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SOUTH BEND, Ind. \u2014 Olivia Olson knew that a few seconds remained on the shot clock when she pulled up. She knew that the No. 6 seed Michigan women\u2019s basketball team led No. 11 seed Iowa State by three points. She knew how important this possession was.<\/p>\n
With the ball in her hands, Olson was well aware of what the Wolverines needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got the ball, and I was just looking to get a good shot up,\u201d the freshman guard said. \u201cI knew we needed to get one up.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a game that had been defined by Michigan\u2019s transition offense and the blistering pace it opened with, this play took time. It wasn\u2019t even much of a play \u2014 the Wolverines swung the ball around the perimeter, searching for a look or an opening until Olson caught it on the right wing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nOlson hesitated in front of her defender before driving to the left elbow. She created just enough contact before stopping and spinning around to her left to create just enough separation. She rose, smoothly releasing the ball as she fell. Grazing the front iron before rolling in, the fadeaway jumper put Michigan up by five points with 20 seconds left and forced the Cyclones to call a timeout.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Freshman guard Mila Holloway celebrated behind her, playfully shoving her to hype her up. Freshman guard Syla Swords was to Olson\u2019s left, with a front-row view for a game-sealing shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I was watching it in slow motion,\u201d Swords said. \u201c\u2026 I saw her do that spin, and that\u2019s her shot. When she gets to the elbow, there\u2019s no stopping her. So I just saw her elevate and I said, \u2018Yeah, it\u2019s going in.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
That shot, from that spot, is Olson\u2019s favorite. It\u2019s been her go-to all season, whether the Wolverines need a clutch bucket or she finds herself near the free-throw line with the ball in her hands. It\u2019s become one of her most efficient shots, if not her most familiar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve hit that shot a million times,\u201d Olson said.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nBut the rest of this is all new to Olson. It\u2019s hard to tell from her 16 points, six rebounds and three assists, but Friday was Olson\u2019s first NCAA Tournament game. The freshman guard couples her game with a sense of composure, a calmness that doesn\u2019t seem to waver even when the lead does.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That maturity meant that even after shooting 1-for-8 in the first half, Olson\u2019s confidence didn\u2019t flicker, converting on four of her last six shot attempts. Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico beamed after hearing those numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Barnes Arico said, a smile stretching across her face. \u201cI\u2019m glad you gave me those stats, because I\u2019m going to run inside and tell her how proud I am of her. That\u2019s something that we worked on with her all season. \u2026 She\u2019s a great scorer. She\u2019s a winner. She\u2019s a competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olson only scored four points in the first half, two coming from drawing contact in the contest\u2019s opening minutes. From there, Olson struggled to get into an offensive flow, as frequent foul calls rendered the game\u2019s rhythm choppy and disjointed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Olson isn\u2019t used to that level of inefficiency \u2014 or inefficiency in general \u2014 averaging 16.2 points per game as the Wolverines most consistent scorer. But this whole week has been unfamiliar to Olson, starting on a sixth-seeded team in her first trip to the Big Dance.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nOlson didn\u2019t know how her first March Madness game was going to go. Until late Wednesday evening, Olson didn\u2019t even know who her next opponent would be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But what felt inevitable, at least to Olson, was that her shot would fall when it mattered. Because the moment the ball left her hands \u2014 really, the moment she got to her spot \u2014 Olson knew it was good.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n
Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH BEND, Ind. \u2014 Olivia Olson knew that a few seconds remained on the shot clock when she pulled up. She knew that the No. 6 seed Michigan women\u2019s basketball team led No. 11 seed Iowa State by three points. She knew how important this possession was. With the ball in her hands, Olson was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[359,358,360,222,356,357,361],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-dagger","tag-delivers","tag-iowa","tag-michigan","tag-olivia","tag-olson","tag-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}