In its first double overtime conquest of the season, the No. 6 Michigan women’s basketball team and Oregon went down to the wire. Gritty, messy and hard-fought, both the Ducks and the Wolverines stretched the game out as far as possible. And yet for Michigan, the game was really won with its first twenty minutes.
What allowed the Wolverines (11-1 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) to narrowly pass the Ducks (12-3, 0-2) was a combination of their early offensive efficiency and their late-game grit. Michigan’s ability to capitalize in the early stages of the game gave it footing when time got tough. And in said tough times, even as their offense deteriorated, the Wolverines’ grit and resolve ultimately led to their 92-87 victory.
“There’s a lot of things that we can talk about, and obviously, we have to get better at, but we won the game, holy cow,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “We won the game, on the road, in front of a hostile crowd when they went up. They were up in regulation, in overtime, and both times we found a way to persevere.”
The Wolverines found their footing early, spreading their scoring throughout their roster. Each player found success at the rim, especially sophomore forward Kendall Dudley, who made quick work of Oregon’s zone defense, finding the holes necessary to make her shots.
With the few shots Michigan did miss, it almost always guaranteed itself the offensive board. Feeding off the team’s offensive rebounding efficiency, following a few missed but collected shots, sophomore guard Syla Swords was able to cap off a second-quarter run with a second-chance 3-point jumper. Fine-tuned and efficient, it quickly became commonplace to watch the Wolverines convert nearly every opportunity they created.
But Michigan didn’t dominate in every facet of the game and mistakes were most certainly made. While on any other day, Oregon’s 45% field goal percentage may have secured them the win, Michigan’s 61% allowed them to soar past and lead 44-28 at halftime.
At least that was the story of the first half.
The Wolverines’ inability to have a full defensive lockdown reared its ugly head in the third quarter. Prior to an early timeout, the Ducks outscored Michigan 11-2, eight of which came in just 90 seconds. It seemed as though they took a page from the Wolverines’ efficiency handbook.
While sophomore guard Oliva Olson was repeatedly able to break Michigan’s scoring drought, the rest of the team ran into difficulties. Suddenly, the zone defense that was so simple to find gaps in began to feel smothering. Meanwhile, Oregon was using the Wolverines’ miscues to go on run after run, with nobody there to stop it, outrunning them 21-11 in the quarter. Still, Michigan just about held on to its six-point lead.
Despite an early fourth-quarter push, the pattern unfolded again, with the Wolverines finding themselves in a five-minute scoring lull. On both sides, foul counts began to rise, with sophomore guard Mila Holloway being Michigan’s first to foul out entirely. And so Oregon slowly began chipping away at the lead, with a controversial clock malfunction on the Wolverines’ final possession sending the 69-69 game into overtime.
The grueling duel continued into overtime, but this time, Michigan came ready. It was a back-and-forth affair, and with many of the Wolverines in foul trouble, more new faces began to make their mark, especially junior guard Macy Brown. Down two points with 26 seconds to go, Brown made a key stop with a defensive rebound, setting up a game-tying drive from Olson to send the game into double overtime.
“I thought she’s really good in transition and she’s seeing people,” Barnes Arico said of Brown. “Her length against their length gave us better options from a passing perspective. I was really proud of her.”
After a 3-pointer by Swords to start the extra period, the lead remained in the Wolverines’ hands. Before fouling out, junior forward Ashley Sofilkanich drew critical fouls. And it was Brown who sealed the game away, forcing a foul in the final few seconds to put the Ducks’ momentum to bed entirely.
Michigan clawed its way bit by bit, still with a multitude of mistakes along the way. Diving for every ball, drawing and recording plenty of fouls, the Wolverines paved their way out of a messy, multiple foul-out affair, ending the game 92-87.
Going from a double-digit lead to a tight double overtime battle and going from shooting 61% in the first half to 41% by the end, Michigan certainly had a stumble from grace against the Ducks. But instead of falling completely, the Wolverines held on using their grit, resolve and early lead to tally another win.
