WBB finally puts it together game notes

Couzen Rick’s beat me to the punch, but here are my game notes from today’s fantastic victory. 

Opponent: #17 Ohio State (10-3, 1-1 B1G)

Result: Win, 69-60

Record: 11-3, 2-0 B1G

Date:  12/30, Home

Starters: Laila Phelia, Lauren Hansen, Jordan Hobbs, Chyra Evans, Elissa Brett (same as last 3 games)

Injuries/inactives: none

• Sollom, Brown, Woodson, and Crockett all dressed, but did not play

Offense:

• OSU full court press:
  • Michigan had a lot of success against OSU’s full court press today. I counted 42 times that OSU set up the press and Michigan broke through it cleanly 28 times, a success rate of 66% for the good guys. They got through it another 5 times that were ugly because of Ohio State fouls or balls that luckily bounced our way. Including those would bump the success rate up to 79%. OSU got a turnover on 9 of the possessions (21%)
  • The starters seemed most adept at this, especially Evans, Brett, and Hansen. This makes me wonder if KBA installed Evans and Brett as starters a couple games ago to prep for this. Hansen would often be the first recipient of the inbounds and was able to consistently find good passes or next steps. Evans would often receive the ball near midcourt and was good at finding the person streaking towards her who would push it across half. Brett often started in the front court, but then would run back and receive the ball to start plays higher up the court. 
  • One nice pass saw Hobbs starting the ball out of bounds in a corner of the baseline, finding Brett all the way at half
  • OSU seemed to abandon the press for a few possessions in the third quarter, but then they got back at it with a vengeance to finish the game. In the third, they set up the press the fewest times of any quarter (9)
  • Phelia hit a dagger three out of the press when Hansen broke through and found Phelia open in the corner. This put Michigan up 7 with five minutes left, causing OSU to take a timeout. After that, the closest OSU got was 6
• Hobbs made Michigan’s first bucket on an inbounds pass to an open corner three
• Taylor Williams had a nice assist to a driving Phelia to pull within two before the second quarter media timeout
• Phelia banked in a three to take the lead in the second quarter. OSU then hit a three, but Phelia made a layup to regain the lead
• Hobbs hit a three to put Michigan up 1 at half after Sheldon tried to intercept the pass and overran the play
• Hansen had five quick points with six minutes left in the third quarter to push lead to 8, but OSU came back to take the lead with two and a half minutes left in the third
• Brett shot a three that bounced around the rim for a maddening amount of time before falling to tie the game at 45 with the first shot of the fourth quarter
• With seven minutes left in fourth, Phelia drove towards baseline, then spun towards the paint and hit turnaround jumper to go up three, causing an OSU timeout

Defense:

• Brett took 2 charges from McMahon in the first quarter. McMahon then headed to the bench until there were 8 minutes left in the second quarter. She got her third foul with six minutes left in the half and sat until the beginning of the third quarter. 
  • Brett got 2 blocking fouls in the third to unfortunately offset her early success in this area. 
• OSU missed a lot of shots early, starting 1-7 until finally hitting their second bucket with 4 minutes left in the first quarter
• 1-2-2 press
  • This was rolled out 3 times and broken each time, though they did slow OSU once. This only came out when Taylor Williams was on the floor and didn’t seem particularly effective today
• Michigan played hard defense on the last possession before half, forcing a difficult shot that bounced off the rim and over backboard
• OSU had no points the first three minutes of the second half and took a timeout
• McMahon did not score any points until there were 5 minutes left in the third
• OSU started fouling with 35 seconds left after Sheldon missed another three. Hansen hit 3/4 free throws, Brett 2/2 to polish off the game. 

Notable stats:

• Phelia led the way today with 26 points on 10-22 shooting to go with 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and only 1 turnover
• Hansen followed with 17 points on 6-15 shooting, 2 assists, and 4 steals
• Michigan was staying in front on defense, causing a lot of hard shots, fouls, and travels. OSU finished with 19 turnovers to Michigan’s 15 and 22 fouls to Michigan’s 12. 
• Cotie McMahon finished with 4 fouls in 18 minutes because she had to sit with foul trouble. 5 points on 2-6 shooting
• Jacy Sheldon played 38 minutes, but only scored 7 points on 3-9 shooting, 1-6 from deep
• OSU shot 18% from deep in the first half (2-11) and only improved a little bit to 21% in the second half (5-24) 

Overall: 

• A year after losing all three of their games against Ohio State, Michigan’s women shut down OSU’s two biggest scoring threats, consistently beat the press, and found big shots in big moments. If there was a game for Phelia to step up, this was it, and she did. Michigan put it together against stiff competition for the first time and will look to build on that success moving forward.

Miscellaneous: 

• During pregame, Phelia was presented with an award for winning a silver medal with USA basketball last summer
• The crowd today was raucous and excellent. It was an easy game to get into live, as Michigan was in it the whole time and then pulled away in the fourth quarter. 

Up next: 

• 1/4: away at #16 Indiana (10-1, 1-0 B1G) at 7pm on Big Ten Network
  • Stars dominant big Mackenzie Holmes who leads the team in points, rebounds, and blocks. She will probably go in the second round of the 2024 WNBA draft. 
  • You may also remember three-point specialist Yarden Garzon who has taken a small step up in points for her sophomore year. Sara Scalia has also improved this year, while Chloe Moore-McNeil has regressed a bit. 
  • Grace Berger left for the WNBA this past year
  • Only loss is to #9 Stanford on November 9
• 1/9: home vs Minnesota (11-2, 1-1 B1G) at 8pm on Big Ten Network
  • Losses to UConn (11/19) and Iowa (12/30)
  • Dawn Plitzuweit is in her first year as head coach
  • Stars sophomore Maura Braun who is leading scoring with 20.3 ppg, averaging almost twice as many points as the second-leading scorer: Grace Grocholski with 10.7
    • Phelia is very likely to draw this defensive matchup
  • Also look out for sophomore guard Amaya Battle and sophomore forward Mallory Heyer
  • This is a young team that starts 1 junior, 3 sophomores, and 1 freshman. Main backups are 1 senior, 1 junior, and 1 freshman. 

Most recent bracketology: 

• ESPN has Michigan as one of the first four out (updated 12/26)
• Herhoopstats has Michigan as an 11 seed (12/14)