Page Eight THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, February 23, 19 t7 Page Eig~it THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, February 23, 1~I~ Blue cagers nip Ao 0 .90 w= so c ttt ekers downed Blue hoopsters outlast Northwestern, 69-68 Fired-up Denver trips lethargic Blue sextet By JEFF SCHILLER Special To The Daily M i c h gi a n' s bas- ketball team survived three near - fatal lapses at the free - throw line late in the game and held off a North- western rally to defeat the Wildcats 69-68 yesterday. The win gave the Wol- verines a 9-5 record in Big Ten play, and boosted the Blue into a tie for second place in the conference race. Missed charity tosses by Steve Grote, Rick White and Joe Johnson gave Northwestern a chance to pull out a victory after Michigan had taken a seemingly commanding f i v e point lead with just 1:05 left to play. But the Wildcats were un- able to capitalize and their fin- al charge came up short. "We're just happy to have the win," said a relieved John- ny Orr. "Usually we win close games at the end because our free throw shooting is so good. But doggone if today we don't have a chance to wrap up the game with three one-and-ones and we go out and miss every one of them." I R ON I C A L L Y, it had been the Wolverines' expert foul shooting minutes before that had maintained their lead. Michigan went the last five minutes and 41 seconds of the contest without a basket. But C. J. Kupec and White sank six consecutive free throws to keep the Wolverines in front. Then the cagers' foul-shoot- ing touch deserted them and Northwestern rallied to within one point of the lead on Billy McKinney's jumper with 13 sec- onds left to play. Here the Wildcats inexperience proved decisive as they allowed Mich- igan to stall away nine precious seconds before fouling Joe John- son. T h u s, Johnson's subsequent miss proved to be unimportant.' Northwestern lacked any time outs and was unable to get off a shot before time elapsed. "We should have fouled them earlier," said a rueful Tex Winter, as the Northwestern coach discussed the heartbreak- ing defeat. "That was our stra- tegy if we didn't steal the ball, but our kids were young, and they panicked. By the time we did foul them, it was too late." THE EXCITING finale was the culmination of a game which featured streaky performances by both clubs. Each team was alternately red-hot and ice-cold with the result being that neither could hold a sizeable lead for any substantial length of time. In the first half, Northwestern jumped out to an early 10-5 lead, but Michigan stormed back, utilizing the fast break to score several easy baskets. The Wolverines exploded midway through the period to outscore Northwestern 14-4 over a six minute stretch and raced to a 39-28 advantage. When a rout seemed immi- nent, however, Northwestern came roaring back, holding the Orrmen scoreless over the last three minutes and 47 seconds of the first half. During this blitz, the Wildcats converted ten points of their own. The Wolverines' margin dwindled to a slim one point as the period ended. Virtually, the second half was a repeat of the first. The Wild- cats surged to a 52-47 lead with 11:07 remaining before baskets by Dave Baxter, White, and Kupec put the Wolverines back on top. The teams see-sawed briefly until Michigan reeled off nine straight points to take control by seven with 5:41 to play. THEN, IT was the Wildcats' turn, but again their effort came up one point short. Both teams took several bad shots down the stretch, and neither team took command, largely through the mistakes of the other. ' "We both got impatient," ad- mitted Michigan's Orr. "We didn't move real well, and Northwestern forced up several bad shots toward the end of the game.'" Michigan's cause was aided by outstanding contributions by Steve Grote and Rick White, who scored 18 and 12 points re- spectively. Grote in particular, returned to his old form as the 6-2 sophomore also snared six rebounds and added three as- sists. Perhaps, more important- ly, he stayed out