The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, February 20, 2020 — 7

As it entered the locker room 
at 
halftime 
Wednesday, 
the 
Michigan 
women’s 
basketball 
team had to catch its breath. 
The Wolverines just watched 
Illinois guard Brandi Beasley 
drive the length of the Crisler 
Center floor in five seconds, 
sinking a layup to give the 
Fighting Illini — the No. 13 team 
in the Big Ten — a one-point lead 
entering the break. It was a fitting 
end to a first half where Illinois 
shot 56.7 percent, including an 
electric 8-for-13 from three. 
For Michigan to avoid an 
embarrassing loss to the Big Ten’s 
doormat, it would need to lock in 
defensively. 
The Wolverines did just that, 
allowing just 17 points the entire 
second half and running away 
with an 80-59 victory. 
“It 
was 
really 
nice 
that 
we weren’t in a panic mode,” 
Michigan coach Kim Barnes 
Arico said. “But I also thought 
that we needed to be locked in 
and focused. I said that we need 

to defend, we need to lock in, we 
need to focus. I was kind of on 
them during one of the timeouts, 
that we need to turn this up … 
and I think they really took that 
to heart and went back out there 
and tried to do a better job on the 
defensive end.”
From the beginning, the Illini 
were on fire offensively. With 3:28 
remaining in the first quarter, 
they entered the first media 
timeout with 21 points, 15 of which 
came from their perfect 5-for-5 
on 3-pointers. The Wolverines 
hung around — largely thanks to 
scoring from sophomore guard 
Amy Dilk, senior guard Akienreh 
Johnson and junior forward 
Hailey Brown — but they couldn’t 
keep up with Illinois defensively.
But the second half looked like 
a completely different ballgame. 
Suddenly, 
Illinois’ 
shooters 
couldn’t find any space. After 
going underneath screens in the 
first half to deny the inside, the 
Wolverines’ defenders instead 
went over the screens to close out 
on shooters. 
As a result, Illini guards Jeanae 
Terry and Petra Holešínská — 

who each went 2-for-3 from three 
and scored eight points apiece 
in the first half — were held to 
a scoreless, 0-for-6 combined 
second half. The rest of the 
team followed suit, shooting an 
abysmal 1-for-12 from beyond the 
arc.
“They came out lights out 
(early on), and our kids had to 
realize that they couldn’t help off 
the shooters,” Barnes Arico said. 
“We had to take away space and 
give up twos for threes at that 
point and really deny the reversal 
passes. … And then we did a great 
job in the second half of not 
allowing those threes.”
Meanwhile, 
Michigan 
maintained its level of scoring. 
Sophomore forward Naz Hillmon 
— who was limited by an upper-
body injury in Sunday’s loss at 
Rutgers — contributed to this 
effort, notching 12 second-half 
points after a quiet start to the 
game. 
Alongside 
Johnson’s 
continued scoring and Dilk’s 
passing, the Wolverines got back 
to their lethal high-low attack 
that was missing Sunday, best 
exemplified by a well-worked 
fourth-quarter 
sequence 
that 
stretched their lead to nine.
“I remember it was after a 
timeout, and (junior forward 
Hailey Brown) threw me a pass I 
had to get up and get,” Dilk said. 
“And flash in the middle was open 
the whole game, and (Johnson) 
made the right read, she flashed in 
and hit the high-low to Naz who 
sealed the player off and hit that 
huge bucket for us.”
That bucket, of course, didn’t 
win Michigan the game. It made 
up just two points in a 21-point 
victory over an inferior opponent.
But 
considering 
how 
the 
Wolverines looked Sunday against 
Rutgers, it’s definitely a positive 
sign. It shows they’ve moved on 
from their most disastrous outing 
all season and are back to doing 
what they’re expected to do. 
Even if that’s just blowing out a 
bottom-tier Big Ten team.

