8 — Friday, February 7, 2020
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

MICHIGAN ESCAPES PURDUE, 66-63, TO 
CLIMB ABOVE .500 IN BIG TEN PLAY

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Dominick Sotokoff / Daily

THAT’LL
PUR-DO IT

Design by Jack Silberman

Nolan’s defense stands out in start

Maddie Nolan stood on the 
court, lined up just outside the 
center circle. For the first time 
in the freshman’s career, she 
waited for the tip-off from the 
floor.
Her first start wasn’t an 
expected, 
predetermined 
ordeal — she was told earlier 
Thursday.
On Wednesday, sophomore 
guard Danielle Rauch injured 
her hand in practice, two weeks 
after the starting position fell 
in her lap when senior Kayla 
Robbins tore her ACL. 
With 
just 
seven 
players 
available 
against 
the 
team 
right above it in the standings, 
Michigan — with the help of 
Nolan — held its own Thursday 
on the way to a 66-63 victory 
over Purdue.
Nolan started the year on 
the bench, seeing minutes late 
in games when the margin 
of victory for the Wolverines 
was insurmountable. Against 
lesser opponents, she wasn’t 
flashy. Nolan made the plays 
she needed to and did what she 
was told. In close games, she 
didn’t play.
“Nolan had a tremendous 
high school career and then 
she 
suffered 
a 
significant 
injury, and coming back from 
that injury she wasn’t even 
sure what she was going to be 
able to do,” Michigan coach 
Kim Barnes Arico said. “When 
she got to Michigan this fall, 
we weren’t sure what her 

basketball career was going to 
look like, and she’s really done 
a tremendous job.”
But as the season progressed, 
her work ethic in practice 
earned her more and more 
minutes. In the last couple of 
games, Nolan has been one of 
the first players off the bench.
Then, 
on 
Thursday, 
she 
played 28 minutes.
Locking down the defensive 
end, Nolan refused to let the 

Boilermakers get hot, even as 
they targeted her. Just over a 
minute in the game, she chased 
down a shooter at the 3-point 
line and smacked away the ball.
A 
couple 
minutes 
later, 
Purdue 
looked 
to 
score 
a 
quick bucket after a defensive 
rebound 
left 
most 
of 
the 
Wolverines behind the play. 
Senior guard Akienreh Johnson 
and Nolan stood alone against 
two Boilermakers and, upon 
Johnson’s 
direction, 
Nolan 
took on the driving Karissa 
McLaughlin. 
The 
normally 
easy layup barely made it above 
McLaughlin’s head before it 
was swatted away.

These two early plays set 
the tone for the 5-foot-9 Nolan, 
who finished the game with a 
team high of four blocks. She 
even rejected a shot from the 
6-foot-4 Fatou Diagne.
“In 
high 
school, 
you 
obviously play against a lot of 
smaller kids so I could block 
some of them, but not here,” 
Nolan said. “I don’t think I’ve 
had four blocks in the whole of 
practice. … I think I just knew 
I needed to get defensive stops 
and that was my mindset.”
Nolan also pulled her weight 
on the glass, striking like a 
snake when the ball fell from 
the rims. Whether she was at 
the 3-point arc defending the 
shot, or bodying up a player on 
the post, she found the ball.
“We need five people to 
crash the defensive boards, 
we need people to crash the 
offensive boards,” Nolan said. 
“I know I’m not necessarily the 
biggest scorer, but I’m trying 
to help the team in other ways, 
like rebounding was what I 
came in focused on.”
Nolan ended the game with 
two points, six rebounds and 
four blocks. She wasn’t flashy 
and didn’t make much of an 
offensive impact. But she found 
ways to contribute when a team 
suffering from injuries needed 
her.
As the clock ticked down, 
and Purdue worked its way into 
the game, Barnes Arico trusted 
Nolan. Her fight and her grit 
were exactly what Michigan 
needed to find a way out of the 
game with a win.

