Ann Arbor – On an afternoon that Naz Hillmon, Michigan’s most decorated women’s basketball player, saw her jersey raised to the rafters, she also witnessed the progress of a program for which she laid such a strong foundation.
Michigan, ranked No. 7 nationally and currently second in the Big Ten standings, overcame a rough start and defeated turnover-prone No. 13 Michigan State, 86-65, before 11,627 at Crisler Center on Sunday. It was the largest crowd for a Michigan home game this season. The Wolverines swept the two-game series this season with MSU for the first time since the 2022-23 season, winning 94-91 in overtime on Feb. 1 before 11,635 at the Breslin Center.
For Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico, in her 14th season, sweeping Michigan State is exceptionally meaningful not just because of the in-state rivalry but because the MSU program was nationally recognized when she was coaching at St. John’s. Barnes Arico wore Hillmon’s jersey during the game.
“They were the program,” Barnes Arico said of MSU. “I came from the East Coast, (and) they were the team everyone talked about. They were the team that made a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. They were the team in the state of Michigan. And when I first got here, I just wanted to figure out what they did to get to that and how could we now be the team in the state of Michigan. And I knew if we were the team in the state of Michigan, that would also make us a national contender, because Michigan State was that good.
“To get a sweep, I just think it speaks volumes of where our program is right now and where our program has come and – I said this in the locker room – to the people that believed in the vision, and also the belief in themselves, that they can come to the University of Michigan and they can make a difference. Naz Hillmon could have gone anywhere, and she’s our first All-American, and she could have been one of 30 All-Americans somewhere else, but she wanted to do it here. So this rivalry, to be on the other side of it, to get the sweep, it’s really, really, really special, and it means a lot for our former players that have come through the program.”
Michigan is 22-4, 13-2 Big Ten with three regular-season games remaining. The Wolverines have won seven of their last eight games, their only blemish a 69-66 loss to No. 2 UCLA a week ago. MSU is 20-6, 9-6. Michigan State has lost four of the last five, starting with the overtime loss to Michigan two weeks ago. The Spartans, who have two games left before the Big Ten tournament, have now had back-to-back losses to top-10 teams, including an 86-63 loss to UCLA last Wednesday.
Syla Swords led the Wolverines with 24 points, Olivia Olson had 23 points and eight rebounds, and Mila Holloway had 15.
Kennedy Blair led Michigan State with 21 points, Jalyn Brown had 11 and Grace VanSlooten, who entered the game leading MSU averaging 15.2 points, scored 10. The Spartans had a season-high 24 turnovers, including 12 in the second quarter, topping the 22 they had in a win against Ole Miss in December.
“We had way too many turnovers in the second quarter. That killed us,” Blair said. “We had a good start, which was what we put an emphasis on. But I think we might have had like 10 turnovers in a row at one point. That was terrible. And a lot of that is on me too. I need to do a better job taking care of the ball. We play best when we get stops and we take care of the ball, and usually we’re not the team to turn the ball over that much. We just got to clean stuff up and can’t have big lapses like that, especially with a top-10 team in the country.”
There was an emotionally-charged moment with 4:05 left when MSU’s Juliann Woodard landed hard and was immediately surrounded by medical personnel from both teams. The MSU players huddled, some tearing up, as Woodard was tended to, and the Crisler Center crowd grew quiet. She got up to sit in a wheelchair and the crowd stood and clapped for her as she was taken to the locker room. She appeared to hold a small towel under her right eye. This was the second in-game injury for the Spartans. Rashunda Jones appeared to injure her left leg in the third quarter and was taken to the locker room. Jones entered the game third on the team in scoring averaging 12.4 points.
It was difficult from to see what happened from the few replays shown on FS1, and MSU head coach Robyn Fralick said she didn’t know what exactly happened that caused Woodard’s injury. Fralick also said she did not have an update on Jones’ injury.
“I didn’t see what happened, but it was really scary,” Fralick said of the Woodard injury. “She was coherent and knew who she was and where she was and all those things when she left.”
Blair said it was difficult watching Woodard on the court so long.
“That’s one of my best friends, so seeing somebody go through that is not nice, especially when you see blood coming off their face,” Blair said. “She was kind of limp for a second, so I knew she was all right when she was moving and talking a little bit. She got in the wheelchair, and I told her I loved her, and said she loved me back, so I guess that’s a good sign.”
Hillmon, who played for the Wolverines from 2019-22, was the 2021 Big Ten Player of the Year. She led Michigan to its only Elite Eight appearance, a pivotal moment for Arico’s program that has been knocking on the door of the upper echelon of women’s basketball. The moment for Hillmon on Sunday was not lost on Olson and Swords, who both said they feel her impact at Michigan.
“She’s a big reason we came here,” Olson said. “She laid the foundation for us, and she came here before they made it to the Elite Eight, and she put Michigan on the map. Just being able to follow in her footsteps, it means a lot to us and how she played with so much effort. Everything that this program stands for she helped build. So it means a lot for us to be able to follow that.”
The Wolverines took their inspiration from Hillmon and led 41-30 at halftime and then by as many as 19 in the third quarter. Holloway made a layup off a turnover to build a 63-44 advantage before MSU closed its deficit to 65-50. Michigan was 10 of 13 (76.9%) from the field in the third, while MSU struggled to overcome its 12-turnover second quarter.
The Wolverines, after trailing 21-15 in the first quarter with 6-of-20 shooting, took over the game in the second and built the 11-point halftime lead. Michigan, which was 10 of 22 in the second quarter, led by as many as 14 (41-27) on a 3-pointer by Swords.
Michigan State, which had looked so unstoppable in the first quarter, committed 12 turnovers in the second quarter – 16 for the half – and that led to the Spartans’ undoing. After shooting 8 of 14 from the field in the first quarter, they were 3-of-7 in the second. The Spartans led after the first quarter, 21-15 and at one point they had made 70% from the field while Michigan was struggling with 5 of 18 (27.8%). The Spartans led by as many as eight with just under three minutes left. By the end of the quarter, they were shooting 57.1% while Michigan, 0-for-5 from the 3-point line, was at 30%.
“We’ve got to figure some things out,” Fralick said. “We’ve got to play better basketball on both sides of the ball. We want to finish the story strong, and right now, there’s things that we’re not doing well that are getting really exposed. Starts with me responsible for figuring out how to get us back playing confident, competitive. One of the things that we always feel as a signature is we’re going to fight and we’ve got to find a way to to get that back at a high level quickly.”
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Season sweep of Michigan State ‘speaks volumes’ for Michigan women’s basketball
Reporting by Angelique S. Chengelis, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