In 
a 
game 
that 
wasn’t 
supposed to be much of a 
challenge, 
the 
Michigan 
women’s basketball team found 
itself in an early scare.
Powered by a first quarter 
in which it shot 11-for-16 from 
the floor and 6-for-8 from 
3-point range, Illinois led the 
Wolverinesfor much of the first 
half. Michigan didn’t take a lead 
until 44 seconds 
remaining in the 
half, but a coast-
to-coast 
layup 
by 
Fighting 
Illini 
guard 
Brandi Beasley 
as time expired 
put 
Illinois 
back on top by 
one 
entering 
halftime.
But that was 
the last time Illinois led, as the 
Wolverines (17-9 overall, 8-7 
Big Ten) held off the Illini (11-
15, 2-13) for a 80-59 victory. 
Early in the third quarter, 
sophomore 
forward 
Naz 
Hillmon — who scored just 
three points in the first half — 
got going. After suffering an 
upper body injury in the Feb. 
13 loss against Northwestern, 
Hillmon 
struggled 
Sunday 
against Rutgers, clearly less 
than full strength. She scored 
the Wolverines’ next six points 
and finished with 15 points 
and 10 rebounds, quelling any 
concerns the injury would be a 
lingering issue. 
“She 
didn’t 
have 
a 
tremendous statline in the first 
half, but just her presence out 
there was great,” Michigan 
coach Kim Barnes Arico said. 
“And then second half, we tried 
to go to her a little bit more and 
she kind of got back into her 
groove.”
The 
Wolverines’ 
defense 
stayed 
strong 
throughout 

the 
third 
quarter. 
Despite 
giving up 42 points in the 
first 
half, 
Michigan 
didn’t 
play 
particularly 
poorly 
— 
the Illini just kept making 
improbable 
shots. 
Without 
Illinois 
knocking 
down 
an 
uncharacteristically 
high 
percentage of those shots, the 
Wolverines held the Illini to 
just six points in the third 
quarter.
“We decided ‘Let’s just take 
the ball, get the ball out of their 
hands,’ ” senior 
guard Akienreh 
Johnson 
said. 
“ 
‘Let’s 
deny 
the next pass. 
Let’s mess up 
their 
offense, 
get them a little 
rattled so that 
once they do get 
that wide open 
shot 
they’re 
shaken 
up 
so 
much that they can’t make it.’ ”
Michigan took a nine-point 
lead into the fourth quarter, 
powered by eight third-quarter 
points from Hillmon and six 
from Johnson, who finished 
with 22 points.
In the fourth quarter, the 
Wolverines continued to score 
at a pace Illinois couldn’t keep 
up with, outscoring the Illini 
23-11 in the quarter. Despite 
a brief scrum between junior 
forward Hailey Brown and 
Illinois forward Ali Andrews 
with three minutes remaining 
in the game that resulted in 
Brown 
getting 
disqualified, 
Michigan 
cruised 
past 
the 
Illini. 
After a hot Illinois start, 
the 
Wolverines 
got 
their 
offense going — Johnson and 
sophomore guard Amy Dilk led 
the way with seven points each 
— but the Illini continued to 
knock down improbable shots, 
including multiple 3-pointers 
while heavily defended. They 
led 28-24 after the first quarter, 

backed 
by 
two 
3-pointers 
apiece 
from 
Andrews 
and 
guards Petra Holesínská and 
Jeanae Terry.
But Andrews picked up her 
second foul early in the second 
quarter and had to sit, while 
Holešínská 
and 
Terry 
both 
cooled down. After combining 
for 20 points in the first half, 
the trio scored just six the rest 
of the way. Michigan, on the 
other hand, got hot from deep, 
knocking down 3-of-6 — two 
from Brown, who scored 11 
points in the first half.
“When 
(Brown) 
hits 
3-pointers, it gives her the 
confidence to play a little 
harder, play on the defensive 
end,” Johnson said. “We knew 
that the next rotation they were 
going to be out denying Hailey 
or out denying shooters and we 
were going to have an easy post 
touch.”
It wasn’t easy from the 
start, but a strong all-around 
offensive 
performance 
and 
a resurgent Hillmon led the 
Wolverines to a comfortable 
win.

