The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 15, 2023 — 11
Michigan fends off second-half
surge, defeats Nebraska 80-75
JACK CONLIN
Daily Sports Writer
As the final buzzer sounded at
Crisler Center on Sunday, the No. 12
Michigan women’s basketball team
appeared to let out a collective sigh
of relief.
After fending off a second-
half surge from the Cornhuskers,
Michigan (20-5 overall, 10-4 Big
Ten) defeated Nebraska (14-11, 6-8),
80-75, to earn its fourth-straight
win. Strong showings from a cast
of Wolverines allowed them to eke
out a close victory despite a valiant
comeback effort from the Huskers.
“Nebraska is a really good team,”
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico
said postgame. “We knew they were
going to be a challenge … but I was
really proud of the way we got down
and battled back.”
The Wolverines looked up to that
challenge from the onset.
After trading blows in the first
quarter, Nebraska drew a charge
call that fifth-year wing Leigha
Brown clearly disagreed with. On
the subsequent defensive posses-
sion, Brown stripped the ball from
Huskers guard Maddie Krull, then
found sophomore guard Jordan
Hobbs with a no-look pass in tran-
sition.
Hobbs made her shot and was
fouled, leading to an and-1 opportu-
nity that gave the Wolverines an 8-5
lead and ignited the home crowd.
The basket sparked another pro-
ductive showing from Hobbs, who
finished with 10 points and five
rebounds. Her finish on the pass
from Brown was one of many early
highlights that gave Michigan the
breathing room it needed to survive
Nebraska’s third-quarter rally.
In a departure from recent out-
ings, Michigan appeared deter-
mined to play offense through their
post players early on, looking past
Brown to the paint on numerous
possessions at the front end. Gradu-
ate forward Emily Kiser and junior
forward Cameron Williams each
received a majority of early offen-
sive touches, and freshman forward
Chyra Evans had another strong
showing off the bench.
Evans, in particular, proved to be
an important piece overall. Late in
the third quarter, with the Wolver-
ines down 48-46, she made a layup
in the paint to tie the game up. On
the ensuing Nebraska possession,
she stole an errant pass and assisted
on a 3-pointer by freshman forward
Alyssa Crockett to force a Huskers
timeout.
While Michigan’s game plan
clearly focused on interior scoring,
though, Nebraska’s was the opposite
— attack from deep. Much of that
success came in the second quarter.
During that stretch, the Huskers
knocked
down
four 3-pointers
that
drowned
out any of the
Wolverines’
own
offensive
success, leaving
Nebraska down
just 36-31 at the
half.
In a duel of
two
top-three
defensive units
in the Big Ten,
the
pressure
on both sides took center-stage
throughout
the
second
half.
Michigan challenged Nebraska
on the back end in the first half,
forcing 11 turnovers and holding
the Huskers to just 31 points.
But the Wolverines’ strong
pressure, particularly on the
interior, faded in the third quar-
ter. Michigan let up a series of
easy baskets inside to start the
period, struggling to account for
the Huskers’ off-ball movement.
Meanwhile, Nebraska found a
groove on defense, forcing a num-
ber of Michigan turnovers to put
itself right back in contention.
“I think it’s just our ability to
lock in for, you know, five min-
utes here and five minutes there,”
Evans said. “Instead of one (or)
two minutes … I feel like that’s
where we allowed them to get the
most runs, when we weren’t really
locked in.”
Late in the third quarter, with
the game up for grabs, a series of
high-energy sequences turned
the tide for the Wolverines. After
the quarter’s media timeout,
Brown, Evans and Kiser exhibited
strong individual efforts to quash
the Nebraska comeback effort
— notching steals, rebounds and
tough scoring finishes to prevent
the upset.
“I
think
it’s
experience,”
Barnes Arico said. “Leigha Brown
and Emily Kiser really. They never
seem to get frazzled or riled up. I
think one is experience and two is
the schedule that we’ve played. I
think that’s prepared us for these
moments because we’ve been in
so many of these situations during
the course of the season.”
That late effort proved to be the
difference for Michigan. When
the dust settled, the Wolver-
ines’ composure overshadowed
the Huskers’ second-half surge,
powering Michigan to its fourth-
straight win.
