The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, February 14, 2020 — 7A

Michigan, down to essentially 
six players, was still in it.
Sophomore 
forward 
Naz 
Hillmon was out with an upper 
body injury suffered in the first 
quarter. Freshman guard Maddie 
Nolan tallied her fifth foul early in 
the fourth quarter. Senior guard 
Akienreh Johnson was battered 
and bruised. Freshman center 
Izabel Varejão hopped on one foot 
to the bench before coming back 
on.
And yet, the Wolverines were 
still in it against the No. 19 team 
in the country, Northwestern. 
Somehow, some way, they had 
limped their way into a tight 
fourth quarter, the win within 
reach.
Down by three with a minute 
left on the clock, the Wolverines 
got the stop they needed. Now, 
they had to devise a play to draw 
level with the Wildcats. Varejão’s 
mishandled pass blew it up, 
though, and freshman guard 
Michelle Sidor’s rushed shot 
painfully bounced on both sides 
of the rim.
The win slipped away, and 
despite the fight, Northwestern 
(21-3 overall, 11-2 Big Ten) beat 
Michigan (16-8, 7-6), 66-60.
“When you lose a player like 
Naz, everybody needs to do a 
little bit more,” Michigan coach 
Kim Barnes Arico said. “I think 
we tried to do that, but I think 
our freshmen kind of got exposed 
a little bit. They were freshmen 
and I think the other team was 
really experienced and their 
experience wore on our young 
kids. Especially late, especially in 
the third quarter.”
A hush fell on Crisler Center 
back in the first quarter as 
Hillmon, Michigan’s star, lay 
curled on the court, clutching 
her shoulder after colliding with 
another player going for a loose 
ball.

“I think it pissed us off. For 
sure it pissed me off because we 
were getting hacked,” Johnson 
said. “We just have to respond. 
We’re not the only team in the 
world that this has happened to. 
… We don’t make excuses. Each 
person that goes down is another 
opportunity for somebody to 
step up and to come and play for 
them.”
Shortly after Hillmon left the 
game, her replacement — Varejão 
— put the Wolverines in even 
further trouble by picking up 
two quick fouls. They were now 
down to two viable post players, 
junior forward Hailey Brown and 
sophomore forward Emily Kiser, 
the latter of whom has rarely 
played big minutes in big games.
Northwestern fought through 
its own personnel issues, with 
four players quickly racking up 
two fouls, including its most 
potent weapon in guard Lindsey 
Pulliam — who put up 32 points 
by herself in the last meeting.
At halftime, things looked 
up for the Wolverines. Hillmon 
ended the second quarter on 
the court, the Wildcats’ offense 
couldn’t find any success and 
Johnson was stepping up, making 
a series of improbable shots. 
Michigan went to break up, 35-30. 
“We did a great job of getting 
them all in foul trouble in the first 
half,” Barnes Arico said. “That 
really helped us when they’re in 
foul trouble.”
The second half was a different 
story for the Wildcats. Guard 
Sydney Wood, who averages 4.3 
points per game, caught fire and 
scored 10 in the third quarter 
alone. 
Forward 
Abi 
Scheid, 
another thorn in the Wolverines’ 
side from their last meeting, also 
found success out of the gate with 
nine points.
“When we lost Naz and we were 
in some foul trouble we had to go 
to zone and that gave them a little 
more flexibility to move around in 
that zone,” Barnes Arico said. “I 

thought that allowed them, too, to 
be more aggressive.”
Meanwhile, Michigan couldn’t 
get its offense rolling due to a 
plague of turnovers, including 
two pivotal ones late in the third 
quarter that gave Northwestern a 
wide open layup and 3-pointer to 
take a four-point lead. 
“I thought we got tired a little 
bit and we didn’t have anybody to 
really go to when our point guard 
needed a rest and she played a lot 
of minutes for us,” Barnes Arico 
said. “Some of our turnovers in 
that third quarter, we gave up 
a big third quarter, led to easy 
buckets for them.”
Midway through the fourth 
quarter, though, the Wolverines 
were still in it. Johnson drove 
down the court, hitting a big 
layup that roused a dormant 
Crisler Center and brought them 
within three. 
And then the Wolverines, 
swaying, missed their last-ditch 
shot and fell, coming oh-so-close.

