WBB Battle 4 Atlantis quarters game notes

Opponent: Middle Tennessee State (Battle 4 Atlantis quarterfinals) 

Date: 11/18, neutral site

W 63-49, semis vs. South Dakota next on 11/19 at 2:30pm

Starters: Laila Phelia, Jordan Hobbs, Cameron Williams, Taylor Williams, Lauren Hansen (same as game 2)

Injuries/inactives: none, but Stuck and Crockett only got in the game with 1 minute left

Offense: 

• Michigan had a 24 second violation on their first possession, then another in the 2nd quarter and another in the 3rd. Seemed to have trouble initiating the offense off the dribble.
• Hobbs had the first 5 points for the team off of a 3 and a layup before scoring dried up for a while.
• Hansen ended the first quarter scoring drought with a steal, layup, and 1. Hansen also with a buzzer beating 3 at the end of the first quarter. When she’s on, she can really produce points in a hurry. 
• The team struggled with MTSU’s center down (Boldyreva) until they were able to get some outside shooting going and it was still rough even then. 
• MTSU sagged off of Chyra a lot, thankfully she was 2-6 from 3 to keep them a little honest.
• 3’s finally started falling in the second quarter. 
• Cam Williams had 1 travel in the post, something she used to do a lot last year while trying to back down a defender or spin into a layup. I hadn’t seen her do that yet this year, hopefully it doesn’t come back. 

Defense:

• Michigan was leaving people too open from 3 in general. Thankfully MTSU went 4-14. 
• Brett was really getting after the ball, ended up with only 1 official steal, but was definitely involved in making MTSU uncomfortable. 
• MTSU had their own scoring droughts in the second and fourth quarters, thankfully. Both teams struggled to put together a complete offensive game. 
• Michigan broke out the 1-2-2 press once at the end of the first half. This led to steal, but they weren’t able to settle the chaos and capitalize. 
• Michigan really committed too many fouls here leading to turnovers. 17 for Michigan to 14 for MTSU. 
• Ended up doubling Boldyreva for long stretches of the second half, which seemed to work ok. 

Notable stats:

• Lost the turnover battle 18-16. I’m glad this settled down a bit after the team had 7 in the first quarter, but still an issue. 
• The commentator at one point said that Michigan is leading the Big Ten in both offensive rebounds and blocks per game. This may be due to level of competition, but Michigan sits at 52 offensive rebounds (17.3 per game) and 15 blocks (5 per game). The B1G's website lists them as first in offensive rebounds and tied for fourth in steals after yesterday's game.
• Taylor Williams got 3 fouls right at the start of the third quarter and ended up fouling out. 

Overall: 

• The team had trouble scoring, as you may have surmised from the score line. This was in part due to MTSU’s active defense and in part due to missing open shots. There were two extended scoring droughts. One during the first quarter and one during the third. The scoring drought at the end of the third quarter lasted into the beginning of the fourth before Phelia helped close the door on a 15-5 run. She then exited the game with about 2:30 left, after which Michigan did not score again.

Miscellaneous: 

• All the subbing in the first quarter made it really feel like nobody had time to settle into the game. I know KBA is still trying to figure out how to manage this roster, but that was a tough first quarter. 
• KBA rolled out a smaller lineup at the start of the second quarter with T. Williams as the center with Hansen, Phelia, Brett, and Hobbs around her. It didn’t last long, but was definitely an interesting look. 
• My wife got annoyed by how much the male commentator kept referencing other sports, but the female commentator (Lexi Ayala) really seemed to know what she was talking about and kept coming in with relevant stats.​​​​​​​
• I was really hoping Michigan would get to play against DePaul tomorrow, because Michelle Sidor and Kate Clarke both transferred there last year and it looks like Clarke is developing into one of their main scoring threats, which would be fun to see. Oh well.