In a packed Crisler Center, Michigan women’s hoops falls to Michigan State for sixth Quad 1 loss of season

After a solid first half, #Michigan got outscored 31-12 in the third quarter by MSU and lost, 88-58, to fall to 14-6 ad 5-4 in Big Ten play. More from KBA post-game:

After a solid first half, the Michigan women’s basketball team fell victim to a barrage of second-half offense by the Michigan State Spartans , losing handily to it’s rival, 88-58.

Dating back to 1997, Michigan is now 18-37 against its biggest rival. In the 101-game history between these two programs, this was the first time both Michigan (No. 24) and Michigan State (No. 21) were ranked. Per game staff, this was the fourth-most attended women’s game in program history, with 10,873 fans packing Crisler Center for this matinee match-up.

The large contingency of Michigan State fans got real loud in the second half, with the Spartans opening the half on a 15-0 run to go from being down four to up 11 in a hurry. MSU ultimately outscored Michigan 49-25 in the second half, including 31-12 in the third quarter when the momentum of this game was turned on it’s head. With this loss, the Wolverines fall to 5-4 in conference play and 14-6 in the regular season, and risk falling off the AP Poll after this blowout loss.

“It was good hearing our fans scream louder than they were,” said Michigan State junior Theryn Hallock, coming off a game-high 25-point performance. “It was good to see a couple extra green shirts today.”

“They kicked our butt in the second half,” Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico said after the game. “I think our team is better than what we showed in the second half.”

The Wolverines entered this game on a four-game win streak, picking up it’s first ranked win of the season earlier in the week against No. 23 Minnesota at The Barn , Like many games this season, that win was led by Michigan’s three freshman starters , with Syla Swords, Olivia Olson and Mila Holloway combining for 54 of Michigan’s points in the 70-65 victory.

The future of the program is incredibly bright , but in the present, the Wolverines have to figure out how to beat higher-ranked opponents. Entering this game, Michigan was ranked 23rd in the NET — sixth among Big Ten teams — but Michigan has to improve on it’s 1-6 record in Quad 1 games to help it’s March Madness resume.

Swords and Olson both had limited minutes in this one, struggling with foul trouble and not getting into a great offensive rhythm. Holloway (13 points, three assists, three steals) and senior Jordan Hobbs (team-high 15 points) picked up the scoring slack before this one got out of hand, but Michigan was unable to create consistent offense to dig itself out of that second-half double-digit hole.

Kim Barnes Arico compared the loss to the men’s lopsided loss last night — when it rains, it pours, and these games can happen in Big Ten play against ranked teams.

“It’s learning experience, it’s growth, we got to figure this out,” Barnes Arico said of the defensive mistakes that compounded in that second half. “We got to get stops. Their execution (in the second half) was great, but we have got to get better defensively.”

Looking ahead to March Madness

While we still have a lot of basketball to play between now and March Madness, the NCAA Tournament picture is starting to take shape on the women’s side. Entering this game, Charlie Creme of ESPN had the Wolverines as a 7-seed, Autumn Johnson of NCAA.com has the Wolverines as a 6-seed — in a piece published before the Minnesota win — and Connor Groel of CBS Sports has Michigan as an 8-seed .

The Wolverines do now six five losses, but the first five came at the hands of top 10 teams, two of which being against teams ranked No. 1 in the country. It would have be extremely beneficial for Michigan’s tournament resume to win at least one of those top-10 games, but a week like this is excellent for U-M’s postseason aspirations.

While Michigan’s schedule just get a bit easier as we roll towards February, a stretch mid-way through the month will say a lot about this team. From Feb. 9 to Feb. 17, Michigan faces No. 21 MSU in East Lansing, Indiana at home, and No. 8 Maryland at College Park. Winning one of those games against ranked opponents will not only help Michigan’s Big Ten standings and NCAA Tournament resume, but it would also inspire some much-needed confidence for this young team.

“Our league is ridiculous, any given night, the teams at the bottom are beating the teams at the top,” Barnes Arico said. “If you take a night off, someone is going to get you. That stretch we just had where we were able to build our confidence up was really important. This one hurts but thankfully we have a day off.”

There’s no let-up in the Big Ten schedule, but Barnes Arico partially sees that gauntlet of conference play as a positive for this young team.

“It’s boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,” Barnes Arico said of the conference slate. “That’s the nature of basketball in the Big Ten, but that’s what our kids sign up for and that’s what they love about it. From an experience position, it’s really good because it gives us another opportunity to get our feet wet and we don’t have to linger around. I always say to our team, ‘it’s not like football, we don’t have to wait a week to play somebody.’”

While Michigan has quite bit of quality losses, the Wolverines have to take care of business against unranked Big Ten teams the rest of the way out. U-M has games against Wisconsin (road game, Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. on B1G+) and Oregon (home game, Feb. 2 at noon on B1G+) this week to improve it’s Big Ten record.

“The season is not over,” Barnes Arico said. “So let’s figure out how we can get better and be better next game.”