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Cagers drop two conference games in weekend road trip

COLUMBUS -- Personal fouls can do a lot to change the flow of a basketball game.

But for the Michigan women's basketball team, not only did early fouls take the Wolverines out of the flow; they ultimately lost Michigan the game.

Yesterday, personal fouls called as early as the first half had an impact on the rest of the game between the Wolverines and Ohio State.

As a result, Michigan (0-7 Big Ten, 6-11 overall) lost to the Buckeyes, 73-65, in front of 6,673 fans at St. John Arena. This followed Friday's 92-77 setback to Illinois at Huff Hall.

The winless weekend extended the Wolverines' losing streak to eight games and still leaves Michigan without a conference victory.

Katie Smith led the way with 31 points, seven assists, five rebounds and a perfect 11-of-11 from the free throw line.

Buckeye center Kelly Fergus chipped in 13 points and Marcie Alberts came off the bench to score 11, including three crucial 3-pointers in the first half.

Pollyanna Johns topped the Wolverines with 20 points. Molly Murray contributed 15 and Jennifer Brzezinski tacked on 11.

The outcome of yesterday's contest was decided in the last seven minutes of the first half.

The Wolverines were neck-and-neck with Ohio State in the first 10 minutes of the opening half. Michigan trailed 21-19 with eight minutes to go after a pull-up jumper by Amy Johnson.

Ohio State was having trouble penetrating and dealing with the Wolverines' man-to-man defense.

But two quick Michigan fouls within seconds of each other, one by Johnson and one by Johns, made coach Trish Roberts change her defensive strategy.

The Wolverines switched to a 2-3 zone for the rest of the half after the quick fouls. That seemed to change everything -- including the score. Ohio State pushed the lead to 44-30 at the half.

"When we switched defenses and played the 2-3 zone, that's when (the Buckeyes) made their run," Roberts said. "And we probably stayed in the zone a little too long in the second half."

Ohio State's total of eight 3-pointers, with seven of them coming in the first half, came from the zone.

The Wolverines did not rotate in time to contest the Buckeyes' shot attempts. Ohio State had such crisp passing from the post to the perimeter that every jump shot was an open shot.

Alberts, who had not gotten much playing time from Ohio State coach Nancy Darsch, and Smith were key in the Buckeye run.

"Marcie (Alberts) came through for us today," Darsch said. "She was good in spotting up from the seems. She and Katie (Smith) both were finding the seams in the zone and hitting the threes to help us."

Michigan made one last gasp toward the end of the game, cutting a 15 point Buckeye lead to eight. But Smith sealed the game with a pretty fingerroll, easily beating Akisha Franklin to the hole and laying the ball in with finesse.

In the Illini game, the Wolverines pulled out to the early lead in the first half -- something they haven't done in quite some time.

But a 9-0 Illinois spurt to start the second half broke the game open and the Illini never trailed the rest of the game.

Ashley Berggren led the Illini with 29 points and a career high 13 rebounds. Seventeen of those came in the first half as the conference scoring leader aggressively drove to the hole, scoring at will.

But when the sophomore off-guard wasn't scoring, her guard companion Krista Reinking was hitting three pointers and whipping passes into the post.

For Michigan, sophomore center Pollyanna Johns equalled her season high of 30 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.