ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan senior All-American Naz Hillmon, who has helped take the program to new heights, took her final bow at Crisler Center with a dominant performance to help send the Wolverines to their second straight Sweet 16.
Hillmon scored a game-high 27 points as the Wolverines defeated Villanova 64-49 in a second-round NCAA Tournament game Monday night before a rowdy home crowd. No. 3-seed Michigan (24-6) advances to the Wichita Regional where it will play Saturday at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas.
Michigan, which hosted first- and second-round games in the NCAA Tournament, were 16-0 at Crisler, undefeated at home for the first time.
Hillmon had her second double-double of the tournament, adding 11 rebounds, and she also had five steals. Leigha Brown added 20 points and three assists for the Wolverines, and Emily Kiser had 10 rebounds.
The Wolverines had a strong defensive effort against Villanova's Maddy Siegrist, the Big East Player of the Year who entered the game averaging 25.8 points a game, second-best nationally. Siegrist was held to 12 points.
A 6-0 run by Michigan in the final 1:33 of the third quarter expanded the Wolverines' lead to 48-40 and sending the crowd into a frenzy. Michigan's final scoring drive of the quarter was a snapshot of how feisty Michigan played on defense. Hillmon smothered Siegrist for the steal, and Brown finished the play on a jumper for the eight-point lead.
In the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, Hillmon and Brown made back-to-back field goals to build a 12-point lead. Villanova cut the lead to 52-44 with just less than eight minutes left, but that was the closest the Wildcats would get.
Michigan took a 32-29 lead at halftime thanks to a 11-4 run to close out the second quarter. Brown started things off with a layup with 4:32 left to cut the Wildcats' lead to two and scored a jumper with 42 seconds left to bookend the run. Maddie Nolan in that run scored the Wolverines first 3-pointer of the game after the team had gone 0-for-3
Hillmon had 16 first-half points, five rebounds and three steals. Brown added 10 points and three assists.
The Wildcats led by as many as five in the first half and began to turn things around late in the first quarter after going 0-for-6 on 3-point attempts. They then went 5-of-5 on 3-pointers to take a 25-21 lead just before Michigan went on its run. Siegrist was held to eight points in the first half.
