Michigan women's basketball team loses at last-place Minnesota, falls from Big Ten lead
Two steps forward, one giant step back.
Three days after climbing into a four-way tie atop the Big Ten standings when it completed a season sweep of six-time defending champion Ohio State, the Michigan women’s basketball team fell hard from that perch.
The Wolverines lost 60-50 at last-place Minnesota on Sunday afternoon.
Kiara Buford and Jackie Voigt scored 11 points apiece for Minnesota (10-12, 2-7). Rachel Sheffer scored 13 points and Courtney Boylan 10 for Michigan (13-8, 6-3).
Minnesota, which lost double-digit second-half leads in four of its seven Big Ten losses, nearly watched another game slip away in front of 5,318 at Williams Arena.
In fact, Minnesota coach Pam Borton expected Michigan to make a second-half push after her Gophers took a nine-point halftime lead.
"I was a little worried about halftime, being up. They’re a team that’s a second half team, scores over 40 points in the second half. I didn’t tell my players that, but knew that we needed a very, very, very intense and smart second half," Borton said. "A lot of people stepped up in the last four minutes and made plays. I think we’ve really grown and matured into a very good basketball team.”
Early in the second half, Michigan went on an 11-2 run to cut a 12-point Minnesota lead to 38-35. The Wolverines then twice closed within one point, the latter coming at 43-42 with 7:21 left.
But this time Minnesota - which led by as many as 15 points in the first half - was able to fend off an opponents' comeback. The Gophers went on a 6-0 run to extend its lead to 49-42 and Michigan wouldn’t get back within six points.
“(Minnesota is) pretty good. They are physical, aggressive, play hard, and play well together," Michigan coach Kevin Borseth said after the game. "I think they have had some misfortunes early in the year. All of their games have been pretty close. They could have been 7-1 in the Big Ten instead of 1-7 at the time.”
The loss is the continuation of a season of highs and lows for Michigan. Earlier this year, the Wolverines strung together consecutive wins against Top 25 teams Boston College, Ohio State and Iowa before losing to an average Purdue squad.
Michigan has never won a Big Ten title and hasn’t had a winning record in conference play since 2001.
The Wolverines started the day tied with Michigan State, Penn State and Wisconsin for first place in the Big Ten. Penn State and Wisconsin both won Sunday. Michigan State was idle.
Comments
Veracity
Mon, Jan 31, 2011 : 2:55 p.m.
I followed Suzy Merchant's career at Eastern Michigan because she has charisma and so did her teams. I remember imagining her as UofM's coach. Although it is true that she inherited a successful program at East Lansing, Merchant had been successful with her first head coaching job at Saginaw State (54-29 in three years) and then at Eastern Michigan (147-91 in nine years). Since her first year as a head coach in 1995 Suzi Merchant has NEVER had a losing season anywhere and her teams at Eastern and Michigan State won at least 22 games each complete year of coaching since 2003. She can recruit and she can coach. With her pedigree I am certain that Michigan woman's basketball would have been more successful with Suzi Merchant as coach. Unfortunately, we will never know. Another opportunity lost to the detriment of major University of Michigan sports programs.
mr_annarbor
Mon, Jan 31, 2011 : 12:54 p.m.
Whether or not Suzy Merchant could have done a better job here is debatable. Over the past 20 or 30 years, Michigan has just not been a good basketball school, making it hard to recruit here. At the risk of sounding like one of the Rich Rodriguez supporters, remember that Borseth took over a program that was really bad, while Merchant took over a program that was already top 25 caliber. Losses like these are unfortunate, but hey, it's only a game.
Engineer
Mon, Jan 31, 2011 : 1:18 a.m.
Sad to see we are playing second fiddle again to the coach Bill Martin turned away. Hopefully the women can get back on track soon. I would like to see an article recruiting for the womens team and how it is going this year. Seemed like last year was a little down after the year before. Pehaps scholarship numbers got in the way. I can only imagine where we would have been with a coach like Suzy Merchant. Perhaps sole posession of first place. GO BLUE!!!