Back to basics

Michigan easily beats Illinois, 80-59, behind full-strength Hillmon and 22 points from Johnson

A

lmost exactly three 
months after Michigan 
went to East Lansing in 
November 
and got shut 
out, 3-0, by 
Michigan 
State, the 
Wolverines 
went back 
to Munn Ice 
Arena and 
wrote a very 
different 
story.
They won, 
5-1, and followed that win up with 
a 4-1 win over the Spartans in 
Detroit on Monday to complete 
the sweep. 
“We looked at the tape when 
we played them here earlier this 
year,” Michigan coach Mel Pear-
son said Friday night. “It’s like a 
horror movie. We were so bad. 
And nothing against them, but we 
were just so bad, and we played so 
much better (tonight).”
On Nov. 16 after Michigan lost 
in East Lansing, the Wolverines 
were six games into Big Ten play 
and had only one point in the con-
ference standings. Before Michi-
gan got its first Big Ten win, it 
went 0-6-1 through its first seven 
conference games.
The picture for the Wolverines 
couldn’t be more different now. 
After starting out firmly in last 
place in the Big Ten, Michigan is 
now in third place and just three 
points behind Penn State and 
Minnesota, which are tied for the 
lead. If — emphasis on if — the 
Wolverines sweep Notre Dame 
and Minnesota to close the regu-
lar season, they’ll win the Big Ten 
regular season title.
In that first series against 
Michigan State, Pearson saw his 
team struggle in nearly every 
aspect of the game. The Wolver-
ines blew a 3-1 lead on the Thurs-
day night to lose, 4-3, and couldn’t 
put the puck past goaltender John 
Lethemon on the Saturday.
Wednesday in the offices at 
Yost Ice Arena, Pearson reeled off 
a laundry list of things that went 
wrong for Michigan in November.
“Just our overall compete 
level,” Pearson said. “Our execu-
tion of passing and plays. I’m 

maybe being overcritical, but 
we’re so much better in those 
areas now for the most part. … 
Just our awareness, our alertness. 
Just our compete level. Just our 
execution. Skating. Breaking the 
puck out.
“...We’re a lot different team. 
We’re playing a lot better. But we 
were way off early.”
Some of this resurgence has 
been keyed by Michigan playing 
with, for the most part, a healthy 
lineup. Michigan had five play-
ers miss at least one game in the 
12-game span between the begin-
ning of the season on Oct. 11 and 
the second game against the Spar-
tans in November for a total of 11 
man games lost to injury.
Three players have missed a 
total of four games in the 18 games 
since. Freshman forward Eric 
Ciccolini has also been lost for the 
rest of the season, but his 11 points 
in 26 games is an easier loss to 
absorb than, for example, senior 
forward Jake Slaker, who has 23 
points in 17 games since scoring 
his first goal on Nov. 23.
But it isn’t just having healthy 
players that’s enabled Michigan 
to find success and turn things 
completely around after getting 
swept by Michigan State early in 
the year.
The Wolverines spent months 
working in practice to crisp things 
up, and now that the offense has 
started to come, the confidence 
has followed.
It’s somewhat of a self-fulfilling 
prophecy. When the puck isn’t 
going in the net, your confidence 
drops, and then your next shots 
become even less likely to find 
twine. The opposite is true when 

a player is able to break out of a 
slump and start lighting the lamp.
“I just think things are starting 
to click,” sophomore defenseman 
Nick Blankenburg said. “I think 
we’re starting to figure out the 
way we need to play, and I think 
everyone’s playing to their style 
and everyone’s doing what they 
need to do to help the team win.”
And Michigan is also dem-
onstrating a full commitment to 
team defense in a way it didn’t 
always early in the year. In Mon-
day night’s win, the Wolverines 
blocked 30 shots — nearly double 
their average of 15.1 blocks per 
game.
“It’s something that we’re 
gonna have to do,” Blankenburg 
said. “I think when all the guys are 
putting their bodies on the line, 
you’re gonna keep seeing those 
games where we’re letting up 
one goal, two goals. That’s what 
we need is everybody to buy in to 
keep blocking shots.”
At a basic level, blocking shots is 
a simple box-score demonstration 
of a team’s buy-in to the gameplan. 
If players are putting their bod-
ies on the line to secure a win, it 
probably means that team is fully 
committed to the game plan and 
willing to do what it takes to win.
When the Wolverines got shut 
out on Nov. 16, they blocked just 
three shots and 16 across the two 
games.
This past weekend, they 
blocked 42.
Things are a little different 
now.

Johnson can be reached 

at bajohn@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @BaileyAJohnson_.