Sports
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
SportsMonday: Indiana shows Michigan what it could have been
JARED GREENSPAN
Daily Sports Writer
The night began with a deafen-
ing crowd whipping Crisler Cen-
ter into a frenzy. It ended with a
rising “Let’s Go Hoosiers” chant
filling an empty stadium while
despondent Michigan fans made
their way for the exits.
Another big game, another
missed opportunity. This one
will sting, even worse than oth-
ers: The Wolverines coughed up
an 11-point lead and were held
scoreless across the game’s final
five minutes. They had a prime
opportunity to secure a mar-
quee victory that would bolster
their meager NCAA Tournament
resume. Instead, as junior center
Hunter Dickinson said following
the game, the team’s momentum
“evaporated.”
It stings even more consider-
ing the opponent. That’s because
Indiana posed as a living, breath-
ing blueprint for how Michigan
could have revived its season.
On Jan. 11, the struggling Hoo-
siers sunk to their nadir in Happy
Valley, suffering an 85-66 loss
against Penn State. Indiana —
pegged as favorites to win the Big
Ten in the preseason media poll —
was suddenly nosediving toward
the bottom, just a half game up on
last-place Minnesota. The Hoo-
siers teetered at 10-6 overall and
1-4 in league play.
Things in Bloomington were,
to put it mildly, unraveling.
“Our guys are a little down
right now, and they should be,”
Indiana coach Mike Woodson
told reporters after the loss.
“They got smacked in the face
tonight.”
But something inspiring hap-
pened: After getting smacked,
Indiana peeled itself off the mat
and fought back.
Since that harrowing moment,
the Hoosiers are 8-1. They have
surged to sole possession of sec-
ond place in the Big Ten and have
beaten three other top teams in
the conference: Purdue, Illinois
and Rutgers. Led by forward
Trayce Jackson-Davis and guard
Jalen Hood-Schifino, Indiana is
the team that everyone expected
it to be. Sometimes, it just takes
time.
That’s the refrain that Michi-
gan coach Juwan Howard has
stressed over the last two months,
as the Wolverines have struggled
to find their own footing. In that
same
preseason
poll,
Michi-
gan came in at third. Things, of
course, haven’t played out that
way.
Michigan’s nadir is eerily simi-
lar to Indiana’s. On Jan. 29, the
Wolverines took the floor inside
the Bryce Jordan Center and
couldn’t stop a nosebleed. Penn
State waltzed to an 89-69 romp.
By that point, Michigan had tee-
tered for weeks; by the end of the
game, it looked as if the Wolver-
ines were about to fall completely
off the cliff.
And yet, just like Indiana did,
Michigan punched back — for a
moment.
In the ensuing game, the Wol-
verines notched their best win
of the year, winning in Evanston
against a Northwestern team
that is destined for the NCAA
Tournament. Then, they took
care of business at home against
Ohio State and Nebraska, compil-
ing their first three-game win-
ning streak since the season’s
inception.
But against Indiana — after 35
minutes of inspired basketball
— Michigan reverted to its old
ways.
“This team has definitely got-
ten better,” Howard insisted. “…
At the end of the day, I trust we’ll
continue to stay tight as a group
and still have the trust. We have
six (conference) losses, eight
(conference) wins and we’ll keep
plugging away because there’s a
lot of season left.”
Indiana managed to get back
on track earlier in the season
than Michigan, mounting a turn
around in January. The Wolver-
GRACE BEAL/Daily
ines didn’t have the same fate.
Still, it wasn’t impossible.
Saturday, the sold-out crowd
jammed inside Crisler Center
latched onto the fever, roaring
along as Michigan stormed out to
a double-digit first-half lead. The
players and coaches certainly
believed, speaking ad nauseam
about the heightened sense of
urgency.
The path back toward conten-
tion had materialized. Hold onto
the lead against the Hoosiers
and Michigan heads to Madison
on Tuesday riding a four-game
winning streak to face a strug-
gling Badgers team. Then the
Wolverines come back home for
another rivalry clash with Michi-
gan State, a series that the two
teams have split of late — with
the advantage going to the home
team.
Suddenly, you have a win
streak — and a turnaround — that
looks a lot like Indiana’s. If Mich-
igan needed a blueprint, all it had
to do was look across the way
towards the Hoosiers’ bench.
