ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The No. 9-ranked University of Michigan women’s basketball team rolled to a 90-71 victory over No. 25 Ohio State, the largest margin of victory for Michigan ever against the Buckeyes, capping off 2021 on Friday (Dec. 31) at Crisler Center.
U-M (12-1, 3-0 Big Ten) scored 90 points or more for the third time in five games and improved to 3-1 against teams in the Associated Press top 25 this season. U-M scored 50 of its 90 points in the paint and had 17 second-chance points behind 14 offensive boards.
Three Wolverines netted 18 points or more against the Buckeyes as senior Naz Hillmon secured her 40th career double-double with 29 points and 15 rebounds, with 15 points and 10 rebounds coming in the first half alone. Senior Emily Kiser had a banner day with a career-high 15 rebounds and added 18 points, one shy of a career best, and Leigha Brown scored 24 points on 9-for-12 shooting.
Hillmon and Kiser combined for 30 rebounds for the Maize and Blue with 15 each, and Brown added five boards to go along with a team-best seven assists, two blocks and two steals.
The Wolverines opened on an 8-0 run behind four points and three rebounds from Hillmon heading into the first media break with 6:19 left in the opening quarter. Ohio State (9-3, 1-2 Big Ten) came out of the break to score five straight, but a transition bounce pass from Hillmon to Brown put U-M up by six, 11-5, with less than five minutes to play in the first quarter.
U-M maintained a lead through the closing minutes of the first quarter to take a 21-17 advantage after 10 minutes of play, and Maddie Nolan opened the second quarter with a trey to extend the Michigan lead.
Following a small scoring drought, the Wolverines made three straight shots in the paint, forcing Ohio State to call a timeout with U-M leading 30-24 with just under six minutes until halftime. Michigan came out of the break with a 9-0 run, including a second-chance layup from Kiser and a three-pointer from Brown off the cross pass from Hillmon to push the Wolverine lead to 10, 41-31, with 1:44 remaining in the first half of action.
U-M tacked on four more points in the closing minutes to take a 45-31 advantage into the halftime break. Michigan scored 26 points in the paint and had seven second-chance points off nine offensive rebounds.
U-M opened the second half on a quick 9-0 run with five points from Brown to extend the Michigan lead to 54-31. Ohio State looked to make a comeback with a short 8-0 run of their own, but Michigan hit seven of its last eight shots of the third quarter, and the Wolverines took a 67-53 lead into the final 10 minutes of the contest.
A Nolan three-pointer capped off a 7-0 run to start the fourth quarter and forced Ohio State to use a timeout to try to slow the Michigan offense with just over seven minutes remaining. Coming out of the timeout, Kiser was the first to find a bucket on a second-chance opportunity and Cameron Williams followed it up with a layup of her own with a little over five minutes to play.
U-M cleared its bench in the remaining minutes en route to the 19-point win.
This article was gathered automatically by our news bot. We help YouTubers by driving traffic to them for free. The featured image in this article is the thumbnail of the embedded video. Thank you for visiting the Southeast Sports Network and sesnsports.com. For more sports, news, and entertainment, follow us on Twitter @SESNsports or like our page on Facebook.
