The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 
Wednesday, February 22, 2023 — 11 

Michigan dominated by Ohio State special 
teams in 4-2 Faceoff on the Lake loss

NOAH KINGSLEY
Daily Sports Editor

CLEVELAND — As a scarlet-
and-maize mob filled the stands 
of FirstEnergy Stadium, fireworks 
rocketed into the crisp February 
air, signaling the start of the Faceoff 
on the Lake. 
But for the No. 4 Michigan hock-
ey team, those were the only fire-
works of the night. 
Dominated on special teams, the 
Wolverines (20-10-2 overall, 12-9-1 
Big Ten) fell to No. 10 Ohio State (18-
11-3, 11-9-2), 4-2, in the Faceoff on 
the Lake. The Buckeyes killed off all 
seven Michigan power plays while 
adding two power play goals and a 
shorthanded goal of their own.
“We had some chances, their 
goalie made some saves, maybe we 
didn’t execute as much as we want-
ed,” Michigan coach Brandon Nau-
rato said. “Credit to their (penalty 
kill). We can’t go 0-for-7 and expect 
to win. That was probably the dif-
ference in the game.”
Opening the game with two 
power plays in the first period 
alone, the Wolverines got the 
opportunity to take hold of the con-
test immediately. But in a preview 
for the rest of the night, they man-
aged just three shots on goal across 
the two advantages.

And when Ohio State drew two 
back-to-back power plays of its own 
soon after, it served as a warning 
sign for what was to come to Michi-
gan. For six straight minutes, the 
Buckeyes hemmed the Wolverines 
in their own end, firing off eight 
unanswered shots. 
While junior goaltender Erik 
Portillo turned each of those away 
to keep the game tied, the Buckeyes 
already controlled the special teams 
battle — with seven more combined 
opportunities still to come. 
“On the PK, you’ve got to be 
ready to compete,” Ohio State 
defenseman 
Tyler 
Duke 
said. 
“There’s gonna be loose pucks, and 
you’ve got to be ready to get it down 
and get it 200 feet. I think we just 
all bought in tonight.” 
Even outside the penalty kill, 
the Buckeyes applied that mindset 
of competing for every loose puck. 
So when an errant pass with six 
minutes left in the second period 
skittered out of Michigan’s offense 
zone, Ohio State pushed forward 
to grab it. Creating a 2-on-1 break-
away, that set up defenseman Cole 
McWard to score the go-ahead goal. 
As the two sides headed to the 
locker room for an early second 
intermission as ice crews dealt 
with divots in the sheet 40 seconds 
after the goal, the Wolverines got a 
chance to figure out what plagued 
them on special teams. 
But instead, after the early break, 
their special teams woes only grew. 
Because on three of the next four 
power plays in the game, Michigan 
conceded a goal. 
It started just two minutes 
after the teams returned to the 
ice, as sophomore forward Mackie 
Samoskevich earned himself a two 
minute minor for cross-checking. 
Within 30 seconds, Buckeyes for-
ward Jake Wise collected a cross-
crease pass and fired it blocker-side 
past Portillo to stretch the lead to 
two. 
A minute later though, freshman 

forward Gavin Brindley respond-
ed with a wrister of his own from 
above the left dot. And when the 
Wolverines drew a penalty on the 
following shift, their power play 
got a shot at redemption.
But it crumbled again instead. 
“I think I was just skating up 
the ice, we were trying to get a 
clear,” Duke said. “Wise got the 
puck behind the net. … I saw a 
lane and I hopped in there and did 
my best to put it in.” 
Taking that lane, Duke blasted 
a goal past a falling Portillo for 
the eventual game-winner while 
shorthanded. 
Still, Michigan hung around 
for a while. With 11 minutes left 
in the game, senior forward Eric 
Ciccolini potted a rebound to trim 
the deficit to one once again. But 
within 20 seconds of his goal, 
graduate forward Nolan Moyle 
took an interference penalty. 
Again, the Wolverines needed 
their special teams to step up to 
stay in it. And again, they failed to 
deliver. 
This time, sophomore defense-
man Ethan Edwards tipped Ohio 
State forward Stephen Halliday’s 
pass into his own net — marking 
the final nail in Michigan’s coffin. 
Failing to convert on a seventh-
straight power play chance three 
minutes later only rubbed salt in 
the wound. 
“Usually, the team that wins 
the special teams wins the game,” 
Ohio State coach Steve Roh-
lik said. “Both teams had their 
chances on the power play. We 
scored two, and our PK was fan-
tastic.”
So as the Wolverines watched 
fireworks shoot into the air again 
as the final horn sounded, there 
was no excitement, no hopeful 
anticipation like earlier. Because 
despite having seven chances 
to do so, their special teams 
couldn’t create any fireworks of 
their own. 

