Michigan women stun Indiana in Big Ten tourney with epic second-half rally for 69-56 win

Big Ten women’s tournament

Michigan 69, Indiana 56: It was like an alarm clock going off for the sixth-seeded Wolverines at the Target Center; when the Hoosiers’ Yarden Garzon buried a 3-pointer to give IU a 17-point lead, the Wolverines suddenly sprang to life. U-M went on a 12-0 run to climb back into it, with Laila Phelia pouring in eight of the Wolverines’ points in 3:46.

But U-M wasn’t done. Phelia scored 20 in the second half as Michigan buried Indiana, 48-21, while shooting 60% from the floor to advance to the Big Ten tournament semifinals. The Wolverines will face second-seeded Iowa, and superstar Caitlin Clark, at approximately 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the day’s second game in Minneapolis.

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Clark, who has since become the NCAA's career scoring leader among men and women, set the NCAA women's career scoring record against the Wolverines back on Feb. 15 with 49 points (setting Iowa's single-game women's scoring mark) in a 106-89 victory in Iowa City, Iowa.

Still, the Wolverines aren't fazed by a rematch in Minneapolis.

"I feel like the biggest thing for us is just staying true to who we are as a team and continuing to do the little things and chip away," Phelia said Friday night. "Caitlin Clark, she's a great player, so we all have to definitely tune in and help each other out on that."

Even after U-M climbed back into it in the third quarter on Friday, the Wolverines faced daunting odds. IU stretched its lead back to 10, but U-M went on another 12-0 run, this time with Cameron Williams delivering eight points, including a three-point play 80 seconds into the fourth quarter that gave U-M its first lead since late in the first quarter.

Indiana tied it up about a minute later, but the Wolverines had rediscovered its winning combination: Phelia inside and Lauren Hansen firing from beyond the 3-point line.

"I think Laila Phelia showed why she's one of the best players in the country," Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said, "and I thought she did a tremendous job late when they started to really double her and try to load on her of finding Lauren. Lauren is one of the best shooters in the country, one of the best playmakers in the country. So they found each other."

Over the final seven minutes, U-M outscored IU 22-8, with Hansen hitting three 3s and Phelia dropping in four layups, including two three-point plays.

Phelia finished with a career-high 30 points to lead the Wolverines, hitting 12 of 22 shots from the field and six of seven from the free throw line.

Hansen finished with 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting, and Williams and Jordan Hobbs contributed 10 points apiece.

Sara Scalia led the Hoosiers with 14 points. IU shot just 28.6% over the final 20 minutes. All-American center Mackenzie Holmes didn't start for Indiana after suffering a knee injury in the Hoosiers' regular-season finale; she played five minutes Friday, going 0-for-2 from the field with an assist and a pair of fouls.

Friday’s other Big Ten women’s tourney games

Maryland 82, No. 4 Ohio State 61: Shyanne Sellers dominated her homestate squad as the eighth-seeded Terps stunned the top-seeded Buckeyes in Minneapolis less than two weeks after OSU crushed Maryland in Columbus. Sellers, from Aurora, Ohio — about 140 miles northeast of Columbus — had 25 points in 40 minutes, hitting nine of 17 shots to go with eight rebounds, seven assists, a block and a steal. The Buckeyes took an early lead as the Terps hit just six of their 20 attempts in the first quarter. But Maryland rallied with a 26-point second quarter and held OSU to 37.5% shooting in the frame to grab an eight-point lead at the half. OSU attempted to rally in the third, but Maryland was ready: “Ohio State made a run a little bit in the third quarter, and I looked at them, and we all said, we’ve got to come back,” Sellers said. “They punched first. We’ve got to punch back.” The Terps will face fifth-seeded Nebraska in the first semifinal, slated for 2 p.m. Saturday (Big Ten Network) at Target Center.

