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Posted on Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 8:14 p.m.

Michigan women's basketball team pushes past tough Toledo to advance in WNIT

By Andrew Reid

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Michigan freshman Dayeesha Hollins and junior Veronica Hicks smile as they walk off the court arm and arm after beating Toledo during the National Invitational Tournament at Crisler Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com 

On Friday, the Michigan women’s basketball team stifled Kent State’s offense in the first half, holding the Golden Flashes to 11 points on 13 percent shooting in the first round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

Sunday afternoon, the Wolverines turned in a similar 20-minute defensive performance and held  off Toledo for a 72-57 win at Crisler Arena.

The Wolverines will play the winner of Monday’s Northwestern-St. Bonaventure game, and a WNIT spokesperson said Michigan will likely host the game, possibly on Thursday.

(Complete WNIT schedule).

At halftime, Michigan found itself five points behind Toledo, which had stormed through the first half, shooting 50 percent. Most of the Rockets’ hot start can be attributed to sophomore guard Naama Shafir. She went 4-for-4 from the field, including three from behind the arc, and stumped the Michigan defense.

“Number 4 (Shafir) is as good a guard as you’ll see in the country,” Michigan coach Kevin Borseth said. “We knew she was going to shoot the ball, but she just has a knack for getting away from the defense.”

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Michigan sophomore Carmen Reynolds powers through Toledo senior Tanika Mays, left and sophomore Naama Shafir during the second half of the National Invitational Tournament at Crisler Arena on Sunday afternoon. Michigan beat Toledo, 72-57 and will advance to the third round of the NIT.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com 

Shafir’s 13 first-half points gave Toledo — and its very sizeable fanbase, which outnumbed Michigan’s by quite a bit — something to cheer for heading into the break.

But that was the last bit of momentum the Rockets enjoyed. In the locker room, Borseth changed up the defensive gameplan, putting junior Veronica Hicks on Shafir and playing a perplexing zone on some possessions.

It worked.

“I said, ‘Let’s try this,’ and on they missed their first shot and then the next, so we stuck with it,” Borseth said.

And the Rockets missed the next one and the next one, too — all told, Michigan held Toledo without a field goal for the first 13 minutes and 20 seconds of the second half. In that time, the Rockets scored just two points on free throws.

Down five at the start of the period, Michigan soon sound itself up big. Toledo’s first field goal of the half — a three pointer by Courtney Ingersoll — ended a 23-2 Wolverine run that effectively gave Michigan the victory.

Shafir scored 10 points in the second half, almost all of which came in the last few minutes, when the outcome was no longer in the balance.

“(At halftime), I think we saw the damage she was doing to us,” Hicks said. “She was the key to stopping them, and we did a lot better job of that in the second half.”

On the offensive side, Michigan also exploded after the break. Both senior Krista Phillips and sophomore Carmen Reynolds both exploded after halftime. They finished with 22 and 21 points, respectively.

“My shots just started to fall,” Reynolds said, simply.

Reynolds later said she hopes the Wolverines take on St. Bonaventure in the next round. Nothing against Northwestern, which Michigan has played three times already this year, but one of her best friends from home plays for the Bonnies.

Comments

Heidi Koester

Mon, Mar 22, 2010 : 7:33 a.m.

Great, hard-fought game. Both teams played with all-out effort. It was a wonderful example for my daughter and her friends to see. Seems like Michigan might be the fitter team, since they were really able to sustain the intensity the entire second half. Good luck in the next round!

Dan Romanchik

Mon, Mar 22, 2010 : 6:35 a.m.

I'll admit to being a little concerned when I walked in and saw all the Toledo fans. They also brought their band and cheerleaders. From that point of view, it was almost like a home game for Toledo. Michigan didn't play all that well in the first half, which has become their MO. After Carmen Reynolds scored the first five points to tie the score in the first minute, though, I knew it was going to be awfully tough for Toledo to win. Veronica Hicks gets all the credit for shutting down Shafir, and Krista Phillips obviously did a great job scoring, too.