‘M’ survives after nearly blowing lead

Seventeen 
seconds. 
Michigan’s ahead by three. 
Purdue has the ball and one 
last chance to force overtime. 
Eight 
seconds. 
Boilermakers’ 
guard 
Dominique Oden catches a 
pass and drives along the 
baseline. 
Three seconds. Oden pops 
up and turns to the wing, 
looking to pass it out. 
A 
whistle. 
The 
referee 
points to the baseline. Oden 
stepped out of bounds. It 
looks like the Wolverines (15-7 
overall, 6-5 Big Ten) have 
escaped with the win. 
But it wasn’t over yet. The 
inbound pass went through 
sophomore 
forward 
Naz 
Hillmon’s legs and out of 
bounds. After a review, the 
refs determined that Hillmon 
had never touched the ball. 
The Boilermakers (15-9, 6-6) 
had one last shot at it. 
After 
the 
inbound, 
the 
Purdue player heaved up a 
three-quarter-court shot. It 
fell short. Michigan survived, 
66-63. 
Even 
before 
Thursday’s 
game started, Michigan knew 
it wouldn’t be an easy night. 
Sophomore 
guard 
Danielle 
Rauch — who had been filling 
in for injured senior forward 
Kayla Robbins — was out with 
a hand injury. This meant 
freshman 
guard 
Maddie 
Nolan, who averaged just 8.8 
minutes per game entering 

Thursday’s contest, would be 
making her first career start. 
Though 
Nolan 
didn’t 
contribute 
much 
on 
the 
offensive end, she did help her 
team on the glass, securing six 
rebounds on the night. She also 
added a surprising four blocks, 
two of which came in the first 
six minutes. 
“I just try to take care of the 
ball, just bring energy to the 
floor,” Nolan said. “Obviously, 
you guys have seen (Rauch) 
just does a great job of getting 
everyone hyped. She brings the 
team together. She celebrates 
everyone no matter what, so I 
just tried to imitate that.”
Offensively, the Wolverines 
hit their stride early. With the 
Boilermakers crashing the paint 
to defend sophomore forward 
Naz Hillmon, the 3-point shot 
was open for junior forward 
Hailey Brown, who went 3-of-
4 from deep in the first half. 
Senior guard Akienreh Johnson 
followed suit, sinking a pair of 
threes en route to a 12-point 
first half. 
“Everybody 
that 
watches 
film on us — everyone in the 
country — knows that we rely 
on paint touches,” Michigan 
coach Kim Barnes Arico said. 
“ ... (But) when you can have 
people knock down the outside 
shot, it gives Naz at least a little 
bit more space to be successful.”
That 
high-low 
attack 
unleashed Hillmon, who, after 
being held to just eight points 
in the first half, doubled that 
output in a third quarter where 
her teammates struggled to 

hit shots. With the defense 
focusing on closing out on 
threes, she had just enough 
breathing room to carry the 
Wolverines into the fourth 
quarter with a six-point lead.
The separation turned out 
to be crucial, as Michigan’s 
shooting went cold in the 
fourth. 
Going 
nearly 
five 
minutes without a field goal, 
the Wolverines saw their lead 
— which had been as high as 
14 — dwindle down to one 
point with under four minutes 
remaining. 
Barnes 
Arico 
called timeout and drew up a 
play to free up Brown on the 
perimeter. Brown drained the 
three. 
“I thought the shots (Brown) 
made in the first half were 
incredible,” Barnes Arico said. 
“I thought she was open a lot 
more than we found her in the 
first half because I thought her 
girl was doubling on Naz, and 
we knew late that her girl was 
doubling on Naz, so we wanted 
to put her in some screening 
action, and if we didn’t have 
Naz we were gonna have her 
wide open coming off of a 
down screen.”
That shot — along with a 
layup from Hillmon in the final 
minute — ultimately sealed the 
win. The game was ugly, and if 
Rauch’s injury turns out to be 
long term, life won’t get any 
easier for Michigan moving 
forward. 
But 
considering 
the 
circumstances entering today, 
the team will take a win 
however it can.

BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer

KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer

I needed to get 
defensive stops 
and that was 
my mindset.

