4B — February 3, 2020
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MICHIGAN BEATS IOWA, 78-63, BEHIND
HILLMON’S 30 POINTS
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Dominick Sokotoff / Daily
HOUSE OF NAZ
Design by Jack Silberman
Hillmon’s 30 points lead Wolverines
It’s tough to find anything
about sophomore forward Naz
Hillmon that hasn’t already
been said.
Her teammates love her.
Her
coaches
rave
about
her. Opposing coaches have
nightmares about her. All of
them have plenty to say.
And yet, she created even
more to talk about on Sunday
at Crisler Center. In Michigan’s
78-63
win
over
Iowa,
the
Wolverines’
most
consistent
player one-upped herself again,
scoring 30 points on 14-for-
19 shooting. She added 10
rebounds to secure her seventh
double-double of the season.
Even though fans have grown
accustomed
to
seeing
her
dominate, Hillmon continues to
find new ways to impress.
“To me, nobody has figured
out
how
to
defend
her,”
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico said. “I don’t know if she’s
defendable. … She affects the
game in many ways, she gets
offensive rebounds when we
need offensive rebounds, she
gets defensive stops when we
need a big defensive stop.”
Early on Sunday, it was just
Naz being Naz. She opened up
scoring with a driving layup. On
the next possession, she scored
again in the post. She didn’t
need to do much else in the first
quarter, when her teammates
shot 7-for-10 from the field.
But in the second quarter,
the Wolverines went cold. A
team that couldn’t miss early
on started the quarter 2-for-9,
allowing the Hawkeyes to pull
within six. Midway through
the quarter, Michigan had gone
nearly three minutes without a
field goal.
Hillmon ended the drought
rather
emphatically.
After
senior
guard
Akienreh
Johnson’s 3-pointer doinked off
the rim, Hillmon pushed past
an Iowa defender, grabbed the
offensive rebound and sank the
layup. She would score eight
of the Wolverines’ 15 points
that quarter.
“Their bigs worked very
hard to try to get around
me, sit behind me so I don’t
turn,” Hillmon said. “They
switched up their defense
a lot, so I had to be very
physical, try to get them as
close to under the basket as
I could because I know that
they would have help or
they have really good post
defensive players.”
That
physicality
never
wavered. As the game wore on,
Hillmon continued to bully the
Hawkeyes’ defenders, working
inside for post buckets and five
offensive rebounds.
Those numbers were even
more crucial with Michigan’s
other
bigs
in
foul
trouble.
Junior forward Hailey Brown,
who starts alongside Hillmon,
picked up her third foul late in
the second quarter. Early in the
third, freshman center Izabel
Varejão — normally the first big
off the bench — picked up her
fourth foul, putting even more
pressure on Hillmon.
In the end, it didn’t matter.
Hillmon has shown what she’s
capable of multiple times this
season, and on Sunday, she
demonstrated what it looks like
when she’s at her best.
“I think one of the greatest
things about Naz is that she’s an
incredible teammate and she’s
really, truly unselfish,” Barnes
Arico said. “So she’s having a
hard time adjusting to this role of,
‘Coach wants me to take 19 shots
a game, that’s kind of out of my
comfort zone.’ … (She’s) probably
one of the greatest players —
talents — that I’ve coached, but
even a better teammate.”
So far this season, it’s been
tough to find anyone who can
truly match up with Hillmon
when she gets going. She rolls
over everyone that tries to
guard her, and she never seems
to run out of gas, punctuated by
her 39 minutes played Sunday.
Based on her performance
against Iowa, it looks like she
can keep that up, even against
the Big Ten’s best teams.
Michigan holds off Iowa, wins 78-63
The
Michigan
women’s
basketball
team
was
in
a
dangerous spot.
