The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsWednesday
January 8, 2020 — 3B

Pearson increasing focus on details 
going into second half of the season

After Michigan’s loss to 
Michigan Tech last Tuesday, 
coach Mel Pearson — as he 
always does — went back to look 
at the tape from the game. This 
time, he noticed something he 
thought may have been the key 
factor in his team’s 4-2 loss to 
the Huskies.
The 
Wolverines 
had 
37 
shots on goal, including 20 in 
the first period, but only had 
traffic in front of Michigan 
Tech goaltender Matt Jurusik 
on two of those 37 shots.
“We watched a lot of hockey 
over the weekend, NHL (and) 
college games,” Pearson said 
Monday. 
“When 
you 
start 
breaking down goals and how 
they’re going in, usually there’s 
a lot of traffic. … We need to get 
traffic.”
It’s no secret that offense has 
been one of the biggest issues 
for Michigan this season, and 
its anemic average of 2.25 
goals per game 
ranks 48th of 
60 teams in the 
country. When 
there 
aren’t 
bodies in front 
of 
the 
net, 
the 
opposing 
goaltender has 
more time to 
see the shots 
coming 
at 
him. And not 
having a skater on the doorstep 
eliminates any chance of a 
rebound opportunity after a 
save.
For the second half of the 
season, Pearson’s main focus 
for 
his 
team 
is 
increased 
attention to detail. So far, 
that’s entailed getting bodies 
in front of the net to take the 
goaltender’s eyes away and 
readying for rebound chances. 
In 
Monday’s 
practice, 
the 
majority of the drills were 

focused on exactly that.
“Attention to detail, even 
when you do little drills, 
someone getting in front of the 
goalie or constantly standing 
to the side of the net,” Pearson 
said. “It’s not fun to get hit 
with that puck, it 
hurts a little bit, 
but you’ve gotta 
get there. You’ve 
gotta 
pay 
that 
price.”
Outside of the 
focus on getting 
bodies 
to 
the 
net, 
Pearson 
wants to see the 
Wolverines 
put 
more 
emphasis 
on all aspects of the game. 
Whether that’s a small detail of 
the forecheck system or making 
sure to stay focused mentally 
late in games, it all counts.
“There’s certain things we 
do when we’re either down or 
tied that we do really well and 
then once we get the lead, we 
start trying to change those 
kinds of things in our game,” 
senior 
defenseman 
Luke 
Martin said. “I don’t know 
what it is, whether it’s mental 

or what the deal is.”
Michigan has 11 losses this 
season, but only three have 
come by more than one even-
strength goal. In three games, 
the other team scored an 
empty-net goal late to win by 
a two-goal margin. On the flip 
side, the Wolverines have won 
only one game by a single goal 
— their six other wins have at 
least a two-goal margin.
When 
they 
can 
create 
separation, 
they 
can 
win. 
When it’s a close game, they 
frequently fall short. These 
things matter in must-win 
games.
“We’ve been really good for 
the most part and then a bad 
play or just a mental lapse has 
hurt us,” Pearson said. “I think 
the biggest thing is we just 
have to clean some things up 
and a little attention to detail. 
They’re not huge things. And 
then the other thing is just we 
have to get everybody on the 
same page.”
“... We’re just finding ways 
to lose games instead of win 
games, and we’re not far off, 
but winning can be habit and 
losing can.”

‘M’ falls short against Oregon State

As Jackson Striggow walked 
onto 
the 
mat 
in 
the 
day’s 
penultimate match, he knew what 
he needed to do to keep Michigan 
alive. A win from the senior, even 
by a decision, would pull the 
Wolverines within four points. 
With the nation’s third ranked 
heavyweight, sophomore Mason 
Parris, coming up next, Michigan 
could have pulled out a win. 
Striggow, however, fell 5-3, 
squashing the Wolverines’ hopes, 
as the No. 22 Michigan wrestling 
team (1-2) fell to Oregon State 
(3-1), 21-15. The six deciding points 
came from a Michigan forfeit 
at 133 pounds, where it failed to 
make weight.
Sophomore 
Jack 
Medley 
tried to set the tone early for the 
Wolverines, opening the meet 
with an 11-0 major decision at 125 
pounds. The match saw him get an 
early takedown and continue the 
attack through all three periods.
“I felt pretty decent in my 
match,” Medley said. “I thought 
my energy could’ve been a bit 
better, I kinda forced myself to 
hustle back to the center.”
Medley’s 
performance 
put 