Sports

ICE HOCKEY

Lack of support hangs Leigha Brown’s performance out to dry in 74-61 loss to Ohio State

LIZA CUSHNIR
Daily Sports Writer

Facing 
an 
early 
3-point 
onslaught from No. 16 Ohio State, 
the No. 12 Michigan women’s bas-
ketball team desperately needed a 
response.
And by halftime, it appeared 
that the Wolverines might have 
found that answer in the form of 
fifth-year wing Leigha Brown.
But without support from the 
rest of the team, Brown’s career-
high performance drifted away as 
the Wolverines (20-7 overall, 10-6 
Big Ten) fell to the Buckeyes (23-
5, 12-5), 74-61.
“Leigha is on the top of every-
one’s scout,” Michigan coach Kim 
Barnes Arico said postgame. “… 
When we want to be success-
ful, we need more contributions 
whether that’s the offensive or 
defensive end. So that’ll be, obvi-
ously, something that we work on. 
But I think when we are success-
ful, we definitely have more con-
tributions than we did tonight.”
After the Wolverines built a 
rapid eight-point lead, Ohio State 
took a timeout. Coming out of 

that break, the Buckeyes went 
on a tear of their own. They con-
nected on each of their next eight 
3-point attempts to turn their 
initial deficit into a 10-point lead, 
leaving Michigan scrambling for 
an answer. 
That was the moment when 
Leigha Brown seemingly could 
provide one on her own. 
Scoring Michigan’s first 10 
points of the second quarter, 
Brown — who was honored pre-
game for reaching 1,000 points as 
a Wolverine against Minnesota — 
willed her team back into conten-
tion, single-handedly cutting the 
deficit to as few as three points 
before any of her teammates 
found the basket in the quarter.
But Ohio State also had an 
answer. Each time Brown and the 
Wolverines threatened to retake 
the lead, Buckeyes guard Rikki 
Harris had a response. Harris’s 
12 second-quarter points nearly 
matched Brown’s and ensured 
that Ohio State never relin-
quished its lead.
Still, Michigan entered the 
locker room down just four 
points, 41-37.
Brown’s 21 first-half points 

were doing all they could to keep 
the Wolverines afloat, yet they 
desperately needed someone else 
to step up to prevent them from 
sinking. Sophomore guard Jor-
dan Hobbs chipped in with two 
3-pointers but was the only scorer 
besides Brown during the second 
quarter. The key contributors that 

normally helped steer the ship 
couldn’t deliver.
And in the second half, no first 
mate appeared, with only two 
players besides Brown finding 
the scoring column in the final 20 
minutes of play. 
“I definitely feel like we have 
the pieces to be successful, we 

just all need to play well at the 
same time,” Hobbs said. “… The 
three games prior to (Thursday’s 
loss to Indiana) we were playing 
great together and just playing 
some team basketball, which was 
really successful. So if we can just 
find a way to get back to that.”
Michigan only mustered 11 
points in the third quarter, from 
just three players. But the Wol-
verines still kept themselves in 
the game by holding Ohio State to 
14 points. 
With Brown lacking a support-
ing cast, Harris’s 23-point per-
formance ensured that Brown’s 
career-high 36 points would be 
nothing more than a silver lin-
ing in a deflating loss. Harris had 
three steals in the third quar-
ter alone as the Buckeyes began 
to pull away in the low-scoring 
period. She hit a clutch 3-point-
er early in the fourth frame to 
bring Ohio State’s lead back up to 
double digits for the first time all 
half, pushing Michigan’s come-
back attempt firmly off course. 
“(Harris) was huge for them 
for sure,” Barnes Arico said. “I 
thought we were undisciplined, 
we fouled her shooting a three. 
SOPHIA AFENDOULIS/Daily

She does a great job of drawing 
fouls. And she made big plays for 
them as the shot clock was run-
ning out, she made a big three. I 
just thought she stayed within 
herself and did a really good job.”
Michigan couldn’t pull close 
again. With 15 second-half turn-
overs and just nine points scored 
by players other than Brown, the 
Wolverines couldn’t run their 
offense.
Brown’s 11-for-11 performance 
from the free throw line was jux-
taposed against an abysmal and 
uncharacteristic 5-for-12 show-
ing from the rest of the team, 
alongside zero bench points. 
There was nobody there to help 
Brown right the ship.
And try as she might to find 
ways to keep Michigan adrift, 
whether that was by getting to 
the charity stripe eight times in 
the final frame or gathering nine 
rebounds throughout the con-
test, the Wolverines only plunged 
deeper into the hole. 
And that failure to step up 
and create secondary production 
around Brown doomed Michigan 
to sink in yet another ranked con-
ference bout.