But now?
Dickinson said it best:
“We’re kind of back to the
drawing board.”
Michigan’s offense makes early
exit in loss to Indiana
PAUL NASR
Managing Sports Editor
With the game on the line in the
Michigan men’s basketball team’s
62-61 loss to No. 18 Indiana, the
Wolverines’ offense disappeared,
not scoring in the final 5:12 min-
utes of play and missing its last
seven shots.
And after the game, junior cen-
ter Hunter Dickinson still didn’t
know where it went.
“I don’t know man, I really
don’t know, I don’t know,” Hunter
dejectedly repeated when asked
to explain the offensive struggles
down the stretch. “That last five
minutes was kind of a blur, I don’t
really know what happened.”
No matter how blurry things
looked to Dickinson, Michigan’s
offense clearly wasn’t the same as
the game entered its critical final
stretch. The tempo, the aggression,
the efficiency it displayed through-
out most of the game — all of it
vaporized. The Wolverines’ scor-
ing was last seen in a Dickinson
hook shot using his non-dominant
right hand with just over five min-
utes left.
Running down the court, Dick-
inson stared at his right hand in
celebration. But that hand, and
all of Michigan’s, became bone-
chillingly cold. So cold that Dick-
inson was left repeating himself in
despair, over and over again after-
ward.
“That was hard, that was hard to
play through, that was hard to play
through,” Dickinson said of the
final five minutes.
The Wolverines had an especial-
ly hard time executing. Relying on
fast-paced play early, Michigan fal-
tered when the game settled down
and it was time to run sets consis-
tently. The culprit wasn’t just mini-
mal cohesion, but also the group’s
connection with the game plan.
“Organization was a big rea-
son why (in) some of the sets we
weren’t able to get to what we were
asking from the offensive end,”
Michigan coach Juwan Howard
said. “Because there are times
when guys want to go ahead and
do it how they want to do it, or they
see how the defender’s playing and
they feel that this is the best way
how to run the set. … That’s a learn-
ing process that the players have to
get better with.”
When the Wolverines did cre-
ate space in that stretch, it fur-
ther highlighted how alien their
offense became from their scor-
ing throughout much of the game.
Sophomore guard Kobe Bufkin
missed an open layup in the
paint en route to zero second half
points, while freshman guard Dug
McDaniel had a late drive attempt
vehemently rejected off the back-
board by Indiana forward Trayce
Jackson-Davis.
And those looks — as unsuc-
cessful as they became — were an
anomaly. For most of the game’s
final five minutes, Michigan didn’t
create any real chances.
With just over a minute left and
after multiple Hoosier turnovers,
the Wolverines’ absent offense got
another chance to reestablish itself.
Instead, it was stagnant yet again.
Freshman wing Jett Howard and
junior forward Terrance Williams
II exchanged
multiple
passes on the
same side of
the court as
the rest of the
offense stood
and watched.
Williams then
forced a pass
to a double-
teamed Dick-
inson and the
ball
couldn’t
get to him.
No post touch to Dickinson.
No off-ball movement. No shot
opportunities. And no semblance
of an offense.
“Whatever we were doing
wasn’t working,” Dickinson said.
“Whether it’s executing or just
running the plays right, it wasn’t
a good all-around effort by us out
there. We need to execute better
down the stretch if we’re gonna
win a tough game like that.”
Despite the offenses’ early
exit, Indiana kept giving Michi-
gan’s offense chance after chance
to re-assert itself into the game.
Jackson-Davis’
missed
free
throw while leading by one with
12 seconds left served as the
final invitation. A quick timeout
bought the Wolverines time to
draw up that grand entrance. A
team hungry for a ranked win
looked ready to cash-in.
None of that mattered. By
then, Michigan’s offense was
long gone, and it was unable to
find it again. Not in the final
five minutes. Not through its
rehearsed sets. Not in that final
timeout.
The final play resulted in a
heavily-contested, off-balanced
shot by Jett. It ended up nowhere
near the rim as the clock expired,
seemingly joining the Wolver-
ines’ offense.
