Michigan dominates Michigan State to complete season sweep

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The No. 7 Michigan women’s basketball team bounced back from its loss to No. 2 UCLA with a strong week of wins over Northwestern on the road and at home against No. 13 Michigan State, where the Wolverines completed the season sweep over their rivals.

An exclamation point on Michigan’s win over the Spartans was the retirement of a second jersey from the history of Michigan women’s basketball. Naz Hillmon — a First-team All-American, Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Big Ten Player of the Year, and four-time First-team All-Big Ten selection — had her jersey retired after leading Michigan to the program’s first Elite Eight in 2022.

This Past Week

Michigan started the week off with a dominant win over Northwestern, 80-58, but it didn’t always look that way. At halftime, the Wolverines were down 37-31 after going 1-for-8 from deep and committing nine turnovers. After a strong second-half adjustment, especially defensively, Michigan allowed just eight third-quarter points while building a 56-43 lead.

The Wolverines committed just three second-half turnovers and won the rebounding battle 40-26, including adding 15 offensive rebounds that led to 21 second-chance points. Once they settled into the game, it was smooth sailing for Michigan.

The first quarter against Michigan State looked similar to the first half of the Northwestern game, but Michigan took over after that. The Spartans committed 11 turnovers in the second quarter and struggled to secure defensive rebounds, as the Wolverines had 17 second-chance points throughout.

“It’s really hard,” Michigan State coach Robyn Fralick said when asked about the shot differential due to turnovers and offensive rebounds. “It was all turnovers and second shots for them, which is really hard.”

Michigan rebounded 40% of its misses and forced Michigan State turnovers on 31.5% of possessions.

Having won the first game in overtime two weeks ago, Michigan knew it needed to win the physicality battle — and for the Wolverines, that started in the paint. Michigan won the battle in the paint by outscoring the Spartans 50-30.

“We only played them two weeks ago, so we really wanted to protect the paint,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “Looking at the end stats, we scored 50 points in the paint, they only scored 30. They still got to the free-throw line a ton, but early on, they were kind of getting whatever they wanted. So I just think we had to settle in and we had to try to get some stops.”