In Faceoff on the Lake, Michigan doomed 
by inability to win faceoffs

CHARLIE PAPPALARDO
Daily Sports Writer

CLEVELAND — With less than 
four minutes to play in the outdoor 
Faceoff on The Lake against No. 
10 Ohio State, the No. 4 Michigan 
hockey team finally started doing 
something it hadn’t for the previ-
ous 56 minutes. The Wolverines 
started winning faceoffs. 
Trailing by two goals with its 
net empty, Michigan retained 
possession on six of the last eight 
draws and kept pressure on the 
Buckeyes until the game ended. 
But while the last three minutes 
of faceoff success gave the Wolver-
ines a chance in the game’s waning 
moments, their floundering start 
in the circles was a large part of 
the reason why they found them-
selves trailing. 
“We talk about it a lot, I know 
our centers are probably sick of 
me getting on ‘em, but it’s such a 
big part of the game,” Ohio State 
coach Steve Rohlik said. “When 
you think about 50, 60, 70 times a 
game somebody’s gonna fight for 
possession, and it’s such a key right 
to the end.”
And in those fights for posses-
sion — 82 of them to be exact — the 
Buckeyes were dominant. Win-
ning 53 draws to Michigan’s 29, 
Ohio State outpaced the Wolver-
ines and none of the seven Buck-
eyes who took draws finished the 
night with a win rate of less than 
50 percent. Conversely, only two 
of the Wolverines’ 10 skaters who 
took draws finished over 50 per-
cent in the circles, and it hampered 
them all night. 
Losing draw after draw, Michi-
gan consistently started on the 
back foot by handing the Buckeyes 
possession. Before any offense 
could be created, the Wolverines 
usually had to first pry the puck 
away from Ohio State, and then 
break past their stout neutral zone 

trap. That proved to be an incred-
ibly difficult task for Michigan, 
and the Buckeyes controlled pos-
session for the vast majority of the 
game in large part because they 
controlled faceoffs. 
“I mean, it’s a difference in the 
game,” Rohlik said. “Lots of credit 
to the centers, but there’s a lot of 
other guys in there fighting to get 
the puck back. It’s a big part of it.”
The Wolverines just couldn’t 
outdraw Ohio State. But the issue 
wasn’t just that Michigan’s lack-
luster performance at the dots 
gave the Buckeyes chances. It was 
also that it took chances away 
from the Wolverines. What Michi-
gan lost in being outdrawn by 24 
is best highlighted by the few suc-
cesses they had. 
Late in the second period, fresh-
man forward Adam Fantilli won a 
clean offensive zone draw back to 
freshman forward Gavin Brindley, 
who immediately wired a wrister 
into the back of the net. And late 
in the game when the Wolverines 
finally built momentum in draws, 
they also pressured the Buckeyes 
harder than they had all night. 
“It’s a possession game, and 
(faceoffs 
are) 
field 
position,” 
Michigan coach Brandon Naurato 

said. “So you win the draw, it 
definitely puts you in the driver’s 
seat.”
But for the vast majority of 
the night, Michigan found itself 
riding passenger. For example 
Brindley and Fantilli — despite 
their one moment of production 
— were otherwise uncharacter-
istically silent. And in large part, 
that was due to their combining 
for a paltry 6-for-22 success rate 
in the circles. 
Throughout the entire night, 
the Wolverines couldn’t seem 
to find a foothold on the game. 
Ohio State stymied their offense, 
broke down their special teams 
and controlled the pace of the 
game. But those issues started 
with Michigan’s inability to find 
a foothold in the faceoff dots. 
The Buckeyes held possession 
off of draws and made plays 
happen. The Wolverines consis-
tently started on the back foot 
by giving possession away, and 
plays happened to them.
At the final buzzer, Michigan 
fell 4-2 in an aptly named event. 
The Wolverines lost the Faceoff 
on the Lake in large part because 
they couldn’t win faceoffs to 
begin with.