Michigan 
up 
4-0, 
but 
was 
immediately overshadowed by the 
forfeit at 133 pounds, taking away 
the Wolverines’ only lead of the 
day.
The next match at 141 set the 
tone as freshman Cole Mattin led 
for the majority of the match but 
failed to see it out, losing 6-5.
“Our finishing was not good 
enough today,” Michigan coach 
Sean Bormet said. “We’re capable 
of being much better at finishing.”
Mattin started a string of 
matches where the Wolverines 
lost three of four, with their only 
win coming from freshman Will 
Lewan at 157 — keeping Michigan 
from falling behind by double 
figures.
Freshman Max Maylor came 
up with only four matches left and 
an eight-point deficit to overcome. 
Maylor earned a major decision 
in his match, cutting the Beavers’ 
lead in half. 
“Maylor wrestled a really good 
match,” Bormet said. “Really glad 
to see him penetrate and get his 
offense early in that match.”
Maylor’s match could have 
proved a turning point in the 
match for Michigan, but Oregon 
State had other plans.
Freshman Bobby Striggow fell 

behind by two early and never 
caught up, but he prevented the 
Beavers from getting bonus points, 
losing by decision, 8-2.
This put the score at 18-11 
when Bobby’s brother Jackson 
Striggow came out, still just barely 
in reach. Jackson’s 5-3 loss meant 
the undefeated Parris would have 
no impact on the outcome of the 
meet. Despite the gap, he still 
went out and earned a 15-5 major 
decision to bring the final score to 
21-15.
The main separator between 
the two teams ended up being 
the Wolverines’ inability to win 
close matches or finish strong 
when they held the lead. Michigan 
consistently took an early lead in 
the first period, but then failed to 
close the match out.
“We put guys out there that we 
knew were gonna be in some close 
matches,” Bormet said. “We felt 
confident we could still win those 
close matches, unfortunately we 
did not.
“I’m a little disappointed in a 
few of our weight classes just in 
terms of how we wrestled in those 
matches. Some of the effort we put 
in a few of those positions, that’s 
gotta improve. The expectation is 
a lot higher.”

Shooting leads Wolverines past MSU

Near the end of the third 
quarter, the Wolverines saw 
the game slipping away. 
Michigan 
State 
forward 
Madreika Cook had just buried 
a 3-pointer, and a Michigan 
turnover and foul allowed the 
Spartans to cut the Wolverines’ 
lead to one. Michigan State (8-6 
overall, 1-2 Big Ten) had all the 
momentum, and “Go Green, Go 
White” chants rang through an 
otherwise silent Crisler Center. 
Michigan (11-3, 2-1) got its 
answer from sophomore guard 
Amy Dilk. Just before time 
expired, she caught a pass 
from junior forward Hailey 
Brown, set her feet and buried 
a 3-pointer. From there, the 
Wolverines 
dominated 
all 
the way through, securing a 
signature 89-69 win over their 
in-state rival.
At the start, the Spartans 
set the tone offensively with 
a 
3-pointer 
on 
their 
first 
possession. They relied heavily 
on the three early on, shooting 
3-of-6 from beyond the arc 
in the first quarter, including 
two makes from guard Taryn 
McCutcheon. 
The Wolverines, meanwhile, 
went 
to 
their 
bread 
and 
butter and attacked the rim. 
Sophomore 
forward 
Naz 
Hillmon was unsurprisingly 
the most productive at the 
hoop. Though she shot an 
unusually inefficient 3-for-11 
in the first half, she managed 
to draw fouls at the rim and 
converted 
on 
5-of-6 
free 
throws. She finished the first 
half with 11 points. 
“(We needed to) match her 
energy,” said Michigan State 
coach Suzy Merchant. “The kid 
wants the ball, she ducks in, she 
can score the ball. … If you’re 
gonna have any chance to beat 
Naz, you have to have someone 
on your team that can do the 
same thing that she can do at 
the same level of intensity, and 
we didn’t have that.”
Hillmon’s 
success 
down 
low was made easier by Dilk’s 
ability to pass the ball and 
drive the lane. She tallied 

three assists and no turnovers 
— which had been a problem 
earlier in the season — in the 
first half, and added eight first 
half points of her own, six of 
which came at the hoop. 
“I think that all of my 
teammates 
being 
such 
offensive threats opened up 
the paint for me to be able to 
get those shots,” Hillmon said. 
“Especially Amy driving in and 
attacking the basket, people 
had to really focus in on her 
and worry about the outside 
shooter, so it just really opened 
everything up.”
Michigan’s 
ability to force 
turnovers helped 
it 
to 
carry 
a 
35-32 lead into 
halftime. 
The 
Wolverines 
picked up three 
steals 
in 
the 
second 
quarter 
alone 
— 
two 
of which came 
from senior guard Akienreh 
Johnson. Johnson used her 
speed and length to cut down 
a number of Michigan State 
possessions, especially when 
defending the pick-and-roll. 
When a miscommunication left 
a Spartan forward open under 
the basket for what looked 
like a guaranteed two points, 
Johnson jumped in and swiped 
the ball out of her hands. 
“We focus on defense a 
lot,” Hillmon said. “We want 
to pressure them and make 
it 
uncomfortable 
for 
them 
because we know that a lot of 
times teams do that do us.”