Lindsey Pulliam is nothing 
short of explosive.
Entering 
Thursday 
night’s 
game, the Northwestern guard 
was second in the Big Ten in 
scoring, averaging 19.7 points per 
game. In the Michigan women’s 
basketball team’s Jan. 30 loss to the 
Wildcats, Pulliam scored a season-
high 32 points, 22 of which came in 
the second half. She almost single-
handedly delivered the Wolverines 
an eight-point loss.
Over the two weeks since 
that 
loss, 
Michigan’s 
biggest 
challenge in preparing for the 
rematch was how to contain her. 
Without Pulliam’s dominance, the 
Wolverines felt that they could pull 
off their biggest win of the season.
From the start of Thursday’s 
game, the gameplan for defending 
Pulliam was clear: Don’t let 
her touch the ball. When she 
gets the ball, she doesn’t need 

much room to score — she can 
knock down fadeaway jumpers 
from almost anywhere on the 
court. In the loss two weeks ago, 
Michigan rarely let her get much 
separation, but she didn’t need 
it. She constantly knocked down 
improbable fadeaways to prevent 
the Wolverines from cutting into 
Northwestern’s second-half lead.
Senior 
guard 
Akienreh 
Johnson, tasked with defending 
Pulliam on Thursday, was all over 
the place to keep the ball out of her 
hands. Any time Pulliam came to 
the top of the arc to receive a hand-
off from the point guard, Johnson 
did whatever she could to get a 
hand in and deflect the ball away. 
Many of the Wildcats’ possessions 
ended without Pulliam getting a 
touch.
“I studied her style of play for 
I think a week before this game 
… and one thing that I realized 
is when she gets the ball, either 
she’s gonna score it or she’s gonna 
draw a foul,” Johnson said. “So my 
intention this entire game, I didn’t 
care if I scored one single point, I 
was just keeping the ball out of her 
hands and making sure she wasn’t 
scoring.”
When she did get the ball, 
Michigan sent a double-team at 
her, often a forward. A second, 
bigger player coming at Pulliam 
threw her off just enough that 
she couldn’t knock down that 
fadeaway. She finished with just 
four points — none in the second 
half — on 1-for-10 shooting.
“I thought Akienreh Johnson 
did a fabulous job on (Pulliam),” 
Michigan 
coach 
Kim 
Barnes 
Arico said. “I thought she was 
outstanding on her and really 
frustrated her early to the point 
that she kind of went away.”
But while Johnson shut down 
Pulliam, Northwestern still won, 
66-60, because the Wolverines’ 
offense struggled to generate 
anything in the second half. After 
shooting over 50 percent in the 
first half, Michigan shot under 35 

percent in the second. It turned 
the ball over 12 times in the second 
half, compared to just six in the 
first. The Wolverines couldn’t 
overcome the loss of sophomore 
forward Naz Hillmon — their 
leading scorer — who went down 
with an upper body injury three 
minutes into the game. 
Michigan 
held 
it 
together 
without her early on, in large 
part to Johnson’s six first quarter 
points, and she returned early in 
the second. But midway through 
the third quarter, Hillmon came 
out after aggravating her injury 
and didn’t return. 
And her second absence took a 
toll on the Wolverines’ offense.
Playing the final four minutes 
of the third quarter without 
her, Michigan committed four 
turnovers and the Wildcats went 
on a 15-6 run to end the quarter, 
turning a 3-point Wolverines lead 
into a 6-point deficit.
In the fourth quarter, Michigan 
clawed its way back, tying the 
game with three minutes to go, but 
it was the Wolverines’ defense that 
got them back in it — they forced 
Northwestern to shoot 25 percent 
in the quarter. 
Michigan’s offense couldn’t get 
anything going despite its strong 
defense. The Wolverines often had 
to take low-percentage shots, and 
when they did score, it came late 
in the shot clock. After tying the 
game, they didn’t score again, and 
only scored 11 total points in the 
quarter.
“We got stagnant a little bit 
at 
times 
because 
(Hillmon) 
dominates the ball so much,” 
Barnes Arico said. “(Freshman 
center Izabel Varejão) tried to 
do that but she’s also a freshman 
trying to do what Naz has done and 
I think she had really good spurts, 
but she didn’t sustain the level that 
Naz can play at.”
Johnson did her part on Pulliam, 
but an unfortunate injury and a 
sluggish offense cost Michigan a 
game it easily could have won.