of foul trouble. "GROTE HAS played much better since we've let him come in off the bench," Orr explain- ed. "He used to get into foul trouble early, but now he seems to be playing with more control, and his play has improved greatly." Playing in front of his high school area home fans, C.J. Kupec paced Michigan's attack with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Northwestern was led by 6' g u a r d Billy McKinney's 17 points and 6-10 center Jim Wal- lace's 14 rebounds. The Wolverines resume action Monday night when they travel to Madison to face Wisconsin, the surprising 103-96 victorsI over Michigan State yesterday. By DAVE WIHAK Michigan opened the scoring In an effort to stave off elimi- at the 6:21 mark of the first4 nation from the WCHA playoffs period, as Kris Manery bangedt the Denver Pioneer hockey home a centering pass by Dave team came through with a Debol. clutch 6-5 victory victory over But Denver capitalized on ac the Michigan Wolverines last poor Wolverine clearing pass night at Yost Ice Arena. as forward Dave RobinsonI The loss marked the eighth scored on a partial breakaway series split of the season for to tie the game, at the 8:39] Michigan, but the win for the mark.I Pioneers moved them into a The Pioneers got a power tie for the last playoff spot play goal from Bob Young, and1 with Minnesota - Duluth. Angie Moretto scored the first7 Perhaps the key to Denver's of his two goals of the night to win was the decision by Michi- even the score 2-2 at the end of gan coach Dan Farrell to use the period. back-up goaltender Rick Palm- Then came the disastrous sec- er in place of regular Robbie ond period for the Wolverines, Moore. Palmer managed to as Denver took advantage ofI save 23 shots, but unfortunate- some shaky goaltending and ly, his play was tainted by a some loose Michigan defensiver fluke goal that he allowed in the play to score three consecutive second period. times. Denver surged to a 5-21 "I'm grateful to Coach Far- lead.I rell for using his substitute The goals came within fiveI goalie tonight," said Denver minutes of each other andl coach Murray Armstrong. "It was a move very sympathetic Splendid to our cause." FIRST PERIOD Farrell's explanation of his SCORING: 1. M - Manery (De- strategy was contrary to Arm- boi, McCahill) 6:21; 2. D - Robin- strong's interpretation. "The son (Pazzelli, Kozlowski) 8:49; 3., strategy may have favored Den- D-Young (Graziziger, Tomasson ver, but that is not what I in- 11:57, pp; 4. M - Moretto (Hughes) tended," Farrell said. "No, I 18:18. just wanted to see what Rick SECOND PERIOD could do, because I felt he had SCORING: 5. D - Kozlowski (Pazzelli, Tomassoni) 4:15; 6. D -- earned the chance in prac- Zajak C. Miller) 7:35; 7. D - tice." Campbell (Brandt) 9:09; 8. M - seemed to catch Michigan in a coma. The second goal in par- ticular was the toughest to swallow for netminder Rick Palmer, as he appeared to fan on a soft shot by Tom Zajac from outside the Michigan blue- line. Despite the large deficit, however, the Wolverines snap- ped out of their doldrums and came to life. They tallied twice before the second period ended, narrowing the margin to 5-4. The Wolverines couldn't tie the game, however, largely be- cause of some very fine net- minding by Denver's Bob Lieg. Armstrong was able to sum up the Michigan position best when he said, "Their team could surprise a lot of people in the playoffs. If they're hot they will beat anybody in the league. But if they're cold, then anybody can beat them." Farrell could only agree splitters Moretto (unassisted) 11:01; 9. M - Maurer (Trudeau, D. Lindskog) 11:58 pp; 10. D - J. Miller (Fal- cone) 15:33. THIRD PERIOD SCORING: 11. M - Hughes (Mc- Cahill, Moretto) 6:52. GOALIE SAVES M-Rick Palmer 9 6 8-23 D-Lieg 9 13 16-38 Attendance: 4660 Officials: Jim Duffy, Tom Yuko- vich Daily Photo MICHIGAN'S Kris Manery (19) and Denver's Mitch Brandt are shown in a mad scramble for that ever elusive puck in the Wolverines disappointing 6-5 loss to the inspired Pioneers last night. Manery scored the