In the third quarter, both 
defenses 
disappeared. 
As 
Michigan State shot 69 percent 
in the quarter — and making 
both of its 3-point attempts 
— Michigan needed its own 
answer on offense. 
At a crucial juncture where 
the Spartans hit a pair of quick 
buckets to cut the lead to 
three, the Wolverines looked 
in danger of letting the game 
slip away. But on the next 
possession, Dilk drove to the 
basket and picked up a layup 
and a foul. She missed the 
free 
throw, 
but 
got 
her 
own 
rebound, 
leading 
to 
a 
3-pointer 
from 
Brown 
that stretched 
Michigan’s lead 
back to eight. 
Dilk’s buzzer-
beating 
shot 
would cap off 
a third quarter 
where the Wolverines shot an 
astounding 91 percent. 
In the fourth quarter, it was 
all Michigan. The Wolverines 
went on a 16-0 run — Michigan 
State didn’t score for the first 
five minutes of the quarter — 
that put any hopes of a Spartan 
comeback to bed. In a game that 
felt evenly matched through 
three 
quarters, 
Michigan’s 
strong second half shooting 
— they shot 78 percent from 
the field in the second half — 
propelled it to a convincing 
win, not just over a quality 
opponent, but over its biggest 
rival.

No. 5 Michigan reaps rewards of 
offseason in Orange Bowl Classic

The 
words 
“hard 
work” 
and “reward” are rarely used 
to describe the same thing. 
Usually, the former is seen as 
the latter’s antithesis. 
But according to Michigan 
women’s swim and dive coach 
Mike 
Bottom, 
his 
team’s 
training trip to Florida, which 
began shortly after Christmas 
and concluded with the Orange 
Bowl Classic in Key Largo, Fla. 
this Friday, was both. 
“We go down, we have a 
meet, see how we’ve done and 
where we are,” Bottom said. 
If his team’s performance 
against 
little-known 
foes 
including 
Wisconsin 
La 
Crosse, Florida International, 
and 
Colorado 
and 
Wagner 
Colleges, can function as such a 
barometer, the No. 5 Wolverines 
(3-0 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) appear 
ahead of schedule. Michigan 
did more than sweep every 
entered event; in only one did 
the Wolverines fail to place two 
swimmers in the three medal 
positions. They won the meet 
without the benefit of points 

from the men’s team, a boon 
which other squads could not 
capitalize on. The dominance 
occurred in unfamiliar waters 
— 
conditions 
including 
an 
outdoor, 
short-course 
pool, 
which is not NCAA regulation. 
“The course is a little bit 
different — it’s meters, as 
opposed 
to 
yards,” 
Bottom 
said. “The times are not so 
meaningful, it’s the racing that 
becomes most meaningful in 
the meet.”
Michigan now owns meet 
records in all but two events; 
sophomore Maggie MacNeil 
set two in this year’s rendition 
in the butterfly and backstroke 
sprints. MacNeil also served 
as the opening leg of the 200-
meter medley relay, using her 
two laps of butterfly to help the 
Wolverines’ quartet to a six-
second victory. 
Also on that relay, in a 
breaststroke 
capacity, 
was 
sophomore 
Olivia 
Carter. 
A 
midyear 
transfer 
from 
Georgia, where she was the 
SEC Freshman of the Year 
and got named to the All-SEC 
First Team, Carter arrives with 
expectations as high as her pile 

of hardware.
“She swims a lot of different 
events, so she will be scoring a 
lot of points in different places,” 
Bottom said. 
On Friday, Carter showcased 
her versatility across distances 
and strokes. In addition to 
her 
breaststroke 
entry 
in 
Michigan’s 
victorious 
200-
meter medley relay, she also 
notched a meet record in 
the 100-meter butterfly and 
swam to the touch against her 
teammate, sophomore Victoria 
Kwan, 
in 
the 
200-meter 
butterfly. Kwan won by a tenth 
of a second. 
“(Carter) chose us after a 
lot of research, got to know all 
of our team and our coaching 
staff, we got to know her really 
well as well,” Bottom said. “… 
We’re real fortunate to have her 
and get her into school.”
Carter’s arrival comes at an 
opportune time for Michigan, 
which is preparing for a pair 
of dual meets against No. 15 
Indiana and No. 18 Ohio State. 
“They’re gonna be difficult,” 
Bottom said. “… And then we 
take it from there, just one step 
at a time.”

SPENCER RAINES
Daily Sports Writer

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Editor

JACK WHITTEN
Daily Sports Writer

BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer

MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Sophomore Jack Medley opened Sunday’s meet with an 11-0 decision, though Michigan eventually fell to Oregon State.
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior defenseman Luke Martin said Michigan struggles with a lead.

I don’t know 
... whether it’s 
mental or what 
the deal is.

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
Sophomore center Naz Hillmon drew praise from Suzy Merchant on Sunday.

(We needed 
to) match (Naz 
Hillmon’s) 
energy.

FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan coach Mike Bottom has an exciting new piece in sophomore Olivia Carter, a transfer from Georgia.

