Michigan 7, High Point 9

For the second year in a row, Michigan headed down to High Point, N.C. thinking about a win, and for the second year in a row the Wolverines couldn’t convert. How the defeat came about was – in a lot of ways – similar to the previous year’s loss, but different in some key ways, as well.

Tempo Free

From the official box score, a look at the tempo-free stats:

This was one of the slowest games in Michigan’s program history (a hypothesis I’m interested in testing soon – a slow team can dictate pace in a game more than a fast team, under most circumstances), and the Wolverines worked at a possession deficit thanks to a poor performance on faceoffs.

The teams weren’t far off in efficiency, but High Point got two extra possessions, turning that into two extra scores. It doesn’t quite work like that, given that High Point’s last two scores weren’t on the final two possessions of the game (though they were close), but when the margin is razor-thin, everything counts.

Notes

The faceoffs were a total mystery. Brad Lott faced down two of the best FOGOs in the country in games shortly before the contest against High Point, performing very well against Hopkins’ Drew Kennedy and Cornell’s Doug Tesoriero. He was smoked by Jamie Piluso, to the tune of 4/15 before Will Biagi entered and performed better (mostly on account of small sample size) going 2/5. Lott has shown to be capable of elite performances, but whether it was the distraction of a spring break trip, some minor injury – he came out much earlier in the following game against Furman – or some other factor, he did not live up to the high expectations he set for himself.

The other disappointing factor was Michigan’s shooting, though there’s an easy explanation for most of the struggles there. The Wolverines were putting the majority of their shots on cage (24 of 34), but ran up against a really good goalie in Austin Geisler. He’s saving .592 on the year (pretty good), and though his .708 against Michigan was above that mark, it’s within the area where it could be mostly a statistical quirk on account of small sample size.

Offensively, Michigan was led by Ian King with three goals on 11 shots, with eight of them on the cage. It’s totally possible that with so many of U-M’s shots on cage – a third of them, to be exact – his inexperience played a role in the team’s overall poor shooting performance and inability to beat Geisler. Peter Kraus put all three of his shots on target, but only one beat Geisler. No other Wolverine had more than three total shots or two shots on goal.

High Point is one of the slowest teams in the country, and it’s clear from the way this one played out (56 possessions) that a team able to control possession can slow the pace well enough to reduce the total number of possessions. Given that the Panthers are probably a little less talented than Michigan in most positions on the field – and were indeed able to slow the game – that was the right gameplan for them to get the win.

It’s not all bad on offense. The Wolverines committed 11 turnovers on 27 possessions (.407), which isn’t a particularly strong mark. With one coming on the clear (by freshman close D Andrew Hatton), the offense itself was a little more careful with the ball, though Mike Hernandez was responsible for three of those turnovers himself. Of note, the Wolverines’ 11 turnovers were all caused by High Point – there was not a single unforced error in the game – and that’s an improvement over the past. Of course, caused or not, the turnovers still count, but being careful with the ball unless forced into mistakes is a good sign going forward.

Defensively, Michigan struggled a bit, but with the offensive and possession-based weapons they have, a .310 defensive efficiency should be good enough to get a win. As expected, Matt Thistle (three assists) and Dan Lomas (five goals) were the key offensive performers for High Point, and U-M’s close D had a tough time shutting those two down. Michigan has gone somewhat young on defense – Hatton, sophomore Chris Walker, and junior Mack Gembis are starting at close D, and sophomore Chase Brown is splitting time at LSM – so there will be growing pains, but stopping those scoring attackmen (or at least slowing them down) is the biggest struggle defensively for three years running.

Based on the stats (.591 save%), Robbie Zonino had a pretty good game, and it seems like he’s rounding into form. There will still be some head-scratching moments every once in a while, but they’ve gotten fewer and farther between over his brief U-M career, and he’s going to be a good one.

This was a game of runs, something we’ve become accustomed to this season. The Panthers ran out to a 3-1 lead in the first quarter before Michigan dominated the second and most of the third quarter, notching four straight without letting High Point get much going. HPU finished strong though, with six of the final eight goals, including the last three. There’s your difference in the game.

Elsewhere

Boxscore. Michigan recap. High Point recap. Photo gallery thanks to Clark Bell. Michigan Daily gamer.

Up Next

Michigan salvaged a win out of the road trip by defeating Furman Saturday afternoon. Recap coming this week…