There are two ways to look at the women's basketball team's 51-43 loss to No. 14 Purdue yesterday at Crisler Arena.

One way is that an undermanned, inexperienced Michigan team utilized a strong defensive effort to hold Purdue without a field goal for seven minutes late in the game and pushed the Big Ten leader to the edge of defeat.

The other is that the Wolverines committed four late-game turnovers and had trouble adapting to Purdue's defensive adjustments, basically giving the victory to the Boilermakers (4-0 Big Ten, 12-2 overall).

Down by four with less than four minutes remaining, Michigan sophomore Janelle Cooper inbounded the ball under the Purdue basket. Meeting the Wolverines, the Boilermakers lined up in a different full-court press then it had earlier, and that seemed to confuse Michigan.

With a five-second violation approaching, Cooper handed the ball off to guard Jessica Minnfield, who was cutting under the hoop. The ball slipped off Minnfield's hands out of bounds.

"When it gets to that point that a team changes its defense, we need to handle the basketball," Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett said. "Whether we are on the road or at home and it gets to be that important possession, (turning the ball over) has been a habit of ours."

The Wolverines (0-4, 6-10) showed that playing against the Big Ten's elite doesn't faze them. The Boilermakers held a 14-point lead with 16 minutes remaining. The Wolverines trimmed the lead to two with less than four minutes remaining.

In Thursday's loss to Iowa, Michigan trimmed a 12-point Hawkeye lead in the final minute of the first half to three just over three minutes into the second half.

But the Hawkeyes pulled away down the stretch to extend their lead to 14.

"The difference (between the Iowa and Purdue games) was making defensive stops," freshman Carly Benson said. "Communication is something that we were struggling with earlier. Now things are clicking, and we are coming together."

During Purdue's seven-minute field goal drought, Michigan forced the Boilermakers into off-balanced shots and limited second-chance opportunities.

It appeared that Michigan was going to upend the Boilermakers, but Purdue's Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton dominated. In the final three minutes, the sophomore scored six of her eight points, grabbed two rebounds and dished out one assist.

"She decided to take her game to a different level," Purdue coach Kristy Curry said. "That was All-American stuff in the final three or four minutes."

With her team ahead by two with 2:12 remaining, Wisdom-Hylton hit two foul shots to extend the lead to four. After Michigan sophomore Krista Clement hit a leaning lay-up with the shot clock winding down, Wisdom-Hylton hit a jumper from the left wing.

On Michigan's ensuing possession, Clement passed to sophomore Katie Dierdorf - who led Michigan with 10 points - but she couldn't hold onto the ball. Multiple players jumped on the floor to cause a held ball with the possession arrow in Purdue's favor.

Wisdom-Hylton found her teammate under the hoop for a lay-up that put Purdue up by six. The forward later sealed the game with two free throws.