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Story and photos by Liz Alper
December 9, 2016 (San Diego) - The lady Aztecs looked to get back on track when they returned to Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena for a Friday matinee against Michigan.
Unfortunately, even with a bigger crowd than is normal for women's basketball games, the Aztecs couldn't stop the game the 7-2 Wolverines brought to Montezuma Mesa. They were fast, tough and every shot seemed to fall, and, like Grand Canyon did to the men on Wednesday night, the Wolverines were killing the Aztecs with the three ball. The Aztecs, meanwhile, couldn't get any shots to fall and their only points came from free throws. But towards the end of the first quarter, a bit of the Aztecs’ game came back. They still ended the first down by 16, 29-13.
In the second quarter, the Aztecs started to fight back with some threes of their own. Senior guard Kymberly Ellison led the three parade to get the Aztecs back in it, increasing her point total to nine in the first half. Despite much better play in the second quarter, the Aztecs still went to the locker room trailing 49-31.
In the second half, the Aztecs moved back to square one. The shooting wasn't there. The defense wasn't there. Nothing was there. Instead, the Aztecs racked up offensive foul after offensive foul in the the third (Ellison quickly received three fouls in addition to her 12 points). Michigan brought the long ball pain again and after three quarters, the Aztecs trailed 78-43.
The Wolverines put the nail in the coffin in the fourth and the Aztecs fell to 2-6 with a 92-57 loss. Michigan moves to 8-2.
"We have to find a way to start the game and half better," head coach Stacie Terry said. "We got off to a slow start and made some defensive mistakes that allowed for some easy, easy buckets and when you're playing a really good team like Michigan, you can't allow them to get easy ones. You have to make them work. These opportunities that we have to play these type of teams and grow are really important to our progress, so we're gonna take this loss and take the good and the bad and learn from it."
The Aztecs will stay here in San Diego for a Sunday matinee against UC Santa Barbara. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m.
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