Gone in a flash.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
‘Call your friends, tell them I’m back’: Frank Nazar III makes debut statement at ‘Duel in the D’
DETROIT — Sitting in his post-
game press conference, freshman
forward Frank Nazar III wasted
little time to share his feelings on
his return to hockey. The Mt. Cle-
mens product quoted Eminem:
“‘It’s why they call me Slim
Shady — I’m back.’ ”
After making his debut Friday
night in East Lansing against No.
15 Michigan State, Nazar netted
his first goal and point of the sea-
son at a much needed time in Sat-
urday’s ‘Duel in the D.’ After a goal
by Dylan Duke midway through
the second period leveled the game
at 2-2, Nazar coasted on that new-
found energy to score, putting the
No. 5 Michigan hockey team into
the lead.
Though the Wolverines ceded
a goal late in the third to send the
game into overtime, Nazar’s goal
was not simply a statement of his
game, but of the journey it took for
him to even find his way into the
contest. Shaking the rust off quick-
ly, Nazar confidently rejoined a
unit missing key pieces, refusing to
miss a beat in a 4-3 overtime win.
“He’s a kid with a lot of confi-
dence, but he’s a thinker,” Michi-
gan coach Brandon Naurato said.
“He’s a student of the game and (I)
just wanted to let him know that
you don’t have to light the world on
fire in game one, so he just waited
until game two.”
Despite the momentous occa-
sion, Nazar received not only the
clearance to play, but a full-blown
green light. Nazar competed on
the second line and second power
play unit for Michigan, demon-
strating his talent and impact. On
a night when the Wolverines were
down first-line freshman forward
Adam Fantilli, Nazar received a
rapid top-six promotion.
Training
wheels
weren’t
required.
Nazar jumped at the opportu-
nity to play. Though many players,
no matter how seasoned, can often
require a transitional period to
get up to speed, Nazar didn’t hold
back.
Not that he had the choice,
though. After a raucously violent
first game of the series, Saturday’s
‘Duel’ played out as advertised: a
gritty, physical matchup that could
make any player sweat. Yet, Nazar
stood tall amid it all.
“To me, that’s what I’m here to
do,” Nazar said. “I want to play and
play in these big games. … I’m glad
I got put in and I’m glad (Naurato)
believed in me and (I) went out
there and helped the team win.”
The most important part of
Nazar’s game might not even
be what’s physically on the ice
though. After an extended break
from competition, the temptation
to sit back and watch — to defer —
could have been alluring. After all,
it’s a challenge to physically and
mentally attune to a rivalry game
even for players who’ve partici-
pated all season.
Instead, Nazar displayed what
made his game so seamless — the
mental transition.
Collecting a Spartan turnover
in the neutral zone, Nazar cap-
tained a 3-on-1 opportunity in
the offensive zone. With fresh-
man forward Gavin Brindley and
senior forward Philippe Lapointe
calling for the puck on their right-
handed strong sides, the chance to
pass presented itself.
And Nazar almost bit.
“I was kind of looking for the
shot, but I was also thinking pass,”
Nazar said. “At the end, I kind of
fumbled it. (I was) thinking too
much pass, so I kind of faked it and
then I was just able to get a hold of
it and sneak it in top shelf.”
Skating the fine line between
a fake pass and a fumbled puck,
Nazar opted to shoot, rifling
the puck top-shelf past goalten-
der Dylan St. Cyr. In a play that
could’ve materialized any number
of ways, Nazar trusted himself —
and goal or not, that speaks more
volumes about his play than any-
thing else.
Back again, indeed.
Nazar’s impact, while evident
tonight, will be needed for Michi-
gan ahead. His blend of playmak-
ing, scoring and skating ability
has the chance to ignite a Michi-
gan lineup that has continuously
searched for secondary scoring.
Saturday night, the Wolver-
ines got a taste of what Nazar
can bring to the table and what it
took for him to return to it. Nazar
knows his journey, because it’s just
begun. And as Nazar recapped his
night inside Detroit’s Little Cae-
sars Arena, he left it to Eminem to
tell the story:
“So it’s like ‘call your friends,
tell them I’m back.’ ”
ICE HOCKEY
GRACE BEAL/Daily
JOSÉ BRENES/Daily
JOHN TONDORA
Daily Sports Writer
KATE HUA/Daily