The No. 2-seed Michigan women’s basketball team’s magical season is continuing, as the Wolverines advanced to the second Elite Eight in program history.
Down by 11 points with 6:53 remaining in the second quarter, things looked bleak for the Wolverines. Their first points of the game over six minutes in, already trailing 8-0, losing the rebounding battle and not generating much offensive momentum.
Then Michigan (28-6) landed some heavyweight punches, dominating in an 18-2 run to close the second quarter,
and a 20-2 run to close the third quarter which sealed the victory over No. 3 seed Louisville (29-8), 71-52.
“It took us a minute to settle, but then once we did, I think our confidence exploded and we just were really disruptive on the defensive end, which we pride ourselves with being, and that allowed the floodgates to open on offense,” head coach Kim Barnes Arico said.
Going back to their roots with a full-court press in the second quarter, the Wolverines turned the tide in that key second-quarter stretch. They pressured the Cardinals’ ballhandlers, forcing deflections and disrupting Louisville’s downhill drives. Michigan limited the paint attacks which built the Cardinals’ initial lead, and the Wolverines’ box-outs both limited Louisville’s second-chance attempts and yielded some of their own.
Michigan kept pounding its transition offense down the court, tiring out the Cardinals’ forwards. Yet perhaps most impactful was the spark off the bench from sophomore wing Te’Yala Delfosse, who entered the game four points into the Wolverines’ second-quarter run.
Immediately after, Delfosse sprinted for a transition outlet pass, her layup prompting Louisville to call timeout. On the next possession, Delfosse snagged a defensive rebound and sank a three-pointer 17 seconds later. In that 18-2 run, Delfosse accounted for eight points, three rebounds and a block, lighting a fire offensively that was never fully extinguished and finished the contest with a game-high +31 +/- , 10 points and eight rebounds.
Out of halftime, the Cardinals landed another punch with a 7-0 run. In a situation where the Wolverines let leads slip earlier in the season, a flat third quarter became a near-death blow. Saturday demonstrated just how far Michigan has developed this season.
“We harp on third quarters a lot, because we come out slow some of the times, and we’re not ready to play,” senior forward Alyssa Crockett said. “And I think that showed, obviously, at the beginning of that third quarter, but then we kind of realized, like, this is win or go home. We talk about it in our huddles, like we don’t get another opportunity, and not any other team gets an opportunity to be here, so we need to take advantage of that. And given the time that we have left, like we need to punch first and settle down now, rather than letting up our guard. Just because we’re up five at half, like, that’s not winning the game.”
With those words in mind, the Wolverines fortified their defense and ignited the game-sealing 18-0 run. They also attacked the offensive glass, extending possessions and getting extra shots — which they sank with abundance. With five offensive rebounds and six second-chance points, along with 14 in the paint in the quarter, Michigan capitalized on gaps in the Cardinals’ zone.
“When it comes down to not making shots, they then started to control the glass, because we were spread out trying to get some threes up,” Louisville head coach Jeff Walz said. “Then you’ve got to give (senior guard Brooke Quarles Daniels) a ton of credit. She impacts the game in so many ways without really scoring, but it’s her ability to continually go to the offensive glass. … When we were starting to make a run there in the third quarter and we took a lead, she’s the one that came up with the offensive rebounds to get them back in the lead.”
Quarles Daniels, a key defender for the Wolverines, finished the game with a whopping seven offensive rebounds as a 5-foot-7 guard, along with two steals. Her tenacity extended possessions, leading to 15 second-chance points for Michigan. Whenever the Cardinals gave her space, Quarles Daniels found herself with the ball, often getting to the free throw line on putbacks and relegating Louisville’s top players to the bench with foul trouble.
The Wolverines began to fire on all cylinders in the third quarter, keeping their foot on the gas and coasting to victory after establishing a 57-40 lead entering the final frame. Sophomore guards Olivia Olson and Syla Swords joined Delfosse in double figures, scoring 19 and 16, respectively.
“Anybody, the three of us (Olson, Delfosse and Swords), anybody on our roster can go off and have a game, have an exciting game,” Swords said postgame. “Te coming in, shooting layups over top of 6-foot-4 players. Brooke Daniels, who is 5-foot-7 getting touch-back rebounds and-ones, or Liv being able to come up the floor and break down any point guard in the country. Anybody can come out and have a night. We’re an exciting brand of basketball to watch, and we can beat anybody in the country, and I believe that if we’re on our A game.”
With a true team performance against the Cardinals, Michigan etched its name in the program history books. The Wolverines will be hanging a banner this season with the Elite Eight berth, and will hope for another electrifying night on Monday when they play No. 1-seed Texas in Fort Worth, Texas for a shot at the program’s first Final Four.
