 
could have stopped Winston, 
or at least prevented him 
from taking total control of 
the game, that 
man was lined 
up across from 
him in a blue 
jersey. Simpson 
couldn’t, for the 
second time in a 
row. There’s no 
shame in that, 
but Simpson — 
who, according 
to 
freshman 
David DeJulius, 
told his team that Winston’s 
performance was his fault — 
certainly felt differently.
“We 
couldn’t 
stop 
him 
from 
turning 
the 
corner,” 
said assistant coach DeAndre 
Haynes. “He turned the corner 
at will, anytime he wanted to.”
The Wolverines had no more 
luck scoring off their own 
ball-screens. Michigan State 
coach Tom Izzo’s stroke of 
genius in the first matchup was 
switching every 
screen and cut 
off 
Simpson’s 
dribble 
penetration, 
forcing one-on-
one 
situations. 
With one of its 
offensive staples 
neutralized, 
Michigan 
fell 
apart.
Coming 
into Saturday, the Wolverines 
were optimistic that this time 
would be different. They were 
merely caught off-guard by 
the Spartans’ adjustments, and 
with time to make their own, 
they would put the shoe on 
the other foot. Michigan was 
prepared to attack mismatches 

— such as finding Teske down 
low after a guard switched onto 
him — and show discipline on 
isolations.
The Wolverines did neither. 
Simpson missed 10 of 13 shots, 
including many at the rim. 
Teske took just five shots — 
the same as in February — and 
Michigan stopped trying to feed 
him. The Wolverines’ 15 points 
in the last 14 minutes mirrored 
their slump of nine points in 15 
minutes in the second half of 
the first game.
“I thought we had a really 
good plan the first half,” said 
Michigan coach John Beilein. 
“The second half, kids just 
aren’t used to (Michigan State’s 
defense). … Just things we gotta 
learn.”
Much 
credit 
belongs 
to 
Michigan 
State, 
especially 
Xavier 
Tillman. 
The 
sophomore 
forward 
showed 
the athleticism to shut down 
guards on the perimeter and the 
explosiveness to lock down the 
paint when the guards got that 
far, finishing with five blocked 
shots. Tillman was a matchup 
nightmare 
the 
Wolverines 
couldn’t wake up from.
Against players like Winston 
and 
Tillman, 
there’s 
only 
so much a team can do. But 
whatever Michigan had the 
chance to do, it was unable 
to — and the product was a 
result earned in a painstakingly 
familiar way.
“We weren’t poised when 
we needed to,” Beilein said. 
“We needed to be poised at that 
time and we weren’t. We didn’t 
show.”
The regular season is over 
now. By the time of their 
first game in the Big Ten 
Tournament, the Wolverines 
will have had five days to 
recover and gear up for a 
new phase of their campaign. 
They’re also likely to receive 
reinforcements, 
as 
redshirt 
junior wing Charles Matthews 
appears 
close 
to 
returning 
from an ankle injury for the 
postseason, where Michigan 
has historically hit its highest 
gear.
But if the Wolverines revert 
to their old tendencies like they 
did Saturday, if they can’t learn 
from their mistakes and apply 
those lessons in time, they’ll 
have a tough time finding that 
level.

Canfield’s bat catches fire out West

The weather may have been 
hot, but Faith Canfield came out 
scorching.
As a Southern California 
native, 
the 
senior 
second 
baseman is used to the heat. 
Temperatures hovered around 
the mid-70s when the No. 25 
Michigan softball team battled 
against some of the nation’s top 
competition at last week’s Judi 
Garman Classic and Arizona 
State Invitational, but no source 
of heat was more intense than 
Canfield’s bat.
The flip of the calendar 
brought 
about 
some 
much-
needed success for Canfield, 
who came into the month with 
a .283 batting average — a figure 
well below her lofty standard. 
Canfield 
posted 
respective 
batting averages of .398 and .391 
in her sophomore and junior 
seasons en route to earning 
All-America honors in each 
campaign.
On Feb. 19, Michigan coach 
Carol Hutchins told The Daily 
that she wanted to see Canfield 
“take this team by the horns.”
Despite games against No. 5 
Florida, No. 7 Arizona, and No. 9 
Louisiana State, the Wolverines 
limped into this month without 
a 
signature 
win. 
Much 
of 
their shortcomings paralleled 
Canfield’s efforts to rediscover 
the swing that placed her among 
the nation’s best infielders. After 
14 starts, she entered this month 
with just three multi-hit games, 
four RBIs and zero extra-base 
hits.
But when the new month 
rolled around, Canfield took a 
firm grasp of those horns.
Canfield sparked Michigan’s 
success at the Judi Garman 
Classic on March 1, driving in 
a pair of runs with a go-ahead 
single 
in 
the 
sixth 
inning 
against 
previously-unbeaten 
No. 2 UCLA, which propelled 
the Wolverines to a 3-1 upset 
victory. The win gave the 

team an energy boost, while 
Canfield’s big hit had the exact 
same effect on a personal level.
Two 
days 
later, 
Canfield 
reached base in two of her 
three at-bats in Michigan’s 4-2 
victory over No. 5 Washington. 
Her confidence at the plate gave 
way to success on the basepath, 
as she scored a run and swiped 
a bag in the team’s second upset 
in as many games.
Later 
that 
afternoon, 
Canfield delivered once again. 
This 
time, 
the 
Wolverines 
were deadlocked in a scoreless 
tie against California State-
Northridge in the final inning 
when she stepped up to the 
plate. With junior outfielder 
Haley 
Hoogenraad 
standing 
on second base, Canfield laced 
a double into right field. When 
the dust settled, her walk-off 
heroics lifted the Wolverines to 
an unbeaten weekend after a 7-8 
start.
“(Canfield) is doing her part,” 
Hutchins said. “She’s gone above 
and beyond this past weekend 
and I’m hoping it can inspire us 
and give us some confidence.”
When the team made its way 
south of Canfield’s home state, 
her hot streak continued at 
the Arizona State Invitational. 
She reached base safely in four 
of Michigan’s five games — 
including a pair of three-hit 
efforts in the last two contests 
of the weekend — highlighted 
by a power surge against New 

Mexico State. Canfield recorded 
a pair of doubles and launched 
her first long ball of the season 
in the Wolverines’ 3-0 victory 
over the Aggies.
Between 
the 
two 
tournaments, Canfield posted 13 
hits in 29 at-bats — good for an 
average of .448 — while driving 
in six runs and striking out just 
twice. Less than two weeks 
after sitting on a .283 batting 
average, her clip has ballooned 
to .347.
Though her success on the 
field has helped the Wolverines 
add tallies to their win column, 
it was Canfield’s continued work 
ethic through a cold February 
that struck the most meaningful 
chord to her teammates.
“It’s been great looking to 
(Canfield),” 
said 
freshman 
outfielder Lexie Blair. “She’s 
one of our team captains and 
you really just she that drive in 
her when she plays, and I know 
she has her moments when she’s 
struggling a little bit. Before 
I even came here, I grew up 
watching her over her years in 
Michigan, finally seeing her as 
a senior, seeing her doing her 
thing, being consistent as she is, 
the past couple weekends have 
been amazing and I really look 
up to her, and so do many other 
people.”
If Michigan is to sustain any 
success, Canfield can’t afford 
to loosen her grip on the team’s 
horns.

JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Editor

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein and his team lost to Michigan State under similar circumstances as two weeks ago.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior second baseman Faith Canfield has seen renewed success in March.

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

(Winston) did it 
again and again 
and again in the 
second half.

I thought we 
had a really 
good plan in 
the first half.

