Michgan 54 Iowa 51

Michigan hangs on to win their big ten opener 54-51. Krista Phillips led the way with 15 points, Carmen Reynolds had a double double (12 points, 10 rebounds), Veronica Hicks added 11 and Jenny Ryan had 10 rebounds.

From the Gazette Online:

Michigan (6-2 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) dodged two bonus bullets in the final half-minute.

Theairra Taylor missed the front end of a one-and-one with 26 seconds left, falling for an age-old trick.

“One of their players talked just as I shot,” Taylor said.

What did she say?

“My shoelace was untied.”

Next: Iowa

Part of the quadruple-header on the Big Ten Network (going on right now!), Michigan will battle the Hawkeyes at Carver Hawkeye Arena in just over four hours

Without Kachine Alexander suiting up (21.0 ppg in three games), Iowa's scoring threat is greatly diminished. Iowa is putting Kelly Krei in her place, but offensively, she's only a key factor around the three point arc. And since Hawkeyes are expected to play just seven people, I believe it's important that the Wolverines get into the transition game and tire this team out.

One more Hawkeye to look out for: Kamille Wahlin. She is coming off a 23-point performance and has been in double-figures in 7-of-8 contests.

In case you haven't been paying attention to this unprecedented 8-game road trip, the Wolverines are 2-2, alternating losses and wins. In each of those losses, Michigan recorded just 10 assists - in all but one win, they've had 16+ (a bit of a random stat, but something Coach Borseth likes to keep in mind). The past two games were also the Wolverines' cleanest based on the turnover stat (14 each). Obviously, that discipline is always good to have, especially in this conference (see Indiana v MSU).

Other tidbits: Both teams lost to Kansas by 11 points...Big Ten premiered a new PSA you can watch here...Michigan is second in the conference for PPG

Welcome Anthony

Anthony has graciously agreed to join me here - his first post directly below. I'm looking forward to his contributions.

Inside the Box Score

20-point wins are always nice, but let's pay attention to Michigan limiting the Hokies to 27.9% from the field. I'd say that's pretty good also.

I have to qualify that by saying that Virginia Tech isn't the best of teams nor has it played any real competition until Thursday (a 36-point win again Elon is well...expected). Still, the Wolverines have seemed to piece together Coach Kevin Borseth's "Team Defense." They recorded their 4th double-digit steals game this season. To put that in perspective, Michigan only gained double-digit steals five times last year. But to quote what Krista Phillips said to The Michigan Daily:

"We are going to have to step it up defensively come Big Ten (play).”

True that.

Speaking about the Big Ten, it lost once again to the ACC (7-4) in the third year of the Challenge. Admittedly, that's a bit expected given the five ranked ACC teams and its overall dominance. Yet intrigue happened near the top of both conferences - No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 North Carolina went down.

The Buckeyes couldn't score a field goal for seven minutes in the later stages of the second half, which I'm sure will not happen again this season under Coach Jim Foster's watch. MSU's Alyssa DeHaan is finally starting to impress me with her 14 points after just 18 minutes on the court.

Northwestern lost a heart-breaker against Clemson, but the Wildcats seem to be much improved already, especially with the win against DePaul.

A more extensive post about the Big Ten will be worked on later this weekend as we head into the conference opener on Sunday. For now, know that most teams are in the same boat, making for another interesting season.

A day in the life

of Krista Phillips. Who knew Carly Benson likes sweet potatoes? Note - requires Microsoft Silverlight.

Michigan 71 Virginia Tech 51

Four Wolverines were in double figures (Hicks - 19, Hollins - 16, Phillips 12 and Reynolds 10) as Michigan gets a nice road win.

Coverage from the Michigan Daily and planetblacksburg.com.

Next: Virginia Tech

Michigan returns to the road and travels to Blacksburg, Viriginia to face Virginia Tech as part of the Women's Big 10-ACC Challenge at 7:00pm tonight. Virginia Tech is 4-2 with victories against Longwood, George Mason, and Elon (all at home) and Radford (on the road). Their two losses were both road games against James Madison and Virginia Commonwealth.

They have three starters who average in double figures: guard Lindsay Biggs 12.8 ppg, guard Alyssa Fenyn 10.8ppg and forward Utahya Drye (10.5ppg).