Michigan 49
Iowa 66

IOWA CITY - For Iowa, playing the Michigan women's basketball team was like a game of dominoes.

Knock one down, and the rest will follow.

In order to disassemble the Wolverines, the Hawkeyes first had to attack the lead domino: freshman center Krista Phillips. When she fell, Michigan had no answer, and the Hawkeyes stormed their way to an impressive 66-49 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena last night.

Early in the contest, Iowa's offense was unable to penetrate a stout Michigan defense, led by Phillips in the paint. With no openings inside, the Hawkeyes got flustered, rushing shots and making bad decisions.

Michigan's offense also benefited from Phillips's play. With a viable threat in the post, the Wolverines enabled to run a balanced attack. Iowa had trouble defending everything, and Michigan took advantage of it.

"Krista is a very big target for us," Michigan coach Burnett said. "In the women's game, the '6-6 kid' is a big factor. . (Phillips) has done a great job for us getting some of those rebounds and doing some things that give us flexibility."

The Hawkeyes came up with just one answer for Phillips's dominating presence: attack the first-year center head on.

Even though the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, native has shown bright spots both offensively and defensively this season, she often finds herself in foul trouble, early in the game.

Yesterday was no exception.

After just six minutes on the court, Phillips tallied her second foul and headed to the bench. Phillips had six points and one rebound in that time.

When Phillips found a seat on the bench, the intricate domino maze that was Michigan began to tumble.

"For me, I work hard and I do a lot of things in the paint, but then I just make mistakes that pull me out of the game," Phillips said. "I'm in the process of learning what (foul is) good to take and what's not good to take."

The team's effort took serious blow after serious blow as each player Michigan sent in to fill Phillips's void quickly met the same fate. Freshman LeQuisha Whitfield and sophomore Stephany Skrba fell victim to Iowa's aggressive driving into the post and picked up two easy fouls each. Sophomore Carly Benson tallied three first-half fouls as well.

With most of its post players in early foul trouble, Michigan lost one of its biggest advantages coming into the contest. Iowa was playing without sophomore standout Megan Skouby - its leading scorer. The 6-foot-6 center was nursing a hand injury last night.

The Wolverines also started crumbling offensively, losing all rhythm they had prior to Phillips's early departure. Michigan (3-9 Big Ten, 10-15 overall) sat on top of the key and settled for working the ball around the perimeter.

With all of Michigan's post players on the bench, the team had a hard time finding any open shots, often waiting until the shot clock ticked down to drive to the basket. The offensive struggles led to a scoring drought that lasted nearly five-and-a-half minutes.

Even though the Wolverines struggled mightily in the last 10 minutes of the first frame, they found themselves down just eight points heading into halftime.

And the 15-minute break was just enough time to reset the dominoes.

Coming out of the gates, Michigan surprised Iowa (4-7, 12-12) with a tenacious start to the second half, led by Phillips's return to the game.

The Wolverines cut the deficit to one before the Hawkeyes reverted back to their earlier mentality of attacking Phillips, who picked up two more fouls. With four fouls, the center stayed on the bench until the game was out of reach.

"You know, she only plays eleven minutes and has eight points," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. "So, it was a key situation to get her out of the game. When she got her fourth foul, I think that was really key for our momentum."

Iowa used that momentum to coast through the game's final minutes en route to its first victory in its last six tries.

With No. 13 Purdue - a team which beat Michigan by 44 points in West Lafayette - heading to Ann Arbor this Sunday, the Wolverines don't have a lot of time to pick up its scattered pieces and try to fit back together.