Maize and Blue's first goal but it wasn't enough to contain the visiting Pioneers. Britt Robin Kupe John Baxte Whit Grote Team Total Blue number 2 MICHIGAN FG FT R F 3-10 0-1 4 3 ason 2-3 0-0 5 2 c 9-20 6-6 12 1 son 1-6 1-3 4 4 r 1-5 0-0 3 1 Fe 5-7 2-3 2 0 7-9 4-6 6 3 3 s 16-28 13-19 39 14 NORTHWESTERN i A 5 3 1 3 2 0 3 TP 6 4 24 3 2 12 18k MAY LOST FOR SEASON: Hoosiers sip past Pudue Williams Wells Wallace Teasley M'Kinney Dennis C'twright Trompt'r Hldbrand Svete Team FG FT R F 6-13 3-3 8 4 3-8 0-1 5 0 6-9 2-2 14 3 5-12 0-0 2 4 8-19 1-2 5 3 3-7 0-0 0 4 0-1 0-0 0 1 0-1 0-0 1 0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0-2 0-0 1 0 17 69 A TP From Wire Service Reports 2 15 WEST LAFAYETTE - Senior, 0 1 Steve Green pumped in 29 points 1 and top-ranked Indiana held off 2 17 a ferocious bid by Purdue in 2 6 the final seconds yesterday as 0 0 the Hoosiers clinched the Big 0 0 Ten basketball title with an 0 0 83-82 decision. 10 68 Purdue's chances to win the game ended in the final five 69 s e c o n d s when guard Bruce 68 Parkinson took an inbounds ran pass, wheeled and somehow, bounced the ball off an Indiana doctors said. May sustained the severe jolt to their hopes for a player, with the Hoosiers com- injury with about five minutes I runnerup spot in the confer-I ing up with it just before the left in the first half after scor- ence. Their record dropped to buzzer. ing eight points. 8-6 in Big Ten play and 15-7 Indiana Coach Bobby Knight's May had the arm X-rayed over-all. first victory at West Lafayette and doctors gave virtually no Wisconsin fell behind in the was a costly one for the chance for him to be back in early going, rallied for a 45-45 Hoosiers. Junior Scott May, a action in time for the National tie at the half, then virtually 6-foot-7 forward who leads the Collegiate Athletic Association shut off high-scoring Terry Fur- team with a 19-point average, Tournament. low to pull off the upset. -AL i , full court_ PRESS Totals .31-72 6-8 38 191 SCORE BY PERIODS MICHIGAN 39 30 NORTHWESTERN 38 30 Att. 3350. Tech-Britt Officials: Gary Muncy, Ray Do suffered a half-inch separation Spartansputter in the radial bone of his right arm and will be lost to the team MADISON - Paced by Dale for the rest of the year, team Koehler's 28 points, Wisconsin t extended its home-court jinx over Michigan State, downing Gymnasts rip Iowa, the Spartans 103-96 in an upset. The Spartans haven't beaten Wisconsin at Madison since 1963, and the defeat dealt a Big Ten Standings Blue not happy... Loken gathers 200th ... with near-choke W L By BILL STIEGj EVANSTON ANY KIND of win counts the same in the standings. Yester- day's 69-68 squeaker over Northwestern, however, was not a very satisfying one for Michigan's Wolverines. Of, course, Johnny Orr told everyone who listened that any Big Ten road win is a good win, but Michigan has to feel some- what lucky leaving Evanston tied for second place. The Wolverines have won several games this year on the strength of their free-throw shooting, especially in the final minutes of play. Last Monday for instance, pressure foul shots by Joe Johnson helped Michigan to a thrilling win over Min- nesota. Yesterday, though, the Michigan players didn't celebrate like they did after the Minnesota win. In fact, it was hard to find anyone smiling in the Wolverine locker room, except Steve Grote, who had his best game since being relegated to sixth man. Michigan gave the ball to Northwestern four times in the game's final minute, but the Wildcats turned down the chance to win by converting only once. With 46 seconds left and Mich- igan ahead 69-66, C.J. Kupec travelled, but Northwestern's Greg Wells missed a shot from the lane. A missed free throw by Rick White at 0:37 gave the home team the ball again, but Tim Teasley missed an unreasonably long jumper. Then Grote, too, missed a free throw at 0:22, and at last Northwestern scored on a Bill McKinney jump shot. McKinney's shot came with 13 seconds showing on the clock. Normal strategy, at this point, called for Northwestern to foul a Michigan