Bested and bruised

Naz Hillmon goes down with injury as Michigan drops game to Northwestern in final seconds, 66-60

Wolverines exploit fast break in win

Franz Wagner wasn’t going to 
wait for anybody — not his fellow 
Wolverines and certainly not the 
backtracking Wildcats standing 
in his way. 
Having gathered the defensive 
rebound on one end, Wagner 
bobbed and weaved his way 
down to the other. As a final act, 
the freshman forward delicately 
ushered the ball off the glass 
and in while absorbing contact. 
With the possibility of a three-
point play upcoming, Wagner 
strolled off, puffing his chest out 
and gesturing to the Michigan 
bench, the Wolverines leading 
by 21 points. 
The sequence was just one of a 
slew of fast break opportunities 
enjoyed 
by 
the 
Wolverines 
during Wednesday’s 79-54 rout 
of the Wildcats. Whether it was 
a rim-rattling dunk by junior 
forward Isaiah Livers or a wide-
open 3-pointer from junior guard 
Eli Brooks, Michigan carved 
up 
Northwestern’s transition 
defense. By the end of the night, 
the Wolverines had scored 17 
fast break points — their highest 
tally since playing Iowa State in 
late November. 
While it’s easy to point to the 
fact that the lowly Wildcats — 
currently sitting in last place in 
the Big Ten with a 1-12 conference 
record — sit at 162nd in adjusted 
defensive efficiency according to 
KenPom, Wednesday night was 

a refreshing reminder of how 
potent Michigan can be on the 
break.
To 
this 
point, 
despite 
Michigan coach Juwan Howard’s 
fundamental 
insistence 
on 
pushing the pace, Michigan 
hasn’t quite been able to meet 
those 
expectations, 
ranking 
107th in possessions per game.
As shifty as the Wolverines’ 
guards are — namely senior 
Zavier Simpson and sophomore 
David DeJulius — Michigan’s 
transition 
offense 
was 
undoubtedly 
hampered 
by 
Livers’ 
nine-
game absence. 
With 
the 
victory 
over 
Northwestern, 
the Wolverines 
have 
now 
reached 
double-digit 
fast 
break 
points in ten 
games, 
Livers 
played in all but 
two of them. 
His willingness to run the 
floor and quick burst opens 
up lanes for Michigan’s ball-
handlers and gives them just 
another dynamic outlet to drop 
the ball off to. 
“When 
I 
was 
watching, 
sometimes it was sticky,” Livers 
said. “Coach Howard talked 
about the ball sticking. I feel like 
when I’m out there, I mean yeah, 
I try and get my shot because 
coach Howard tells me to be 

aggressive but also, I’m going to 
move the ball. When I’m at the 
top, I’m trying to orchestrate, I 
try to swing the ball to Eli for a 
three, get it to (Simpson) going 
downhill.”
Against the Wildcats, Livers’s 
presence was not only felt 
but heard. Disregarding any 
recollection of his recently-
injured groin, Livers spread 
his wings to flush home two 
monstrous dunks off transition 
feeds 
from 
Simpson 
and 
DeJulius. 
“Every time I run down the 
middle, Dave is always giving it 
back to me,” Livers said. “So I 
already knew. Let me run a little 
bit and see what (Northwestern 
forward Pete) Nance was going 
to 
do. 
He 
shadowed 
more 
towards Eli. I was there in my 
takeoff zone and went up off one. 
It’s exciting to get two dunks to 
finish a game without getting 
hurt.” 
The uptick in fast break 
opportunities for the Wolverines 
also stemmed from an increased 
workload for DeJulius when 
Simpson got in foul trouble. 
DeJulius, one of the quicker 
players on the team, accrued 
seven assists in 21 minutes 
as Michigan’s floor general, 
with 
five 
of 
them coming in 
transition.
“I’m naturally a 

scorer,” DeJulius 
said. “But that’s 
not really what I 
care about. I just 
care about doing 
whatever it takes 
for the team. Just 
to see that I got 
seven assists. To 
see guys get Isaiah the ball and 
he gets a dunk and he gets to 
yell, or me kick the ball to Cole 
(Bajema) and he gets a three. …
That feels good to me.”
It 
might’ve 
come 
against 
Northwestern, 
but 
the 
rare 
acumen the Wolverines showed 
on the fast break is definitely a 
welcome sight. 
For better or for worse, expect 
to see some more high-flying 
dunks from Livers and more 
flexing from Wagner.

