Sophomore center Allyssa DeHaan attempts to block the ball from U-M center Krista Phillips during the second half of the game against the Wolverines on Sunday afternoon in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines triumphed over the Spartans with a final score of 64-55.
Ann Arbor — The MSU women’s basketball team failed to string two wins together with a loss to cross-state rival U-M on Sunday at Crisler Arena.
As have most of MSU’s Big Ten opponents thus far, the Wolverines made a conscious and successful effort to push sophomore center Allyssa DeHaan out of position and off the ball en route to a 64-55 victory.
After making the first bucket of the game, DeHaan remained at the two-point mark until the second half, and finished with nine points.
“I haven’t had a lot of experience playing with someone taller than me,” 6-foot-6 U-M center Krista Phillips said of guarding DeHaan. “I embraced the assignment to keep her out of the paint and stop her from scoring.
“I think the biggest thing was that I had some muscle on her,” she said. “So I just had to give her a couple nudges with my forearm, and then she would just displace herself — I didn’t even have to do it for her.”
DeHaan is a big part of the Spartan offense and has to learn to score in all kinds of situations and toughen up in the games, MSU head coach Suzy Merchant said.
U-M opened the game on fire for a 13-4 run just more than five minutes in with Wolverine forward Carly Benson contributing eight of the points. Benson was the star on the court, scoring a career-high 23 points.
Spartan opposition struggled when freshman forward Kalisha Keane, who was assigned to guard Benson, got into foul trouble late in the second, Merchant said.
After leading by three points at half, the Wolverines (10-5 overall, 3-2 Big Ten) kept with the game plan of keeping it out of the paint, shooting outside the arc and pushing DeHaan out of position.
“You just have to keep playing until the clock goes out and when the buzzer goes off you look up at the score and you just start smiling,” Benson said of the win.
At the six-minute mark, the Wolverines went on a 13-2 run to seal the deal.
The Spartans (10-8, 2-4) were forced to foul the Wolverines to send them to the free-throw line in a last-ditch effort to make up a six-point deficit.
“Michigan shot lights out today,” Merchant said.
“They shot unusually well from before.”
U-M ended the game with a 40.8 shooting percentage compared to MSU’s 34.9 percent.
Continuing to shine off the bench, sophomore guard Takeya Fortner scored a career-high nine points, all in the first half.
After seeing court time for only 12 minutes last season, Fortner has already logged 56 minutes this season including a 31-minute effort against the Wolverines.
“(Fortner) is an athletic guard, she’s quick and good at creating off the bounce and helping our offense overall,” Merchant said. “She’s a real spark for us.”
This is the first time since 2002 that the Wolverines have defeated the Spartans.
MSU continues on the road to play Northwestern at 8 p.m. Thursday.
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