ICE HOCKEY

Dickinson and Reed Jr. will Michigan to victory over Michigan State, 84-72

Earlier this season, freshman 
forward Tarris Reed Jr. gave the 
Michigan men’s basketball teams’ 
two-big lineup a nickname:
Thump and Bump.
Comprised 
of 
junior 
center 
Hunter Dickinson and Reed, the 
lineup hasn’t been showcased much 
throughout the later half of the 
season. But in Saturday’s matchup 
against Michigan State, the two bigs 
thumped and bumped their way to a 
win down the stretch.
In the Wolverines’ (15-12 overall, 
9-7 Big Ten) tilt with the Spartans 
(16-10, 8-7), Reed and Dickinson 
were instrumental in sneaking out 
the 84-72 win, successfully avoiding 
getting swept by their in-state rival 
in the process.
“They’re a threat for sure, when 
you’ve got two (six and seven foot-
ers) out there,” sophomore guard 
Kobe Bufkin said. “I’m glad to see 
it and glad they’re able to work 

together.”
Getting out to a hot start — all at 
the hand of freshman guard Dug 
McDaniel — it seemed as if Michi-
gan’s bigs were going to have a rela-
tively quiet night.
But as the Spartans’ quick transi-
tion offense turned their early defi-
cit into a lead just over five minutes 
into the matchup, the Wolverines 
were left scratching their heads, 
desperately looking for an answer. 
Typically, Michigan can turn 
to Dickinson to get crafty and find 
some points. But with the Spartans 
playing lock-down defense in the 
paint with a two-big lineup of their 
own, Dickinson was held to just five 
points in the first half. Reed fared 
even worse against Michigan State’s 
defense in the first half, going score-
less while picking up two personal 
fouls. 
Failing to regain the lead in the 
first half, the Wolverines miracu-
lously entered the locker room 
down by just three after a few key 
3-pointers kept the Spartans lead 
from growing insurmountably.

But at the start of the second half, 
it looked like the trends would con-
tinue.
Michigan’s offense struggled to 
produce without a dominant pres-
ence in the paint, and Michigan 
State continued to capitalize on 
defensive miscommunications. The 
Wolverines managed to keep the 
Spartans in check, notching key 
buckets and keeping the deficit from 
getting out of hand, but were never 
able to fully regain a lead for most of 
the second half.
And when freshman guard Jett 

Howard went down with an injury 
with 14 minutes left to play, Michi-
gan could’ve rolled over.
But at the eight minute mark, a 
spark flickered.
As Michigan coach Juwan How-
ard put Dickinson back into the 
game while leaving Reed in, thump 
and bump was ready to do what it 
does best. A quick assist from Dick-
inson to graduate guard Joey Baker 
led to a drained 3-pointer — cutting 
the once six-point lead the Spartans 
had taken after Jett’s injury to only 
one. 
“We started 
playing 
small 
ball 
against 
their 
biggest 
lineup,” Michi-
gan State coach 
Tom Izzo said. 
“That’s the big-
gest lineup in 
the Big 10 and 
they played both 
together.”
Trading a few 
more 
buckets, 

Michigan State had ample chances 
to pull away. But with Dickinson 
and Reed locking down the paint 
on defense, the Spartans’ offense 
faltered.
“I play off him,” Reed said. “He 
shoots, I’m wedging, I’m getting 
that rebound and putting it back 
up. He catches it and they come to 
double, I’m cutting right there I’m 
getting a dunk or an and-one layup. 
Just playing off him and knowing 
that he’s our guy on the offensive 
side.”
And with just under six minutes 
left, Dickinson and Reed officially 
took the game into their own hands. 
An offensive putback from Reed 
found the bottom of the net, and a 
Spartan foul sent Dickinson to the 
line. As Dickinson sunk both free 
throws, Crisler Center erupted.
Because the Wolverines had just 
overtaken Michigan State.
Clinging to their two point lead 
after a block and another made 
bucket from Dickinson, Michigan 
entered the final media timeout just 
as it had entered the first — with the 

lead in hand.
Despite attempts from the Spar-
tans to contain Michigan’s momen-
tum swing, nothing could be done to 
stop Dickinson and Reed’s charge. 
“On the offensive end, (Tarris) 
was aggressive, being able to take 
advantage of how the defender 
was playing him and attacking the 
paint,” Juwan said. “… I see the con-
fidence is increasing. He’s getting 
better.”
And as Dickinson sunk a 3-point-
er from the wing with only a minute 
left, he sent Michigan State pack-
ing, officially putting the game out 
of reach for the Spartans.
Dickinson finished the game 
with 14 points, seven rebounds 
and three assists, alongside Reed’s 
eight points and 10 rebounds. While 
those stats aren’t career highs 
for either, they came at a crucial 
moment down the stretch when the 
Wolverines needed them most.
Because in the end, Dickinson 
and Reed did what they do best to 
lead Michigan past Michigan State.
They thumped and bumped.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

GRACE BEAL/Daily
GRACE BEAL/Daily

ABBIE TELGENHOF
Daily Sports Editor

ANNA FUDER/Daily

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

