EVANSTON — Laila Phelia owned the third quarter. The junior guard led the Michigan women’s basketball team through the most crucial stretch of the game when the Wolverines went on a 17-0 run in the first three minutes of the second half.
Northwestern pushed the ball up the court one minute into the third quarter. The Wildcats were down by seven after Michigan made two quick shots to extend its original two-point lead at halftime. As Northwestern was setting up, though, it made a sloppy pass that Phelia stole by simply taking a step toward her defender.
Pushing the ball quickly in transition, Phelia made an easy layup that extended Michigan’s lead to nine. After the Wolverines made another shot on the next possession, the Wildcats were forced to call a timeout.
“(Phelia is) longer than she thinks, and when she gets her hands up and she’s active, she has a lot of steals and a lot of deflections,” sophomore forward Chyra Evans said. “She was very active today. She’s always helping me get on the post, helping me on my weak side. She was big for us with her crucial steals where they could have scored and gone on a run.”
Quickly after the timeout, Phelia struck again.
On another bad pass, Phelia jumped in the lane and made the steal, pushing the ball in transition. As the defense crowded towards her this time, she adapted to the pressure and dished the ball out to graduate guard Lauren Hansen for a wide open three, continuing the Wolverines’ momentum from before the timeout.
“The biggest thing was realizing that anytime I pushed the ball with pace, that they were all going to start crowding towards me,” Phelia said. “So just keeping my head up and being able to locate our shooters and even our post players down low.”
Using the extra attention that she draws, Phelia recorded a career-high seven assists throughout the entire game, five of which were in the third quarter. Her awareness and ability to find the open player in transition was conducive to the Wolverines’ run.
But not only did Phelia find open players in the transition, she also created chances for Michigan through defensive stands — amounting four steals throughout the game.
“She’s getting better at reading where the help comes from and she really was in those passing lanes and read that defense,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said.
One final time, Phelia made her impact within the three minute span, securing a defensive rebound that she turned into an and-1 on the other end. Immediately after, the Wildcats made their first bucket of the second half, but not before the damage had already been done. Northwestern called its second timeout in under three minutes, down by 17 with the game out of hand.
Phelia finished the game with her first career double-double — 18 points and 10 rebounds. And the final nail in the 17-0 run was a result of one of Phelia’s 10 rebounds that greatly benefited Michigan’s transition offense.
“Well, going into the game I kept telling myself I was gonna rebound finally because, you know we have to try to rebound,” Phelia said. “So I felt like that definitely helped me a lot along with that really created everything for me after getting those rebounds and then being able to push in transition along with the steals. That really set the tone for me.”
On a career day for Phelia, her impact was crucial to the Wolverines’ 17-0 run at the beginning of the third quarter that ultimately was too much for the Wildcats to overcome. With a career high in assists and her first career double-double, Phelia helped Michigan to a much-needed win in the final few games of the regular season.