player as soon as possible, hoping for at least one miss at the line. But inexplicably, the Wildcats allowed nine seconds for the Wolverines to bring the ball up the court before Teasley bumped Joe Johnson. Johnson-apparently not wanting to break the pattern-- missed the front end of a one-and-one, but it would have taken a sensational play for Northwestern to score in just four seconds. Luckily for Michigan the Wildcats didn't have it in them. Afterwards, Orr was as giddy as a pardoned criminal. Visibly relieved to escape with a win, he joked and laughed with reporters, and even chuckled at the last minute near-choke. "We missed three in a row, though, and Tex (Tex Winter, Northwestern's coach) almost pulled it out," Orr said. "We play exciting games.", Nevertheless, inside the locker room, the players found little to laugh at. Joe Johnson, who has played superbly in recent weeks, appeared a bit dejected about his play. And C.J. Kupec By SCOTT LEWIS, MICHAEL WILSON and LEBA HERTZ Inspired by Coach Newt Loken's quest for his 200th dual meet victory, Michigan's high- flying gymnastics t e a m ex- ploded . for a season-high 215 points, h u m bl i n g the Iowa1 Hawkeyes 215-205. The Wolverines avenged their second place finish behind Iowa in last year's Big Ten Cham- pionships by defeating the 1974 champion Hawkeyes. "WE KIND of especially wanted this one," said co-cap- tain Bruce Keeshin, referring to the milestone victory. Loken is the first coach in American gymnastics to ever reach 200 victories. The floor exercise team, led by Randy Sakamoto and Harley Danner started the season-high pace by scoring 35.70 team points to the Hawkeyes' 34.50. Sakamoto led the Wolverines with 9.1, while defending Big Ten floor exercise champion Dave May led the Iowa per- formers with a 9.15 score. RUPERT HANSEN and Jerry Poynton came through with scores of 9.1 on the pommel horse to pace the Wolverines to victory in the difficult gym- nastic event, even though Iowa's Bob Siemianowski scored an amazing 9.35. Following Siemianowski's per- formance, Michigan ring spe- cialist Joe Neunswander brought the crowd of 800 to their feet with superb executions of dif- ficult iron crosses and pike po- sitions. He earned the meet's high score of 9.45. At this point, Michigan led SCORES College Basketball Indiana 83, Purdue 82 the Hawkeyes 106.75-103.00. The Wolverines took a com- manding lead when four per-; formers all tallied nine or bet- ter in vaulting. Keeshin led all scorers with a 9.3. Danner, Richard Bigras, and Bruce Medd followed. MICHIGAN continued its drmn- ination in the parallel bars. dob Johnson executed a difficult back twist during his dismount, which helped him earn a 93. Going into the final 'event, the high bar, Michigan had all but sewn up the victory-but the Wolverines didn't let up. Led by Bob Darden with a 9.3, they finished with 35.9 points for the, event. Michigan's o n 1 y disappoint- ment was in not capturing the all-around title. After a tough battle through- out the meet, Iowa's Bill Mason finished on top with 52.25 points, edging Wolverines D a n n e r, Keeshin and Bruce Medd. Five of the six all-around perform- ers finished above 50 points, which are excellent scores. "IT WAS a helluva meet," cx- pressed a sullen Iowa :7oach Neil Schmidt afterwards. "I'm real happy for Newt and his team. They all finally hit.", Loken, on the other hand, was ebullient after the meet. "The' kids really jelled this alter- noon," he said. "It was esne- cially nice for the seniors, who came through with great per- formances." "I knew we had a 215 within our squad, and it showed to- day," beamed Loken. "Before, we had series of nagging in- juries dragging us. The giys' are slowly approaching the end of the season with thoughts of perfecting their routines." "We're going to be up for the Big Tens," said K e e s h i n. "We've been training for this competition since last year's Big Ten meet." Pct. Gophers get by MINNEAPOLIS - Adept ball- handling by sophomore guard Phil Saunders froze the ball for most of the final minute