{"id":4225,"date":"2026-01-06T10:49:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/01\/06\/michigan-recovers-offensive-depth-in-70-60-win-over-minnesota\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:49:09","slug":"michigan-recovers-offensive-depth-in-70-60-win-over-minnesota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/01\/06\/michigan-recovers-offensive-depth-in-70-60-win-over-minnesota\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan recovers offensive depth in 70-60 win over Minnesota\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The No. 9 Michigan women\u2019s basketball team\u2019s offensive depth was put to the test against Minnesota\u2019s size, which forced lead shooters to take a step back. With the Wolverines doubling up to guard the Golden Gophers in the paint, Minnesota exposed Michigan\u2019s patchy offense and forced it to restructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(The Gophers) are so long at every spot,\u201d Wolverines coach Kim Barnes Arico said. \u201c\u2026 they really attack you one-on-one, and we had to adjust to that. They were scoring one-on-one against us early.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michigan\u2019s (12-2 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) short-lived lead was brought down when Minnesota\u2019s (10-4, 1-2) height overpowered the Wolverines\u2019 defense. Reliable defenders fought at the rim, but early fouls ultimately kicked Michigan\u2019s bigs to the bench. The stunted Wolverines\u2019 offense set their sights on the win coming into the second quarter. With increased momentum, recharging rebounds and pacing, Michigan recovered from its offensive drought in the second quarter, taking the win, 70-60.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For the first few minutes, the Wolverines\u2019 lead wasn\u2019t challenged, but their shooting patterns carried over from tough pressure against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/womens-basketball\/no-6-michigan-defeats-oregon-in-92-87-double-overtime-victory-marred-by-offensive-decay\/\">Oregon<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/womens-basketball\/michigans-inefficient-shooting-leads-to-first-big-ten-loss-64-52\/\">Washington<\/a>. Michigan\u2019s recent offensive weakness was revealed when sophomore guard Olivia Olson was needed on defense. The Wolverines\u2019 bigs are scarce, and those who were initially able to match up against the Gophers were not putting up the numbers to compete with Minnesota\u2019s frontcourt efficiency.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Olson is a reliable figure in building Michigan\u2019s box score with her end-to-end reliability. But when circumstances against the Gophers called for it, Olson stood her ground on the press rather than focusing her energy on shooting. She put up just five points by the end of the first quarter, while the remainder of the floor couldn\u2019t shoot consistently enough to fill her gap. The quarter closed 19-10, and the Wolverines rushed to restructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Presence at the rim was largely forgotten in the first quarter, and Michigan paid for it. The Wolverines slowed down their possessions, which put Minnesota\u2019s defense to work, but also proved to be more costly than beneficial. Clean open shots, both inside and outside of the paint, more often than not bounced off the board or missed the rim entirely. Michigan was already booking it to half court, leaving its ball stranded in the paint for the Gophers to pick up.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the second quarter, Olson\u2019s presence at the rim increased greatly alongside senior guard Brooke Quarles Daniels, who led the period with five rebounds. Quarles Daniels and Olson coordinated their positioning and knocked Minnesota off its rhythm, leading the Wolverines\u2019 offense to disperse across the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI try to just do whatever the team needs,\u201d Olson said. \u201cAnd sometimes it\u2019s guarding a (forward). Sometimes it\u2019s guarding more of a guard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The second quarter was nothing short of a battle, and with Olson being stretched thin in the press, Michigan still struggled to get its lead scorers back in the running. The Wolverines narrowly grabbed the lead, 44-43 at the buzzer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Shooting accuracy repaired itself and the weaknesses that cost Michigan against Washington were patched up by its rediscovered depth. Sophomore forward Te\u2019Yala Delfosse brought size into the paint, further balancing Quarles Daniels and Olson\u2019s connection. Delfosse went from shooting one point in the entirety of the first three quarters to providing a five-point spark off the bench in the fourth.<\/p>\n<p>Quarles Daniels and Olson returned to their typical spots on the floor with Olson being largely responsible for the growing deficit, putting up 16 points after being relieved of her defensive responsibilities from the first quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Coming off a tough performance on the road, the Wolverines targeted weaknesses across the floor and reestablished depth on offense to cement a developmental victory over the Gophers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The No. 9 Michigan women\u2019s basketball team\u2019s offensive depth was put to the test against Minnesota\u2019s size, which forced lead shooters to take a step back. With the Wolverines doubling up to guard the Golden Gophers in the paint, Minnesota exposed Michigan\u2019s patchy offense and forced it to restructure.\u00a0 \u201c(The Gophers) are so long at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2681,222,4065,394,4066,248],"class_list":["post-4225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-depth","tag-michigan","tag-minnesota","tag-offensive","tag-recovers","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225","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=4225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4227,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions\/4227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}