After the Wolverines (14-7
overall, 5-5 Big Ten) shot 75
percent from the floor in the
first quarter and led by as much
as 12, poor second quarter
shooting allowed No. 18 Iowa
(18-4, 9-2) to cut the lead to six
with five minutes left in the
first half. Sophomore forward
Naz Hillmon was the only
Michigan player to make a shot
in the quarter — scoring all six
of the team’s second quarter
points to that point.
With just under four minutes
left in the half, freshman
guard Michelle Sidor checked
in. Sidor hadn’t scored since a
Jan. 12 loss to Maryland and
had
played
sparingly
since
then. But on her first offensive
possession,
junior
forward
Hailey Brown faced a double
team in the paint and kicked
it out to Sidor, who drained an
open 3-pointer.
Two possessions later, she
made another one, and the
Wolverines’ lead was back up
to 13. They took a 12-point lead
into halftime, en route to a
78-63 victory.
“Michelle Sidor comes in and
makes two big threes for us,
that just changed the landscape
of how they were able to defend
us and opened up the floor
for us,” Michigan coach Kim
Barnes Arico said. “(She) might
not have a ton of numbers in the
box score, but I thought (her)
play was really, really special.”
Following
an
under-.500
month of January and the
loss of second-leading scorer
Kayla Robbins, the Wolverines’
NCAA
Tournament
hopes
were in question. Picking up
their first win against a ranked
opponent is a huge boon to their
tournament chances.
Michigan took its momentum
from the first half into the
third quarter and got off to a
fast start. With 6:43 left in the
quarter, following an 11-5 run
highlighted by four of Hillmon’s
30 points, the Wolverines led
the Hawkeyes by 18.
But a minute later, freshman
center Izabel Varejão picked up
her fourth foul and had to sit.
With Brown also on the bench
deep in foul trouble, Michigan
had to turn to sophomore
forward Emily Kiser for an
extended period of time. With
Kiser in, Iowa looked to feed its
bigs and expose her. Over a 1:30
stretch, the Hawkeyes went on
an 8-0 run, cutting the lead to
11 and forcing Barnes Arico to
call a timeout.
The timeout settled down the
Wolverines. Coming out of it,
they went on a 7-0 run of their
own, with six points coming
from
Hillmon.
Michigan
averted disaster.
Despite
a
five-minute
stretch without a point and
the Hawkeyes shooting 58.8
percent in the fourth quarter,
the Wolverines survived.
“We knew they were going
to make some runs, as they did
in the third quarter,” Barnes
Arico said. “But we were able
to sustain those runs and make
big plays down the stretch and
go into someone like Naz and
make them have to defend her
down the stretch.”
Score-wise, the Wolverines
could afford to go through a
few scoring droughts due to
an efficient first quarter. After
Thursday’s loss to Northwestern
in which Michigan committed
eight first-quarter turnovers, it
emphasized coming out strong.
The Wolverines still had their
fair share of turnovers, though
— six total in the first quarter
— but they played good defense
and knocked down shots.
Michigan jumped out to a
quick 6-0 lead, and Iowa didn’t
score for the first three minutes
of the game. The Hawkeyes
stopped
the
bleeding
with
3-pointers on each of their next
two possessions, but couldn’t
gain much momentum as the
Wolverines
prevented
Iowa
from getting shots in the paint
and forcing it to settle for
3-pointers. The Hawkeyes shot
60 percent from deep in the
quarter, but made just 4-of-
11 shots from the floor, while
Michigan made 9-of-12.
“Obviously,
an
opposing
team and you’re down in the
first quarter, you’re gonna get
a little deflated,” sophomore
guard Amy Dilk said. “We
just emphasized to just keep
pushing, because they’re the
type of team — anyone in the
Big Ten — the game is not over.”
While Iowa wouldn’t relent
until the very end, a fast start
and baskets at key times to
stop the Hawkeyes’ momentum
propelled the Wolverines to
their first win over a ranked
opponent.
JACK KINGSLEY
Daily Sports Writer
BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer
I think one of
the greatest
things about
Naz is that she’s
an incredible
teammate and
she’s really,
truly unselfish.