Allan makes her presence known

Lou Allan wasted no time in 
Friday’s season opener. With 
two outs in the bottom of the 
first inning, the junior third 
baseman fired a ball deep into 
the right of center field and 
took off. 
It 
was 
the 
Wolverines’ 
first hit of the season and — 
after another big swing from 
sophomore infielder Morgan 
Overaitis — she scored the first 
run. 
But for Allan, it represented 
another first: The first time in 
her career that she’s been able 
to play in Michigan softball’s 
opening weekend. She spent 
most of last season in the 
dugout, recovering from a knee 
injury. 
“I 
thought 
she 
attacked 
(the injury),” Michigan coach 
Carol 
Hutchins 
said. 
“She 
couldn’t 
control 
the 
fact 
that she was hurt, she was 
highly 
disappointed, 
she’d 
fought through injury in her 
freshman year. I think it’s 
underestimated 
how 
much 
this can affect a kid who works 
all year and lifts weights all 
summer — you know, they put 
everything into this and it gets 
taken from them in a heartbeat.
“I 
was 
really 
impressed 

with how she responded to it, 
because all you can do is attack 
it. And she really did.”
Hutchins 
said 
she 
can’t 
even remember how Allan 
was playing before the injury. 
But it’s clear she’s leaps and 
bounds ahead of where she was 
at the end of last season. She’s 
stronger, her mobility is better 
and she’s faster. A couple 
months ago, it was unclear 
whether she’d 
be 
mobile 
enough to play 
defensively, 
but in January, 
Allan turned a 
corner. 
This 
weekend, 
she 
started 
every 
game on first 
base, and she 
showed 
the 
impact she can make in the 
infield. 
“She’s got a good glove, got 
a good bat — I mean, what 
can you say?” Overaitis said. 
“She brings a little toughness 
to the infield. She had a great 
weekend defensively. She had 
a lot of shots hit at her, so I 
think she’s a strong leader in 
the infield.”
But Allan’s biggest impact 
was at the plate. Last season, 
Allan got five hits in 19 at-bats. 

This year, she’s starting third 
in the lineup. And within this 
past 
weekend 
alone, 
she’s 
already matched last year’s 
hits in just 16 at-bats. 
In the season opener, she 
swung for a home run and a 
double, registering two RBI in 
the process. Against Florida 
the next day, she hit another 
homer and a single, picking up 
two more RBI. 
Despite 
the 
power in her bat, 
there 
are 
still 
places she needs 
to 
improve, 
as 
she went 0-for-
4 on the last day 
of the weekend. 
On 
the 
field, 
Hutchins wants 
her to get more 
mobile 
and 
quicker on the 
first step. But, for now, it looks 
like third in the batting order 
is exactly where Allan needs 
to be. 
“She is our most powerful 
hitter, but that doesn’t mean 
she’ll hit the most home runs,” 
Hutchins said. “We need to be 
able to hit through the middle 
of the order. We need our RBIs. 
Do I think she can do it? I 
think she can do it. I think they 
can all do it. It’s just a matter of 
whether they do it.”

LANE KIZZIAH
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Junior third baseman Lou Allan played in Michigan’s opening weekend for the first time in her college career.

I was really 
impressed 
with how she 
responded to it.

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Isaiah Livers helped lead Michigan’s fast break in Wednesday’s win.

CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer

I was there in 
my takeoff zone 
and went off 
one.

JACK KINGSLEY
Daily Sports Writer

KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer

MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Akienreh Johnson played strong defense on Lindsey Pulliam in Michigan’s loss.

