WBB beats northwestern in thriller on Senior Night....BEAT OHIO

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

On Senior night, the Michigan Women (20-8 overall, 9-6 B1G, T-4th) beat northwestern 55-50 in a thriller. Nicole Elmblad had a huge basket with under a minute left to ultimately give Michigan the win.

Sheffer had 17 points moving to a tie for 16th on Michigan's all-time scoring list while Jenny Ryan became 2nd on the all-time assists list. Oddly enough, all 24 of Michigan's points at halftime were scored by the seniors honored tonight. 

This senior class leaves Michigan as the winningest in program history, a 13-4 home record and the first ever 20 win season for a first-year head coach in program history. They also ended the dreaded streak against state beating them 70-69 at Crisler in the women's Rededication game. 

A great senior class, that without a doubt, left the program 100% better than when they came in. 

One more game left in the regular season. ohio in columbus on Sunday. Game tips at Noon on BTN (it will end 2 hours before the big MBB game). Be sure to watch because Michigan should dismantle the buckeyes. ohio is having one of their worst years in recent memory (15-12 overall, 5-9 in B1G, T-8th)

BEAT OHIO!

goblue16

February 28th, 2013 at 10:01 PM ^

Still proud of the Michigan basketball program! Even with all he issues on the men's side Michigan basketball has become something special. I have never seen so many posts on Michigan basketball ever and although most r due to frustration, that usually comes with winning.
GO BLUE!
BEAT OHIO!!!
BEAT SPARTY!!!

Raoul

February 28th, 2013 at 10:25 PM ^

Sorry to nitpick, but the senior class is not yet the winningest in program history—the win tonight put them into a tie with the class of 2001. This is from the pregame notes for tonight's game:

The class of 2013 has 77 wins over the past four years. The class of 2001 -- Anne Thorius and Katie Dykehouse -- holds the distinction of the winningest class in school history with 78 wins.

I also wouldn't be so confident about a victory over OSU on Sunday. OSU is playing better of late—they just beat Illinois on the road for their fifth victory in their last seven games.

Anyway, kudos to the seniors on their fine careers, and congrats to the team on reaching the 20-win mark, something the women's program has done just four times before. The postgame notes include this on Jenny Ryan:

Ryan has surpassed all Michigan basketball players -- male and female -- in all-time minutes played. She already led all women and passed Zack Novak tonight to lead all men. She played all 40 minutes tonight and has played 4,374 in her tenure.

champswest

February 28th, 2013 at 11:15 PM ^

I remember when she committed and I hoped that it would be the start of a turn around. What a great, but not flashy, player. Very steady, good handle, good passer, excellent defender. She could have been a bigger scorer if they needed her to be. A credit to the university.

dc22

February 28th, 2013 at 11:22 PM ^

Congrats to the WBB team on a 20 win season! Do we need to win the BIG tournament to make the NCAA or do we have any at-large hopes? I know that the BIG is not very good at women's hoops and was wondering how our non-conference schedule stacked up.

Raoul

March 1st, 2013 at 8:12 AM ^

They played a pretty weak nonconference schedule and didn't come away with any significant wins outside the Big Ten, but their overall resume puts them safely in the NCAA tourney right now. The various projections out there have them around a 7 seed right now. I think an 8 or 9 seed might be more likely, but it'll depend on how they do in the Big Ten tourney. But they certainly don't need to win that to get into the NCAAs.

rob f

March 1st, 2013 at 12:55 AM ^

were there---where were the rest of you???

Yes, Denard is everywhere.  Me? Not so much---this was my second trip (once for the Crisler re-dedication game vs. PSU and then tonight) to Crisler in the last week and a half after a basketball absence of several years.  Just got back home to Watervliet (yes, THAT Watervliet, Rachel Sheffer's home town) about an hour ago after a late-night drive home that included a little snow and freezing rain.

More importantly, though, Michigan's Women's Basketball Team did themselves proud tonight by winning a tight one, by hanging in there as Northwestern came from behind a few times tonight only to see Michigan over and over again turn them back. 

Yeah, maybe the women can't play above the rim, but this was a really fun game to watch tonight.  Rachel had a great game with 17 points, tough defense and a half-dozen rebounds, Jenny Ryan was in total control all the way at the point, and Nya Jordan was spectacular with several crucial offensive rebounds to go along with some clutch shots that turned the momentum back in Michigan's direction every time NU threatened the lead.

Only disappointment to me was the lack of any sizable student turnout tonight.  Yeah, I know, studies are more important than sports (not!), but this was Senior Night after all.  Fortunately, Denard and a handful of other football players were there to support this team, a team  that has earned our support by resurrecting a program that had been in the dumps for a long time. 

Not surprisingly, I didn't see anyone from the men's team; I'm sure, if they're back to the Michigan Campus, that they have plenty of work to do anyway.