Nebraska 73, Michigan State 61: The fourth-seeded Spartans, one of the nation’s top-scoring teams, struggled to get their offense going against the fifth-seeded Cornhuskers; MSU shot just 43.6% Friday after entering the Big Ten tournament making 63.4% of its shots. Getting outrebounded, 44-30, didn’t help, either. “A lot of credit to Nebraska,” first-year MSU coach Robyn Fralick said. “I thought they played a really good game. Clearly, they really hurt us on the glass, especially early in the game when we had some good momentum. For us, disappointing, but I think a lot to learn from it. We feel encouraged that we still have a lot of meaningful basketball left in front of us. We’ll have to learn and regroup.” First team All-Big Ten selection Julia Ayrault had a game-high 25 points and five rebounds to lead the Spartans, who had their five-game winning streak halted. Ayrault was the only player in double figures for MSU, which got eight points apiece from Theryn Hallock, Moira Joiner and Jocelyn Tate. Alexis Markowski had 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead Nebraska, which will face Maryland in Saturday’s semifinal.

Iowa 95, Penn State 62: Who needs Caitlin Clark, anyway? The Hawkeyes’ superstar didn’t score her first point until 6:11 into Friday’s quarterfinal, hitting a pair of free throws. Unfortunately for the Nittany Lions, the pair of freebies put Iowa ahead, 21-7. From there, Clark didn’t quite deliver on the NCAA-record scoring promise that turned the Big Ten tournament into a sellout performance — she hit just five of 19 shots from the field, including only two 3s in 14 tries — but got to the line 13 times, making 12 to finish with a team-high 24 points as the second-seeded Hawkeyes cruised into a Saturday semifinal matchup with the winner of Friday’s late game between sixth-seeded Michigan and third-seeded Indiana. Sydney Affolter added 18 points on a slightly more efficient 5-for-9 performance and Gabbie Marshall hit four 3s enroute to 15 points. Leilani Kapinus led PSU with 19 points and Ashley Owusu added 18 despite hitting just eight of 20 shots.

Friday’s MAC men

Western Michigan 90, Akron 84: The host Broncos locked up a spot in next week’s MAC tournament (which only takes the conference’s top eight teams) in Cleveland with a dominating second-half rally. After shooting just 40% to trail by 14 points at the break, WMU turned it on in the second, hitting 17 of 27 shots (63%) from the field and grabbing the lead on a B.Artis White 3-pointer with 11:11 remaining in the half. The Zips knotted it at 61-all about 2 ½ minutes later, but Javonte Brown ripped off six points in a 2:03 span, and the Broncos delivered a 16-3 run to build a comfortable lead. White led WMU with 23 points on 7-for-11 shooting, including a 5-for-8 mark from behind the line, and Brown chipped in 16 points on 7-for-9 shooting. Next up, the Broncos (12-19, 9-9 MAC) will be the sixth seed in Cleveland, facing third-seeded Ohio in Thursday’s quarterfinals at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

Central Michigan 65, Eastern Michigan 62 (OT): As he has so often this season, Paul McMillan IV took over late for the host Chips; the sophomore transfer from NJIT hit a 3-pointer with 1:05 remaining in regulation to get CMU to overtime, then poured in eight of the Chips’ 10 points in the extra frame as CMU (18-13, 12-6) locked up the fourth seed in next week’s MAC tourney in Cleveland. McMillan finished with a team-high 25 points on 8-for-24 shooting and added nine rebounds and six assists. Brian Taylor contributed a dominating double-double, racking up 22 rebounds to go with his 14 points (on 5-for-14 shooting), and Derrick Butler added 12 points. Arne Osojnik led EMU with 15 points in 42 minutes while Yusuf Jihad added 13 points and Jalen Billingsley had 11 points and six rebounds. The Chips will face fifth-seeded Bowling Green at approximately 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Eastern Michigan (13-18, 6-12) was previously eliminated from MAC tourney contention.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan women stun Indiana in Big Ten tourney with epic second-half rally