Bottom third of lineup produces

As freshman outfielder Clark 
Elliot stood on first base with 
one out in the top of the ninth 
last Friday against then-No. 1 
Vanderbilt, 
fifth-year 
senior 
infielder 
Matthew 
Schmidt 
walked from the on-deck circle 
to the right-handed batter’s box 
as the go-ahead run.
Two 
pitches 
later, 
every 
hitter’s favorite sound resonated 
throughout Salt River Fields in 
Scottsdale, Ariz. as Schmidt sent 
a 1-1 fastball from Vanderbilt 
junior right-hander Troy Brown 
skyward, launching the ball over 
the left field fence for his first 
career home run.
“It was kind of a surreal 
experience,” Schmidt said.
The Wolverines went on to 
win their College World Series 
rematch with Vanderbilt, 4-3, in 
large part thanks to Schmidt’s 
go-ahead blast.
Given that Schmidt hit in 
the seven spot against the 
Commodores, 
the 
long 
ball 
wasn’t 
necessarily 
expected. 
It was indicative of the bottom 
third of the lineup’s production 
from the weekend.
“One through nine we can all 
provide pop,” Schmidt said. “It 
doesn’t really matter if it comes 
from the three-hole or whatever 

position you are in the lineup. 
I think our team has a dynamic 
like that. It doesn’t really matter 
who it is, we can all provide pop 
like that.”
Schmidt 
contributed 
two 
RBI when he barrelled up Troy 
Brown’s fastball, but this was far 
from the only strong swing from 
the bottom third of Michigan’s 
lineup. In fact, the Wolverines’ 
seven, eight and nine hitters 
accounted for nine of the 15 RBI 
Michigan accrued in its four 
games last weekend.
It is always helpful for a team’s 
bottom third of the lineup to 
contribute to the offense, but 
Michigan’s 
current 
situation 
makes it particularly important. 
Much 
of 
the 
Wolverines’ 
production from the 2019 season 
— 129 RBI to be exact — left 
the team when Jordan Brewer 
and Jimmy Kerr went to the 
minor leagues. And with junior 
centerfielder Jesse Franklin — 
the favorite to fill the cleanup 
spot 
— 
currently 
injured, 
the Wolverines are certainly 
thankful for any production 
their bottom third can bring to 
the table.
Aside from Schmidt, freshman 
designated hitter and noted 
power threat Jimmy Obertop is 
another potential contributor. 
The promising freshman flashed 
his power stroke with a double 

against the Commodores and has 
repeatedly drawn praise from 
teammates and coaches alike.
“I 
made 
the 
mistake 
of 
shoving Jesse Franklin up in the 
four-hole his freshman year — 
probably not smart on my part to 
put those kinds of expectations 
on a young kid,” Michigan coach 
Erik Bakich said. “We did that 
again to Jimmy Obertop against 
Vanderbilt in the fall game, put 
him in the four-hole — that was a 
nice four-strikeout game.”
Bakich’s self-deprecating tone 
indicated that he doesn’t plan 
on moving the young slugger far 
away from his current place in 
the eighth slot in the immediate 
future. And as long as Obertop 
occupies 
the 
bottom 
third, 
Bakich thinks he will have a 
productive hitter in that slot.
“I like the fact that he’s got big 
juice in his bat,” Bakich said. “He 
can hit a double or extra-base hit 
at any time, really put a charge 
into a ball, very mature approach 
for a young kid.”
While the seventh, eighth and 
ninth slots are not where teams 
expect to see the bulk of their 
production, Michigan will take 
offense from whatever source it 
can.
After all, the cleanup hitter 
isn’t always the one making the 
walk to the batter’s box with the 
game on the line.

A buy-in and a turnaround

BAILEY
JOHNSON

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Michigan coach Mel Pearson noted his team’s turnaround since November.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Fifth-year senior infielder Matthew Schmidt hit a go-ahead home run to pull Michigan past Vanderbilt last weekend.

JACOB COHEN
Daily Sports Writer

JACK KINGSLEY
Daily Sports Writer

BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer

MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Sophomore center Naz Hillmon put up 15 points and 10 rebounds, quelling any concerns about her injury.

Second half, 
we tried to go 
to (Hillmon) a 
little bit more.

