The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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women's basketball of production in Michigan's next game, an 86-64 loss to No. 4 Notre Dame Dec. 14, playing 33 minutes and scoring a team-high 23 points. "I'm feeling well," Smith said after the game. "Once I get on the court, I forget about my fatigue and just try to play my hardest." Plenty To Learn From Notre Dame Loss When the Wolverines fell to No. 12 LSU 64-62, with a chance at a lastsecond shot, it marked a significant step for a young team learning how to compete with the nation's best teams. Against No. 4 Notre Dame, a program that has reached the Final Four in each of the last three seasons and has the type of consistent excellence every coach dreams of, things didn't go quite as smoothly. The Wolverines gave away 13 firsthalf turnovers and let Notre Dame get out for easy transition buckets to build an insurmountable 47-23 halftime lead. "We were down by [24] at halftime," junior guard Shannon Smith said. "We could have hung our heads and let it get to 40. We didn't let it get worse, and we won the second half. We tried to look at it as though it was 0-0 at halftime, and we outscored them in the second half, so we could take that out of it. You try to take the positives and negatives and learn from it." The Wolverines won the second half 41-39, but lost the game 86-64. Although the setback dropped the team to 7-4 on the year, there were plenty of encouraging signs in the second half. After shooting 8 of 25 (32.0 percent) from the field in the first 20 minutes, Michigan hit 15 of 29 shots (51.7 percent) after halftime. After 13 first-half turnovers, the Wolverines surrendered just six in the second. Defensively, the Wolverines cut Notre Dame's shooting percentage from 68.8 in the first half to 46.2 in the second. "This was the first opportunity for 98 percent of our team to ever face an opponent of this caliber," Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico said. "For us, one of the takeaways is that we settled down and played well in the second half. We outscored them in the second half, and they kept their starters in until about two, three minutes to go. "I was really encouraged. We spoke a lot at halftime about fighting back and not quitting and relaxing and playing with confidence. I think we did a much better job of that in the second half. We were surprised in the first half and caught a little offguard, a little shaky by their athleticism and speed. We responded, and I was happy with that." Junior forward Cyesha Goree definitely settled into the game in the second half. She played just nine minutes in the first half after being forced to the bench with two fouls, and she missed both her field goal attempts and collected three rebounds. She found her rhythm after the break, going 6 of 9 from the field in the final