and a half as Minnesota held on to! defeat Iowa 68-67. Minnesota jumped to a 41-27 lead with less than two minutes gone in the second half. But the Hawkeyes rallied, with Larry Moore scoring eight straight points, to take a 60-59 lead. with; 4:25 to play. Chad Nelson's basket pushed Minnesota in front 61-60 and the Gophers held on. Minnesota then controlled the ball, largely on Phil Saunders' dribbling, until he was fouled with 60 seconds to play. Saun- ders made both goals to give the Gophers a 68-65 lead. The victory gives Minnesota a 9-6 record in the Big ran E nd 16-8 overall. Iowa fell to 4-1 in the conference and 7-16 overa1l. Buckeyes burned- CHAMPAIGN-Nate Williams and Otho Tucker tallied for the first seven points in ovectiane play to lead the University of Illinois to a 83-78 victory over Ohio State. Illinois rallied from a 71.65 deficit to tie the game at the end of regulation play at 71.71 on an outside jump shot by Tucker with 1:25 left. Ohio State cut the lead to 79-75 at one point in the over- time before Howie Johnson broke loose for a layup to take the Illini back to 81-75. The second-half Illinois rally was sparked by Williams and Mike Washington, who each hit baskets to lead the comeback. Illinois' conference r e c o r d moved to 4-10, 8-14 overall. Ohio State slipped to 8-9 in the Big Ten and 14-11 overall. Kentucky spills Tide Senior guard Kevin Greevy led Kentucky to a 84-79 upset victory over No. 5 Alabama yes- terday. T h e seventh - ranked Wildcats broke Alabama's nine game winning streak with their second Southeastern Conference defeat of the Crimson Tide this season. Kentucky came from 12 points behind in the second half, and offset a fine performance by Alabama's Leon Douglas, who poured in 34 points and gribbed 12 rebounds. Indiana MICHIGAN Purdue Minnesota Michigan State Ohio State Illinois Iowa Wisconsin Northwestern 15 9 9 9 8 8 4 4 3 3 0 5 5 6 6 7 10 11 11 11 1.000 .643 .643 .600 .571 .533 .286 .267 .214 .214 Yesterday's Results MICHIGAN 69, N'western 68 Wisconsin 103, Michigan St. 96 Illinois 83, Ohio State 78, OT Indiana 83, Purdue 82 Minnesota 68, Iowa 67 BLUE RUNNERS 4TH EMJU Wi By ANDY GLAZER and MARYBETH DILLON Special To The Daily KALAMAZOO-The record-breaking Mich- igan mile relay team burst out to such a huge lead that a startled Stan Vinson of Eastern Michigan dropped his baton just before the last turn, nearly costing EMU the team title at the Central Collegiate Track Championships yesterday. Eventual second place finisher Penn State cheered as Vinson went down after his baton, but an agonizing 10 minutes later, they found out they had fallen only one point short of EMU. Michigan finished fourth, well behind the leaders. "In general we didn't do too well," said Michigan coach Jack Harvey. "We were tired and looking forward to the Big Ten Championships as well." There were a number of bright spots for the Wolverines, though. In addition to the mile relay, the two-mile relay, the 440, and the 600 were showcases for Maize and Blue stars ins ti tie host Western Michigan's Read Field House, "but I don't think that made the difference." It certainly didn't make a difference to Michigan's Dave Williams and Jeff McLeod. Williams lost to world record holder Vinson in the 600 by a mere 1.3 seconds, and McLeod took second in the 440 in 48.5. Williams and Vinson ran in separate heats of the 600 due to the large field. "I surd would've liked to run head to head against Stan," said Williams. "Stan can show you how. It doesn't make sense not to let us run together. Last year we had the two fastest times in the world indoors." Another fine performance was turned in by Michigan's pole-vaulter Jim Stokes, who came very close to 16 feet twice and finally finished third with 15-6. The Wolverines have been training vig- orously for several weeks now, and are "going to take it easier in the next two weeks," according to assistant coach Ron Warhurst. "You can work hard for just so long," said Warhurst, "the guys have earned a break. WA're at the nnint where we can emnhasize I