Tuesday, December 11, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Pc~ge EIven
Michigan
tumps
avi12
I
77-61
By JOHN KAHLER
There is an old basketball
saying that the good teams
win the games they are sup-
posed to win. The Michigan
Wolverines gave that old bro-
mide its stiffest test to date
before overwhelming the Xa-
vier Musketeers, last night in
Crisler Arena 77-61.
Xavier had a well disciplined
team that, according to coach
Johnny Orr, "Ran their offense
as well as anyone has against us
all year. Our players also say
that they set up defensively bet-
ter than anybody they had yet fac-
ed." Under coach Tay Baker, the
Musketeers went into the game
sporting a 3-0 record.
sparce
crow
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AGAINST MICHIGAN, Xavier
was clearly in over its head. Small
but slow, it could get nowhere on
the boards and was harassed into
M ichign vpress. Yet th Muske-
teers trailed Michigan by only 39-
35 at the half.
The Wolverines jumped out to
Michigan the lead. Following a IWAYMAN BRITT then t o o k
Campy Russell long distance hit, charge, scoring on a fast break to
Grote converted a three point play give the lead back to Michigan.
off a steal, and added a tip-in as Grote shook loose for another lay-
Michigan rolled to an early ten- up, and it was 39-35 at the half,
point bulge. against a team the Wolverines
The well disciplined Muskies did should have already run off the
not rattle, however, and showed court.
the mark of a well coached team Possibly realizing this, the Wol-
by refusing to let the game get out verines made up for lost time at
of hand. Mike Plunkett, a transfer the start of the second half, out-
from Georgia, started hitting me- scoring the Musketeers 16-2 in a
dium range jumpers, and Xavier brilliant early spurt. Keying the
began to creep back. Michigan assault were the three
sIttwasa slnowro cess,nhoweer uniors, Campy Russell, Joe John-
through for tw more layupSo Russell started burning the Mus-
move the margin back up to ten. lie defense with his now-familiar
But then Xavier found center Jer- Ijumpers and twisting layups. He
ry Foley loose underneath against fished with a game-high total of
a lackadasical Michigan defense 22 points, in a fairly typical Russell
and the margin dwindled away game. He also added 13 rebounds
again. With less than a minute to to the Wolverine board effort.
go in the half, the game was tied
at 35-all. C. J. KUPEC, after two disan-
336 SOUTH STATE STREET
Open 9:30 o.m. to 9:00 p.m.
ALL THE DATES IMPORTANT
TO MIDDLE EARTH!
an early lead on some inspired
play by freshman guard Steve
Grote. Grote twisted through the
Muskie defense for the first bas-
ket of the game, and fed Campy
Russell on a fast break to give
ful court
Blue defense ...
. .something new
By MIKE LISULL
DEE-FENSE, DEE-FENSE is what the crowd screams at
Madison Square Garden, but around Crisler Arena defense
has been a forgotten aspect of Michigan basketball. However,
last night was a different story as Michigan silenced the Xavier
Musketeers 77-61.
Michigan, and particularly coach John Orr, have been
roasted both locally and nationally as a team that worked on
scoring points, not playing defense. But apparently things have
changed around Crisler Arena since everyone wanted to talk
defense last night and mostly ignore everything else.
Coach Orr was the first to get in the act as he gave his
reflections of the game.
"I thought we played some pretty good defense tonight,
particularly in the first half," noted Orr. "Our goal was to
hold them under 60 points, and I thought we could have If
team he s pusick to praise th eplayers who hesthough tkeye
th I dthou ght JoerJohnson came off a poor first half and played
a superb second half," mentioned Orr. "He was the key to our
defense in the second half."
"We were unsure if Campy (Russell) was going to play
tonight," Orr continued. "His knee has been bothering him
(since a Saturday fall in Detroit) so we told him to warm-up
and see how it felt. I thought he played very wvell, and boy he
just played some great defense."
Orr's charges were also quick to mention the importance
of the Big 'D.'
"At halftime we stressed better defense. In fact, after
fense,"'reiterated Al-Am ericaniRusse who is better known
Forehmafnsgur Saltee Grote was another starter who em-
phasized the importance of defense.
"We had a defensive let down against U of D and this game
was very important to us, we had to prove to ourselves that
we could come back. We did it with defense, good defense. I
was really surprised how good it was. I played most of the
second half and when I came out (after fourteen minutes)
Xavier only had nine points."'
While everyone was pleased with the final score and that
second half defense, most of the reported crowd of 4,113 were
her Wolverines had started wel rbutfaed i no their
result only led by four at half time, 39-35.
This affliction has plagued the roundballers in every game,
but no one can explain it. Orr is as baffled as everyone.
"We start to run and then after while we tighten up
mor imprtnl dfnsivey seems to atack the i.higut
basketball team more than anyone's. When they're hot they
are very hot, and when they are cold, boy they are really cold.
The fact of the matter is after four games the only thing
you can say about the Michigan basketball team is that they
are 3-I.
At times they have played well and at times they have
played badly. They have had one consistently good game,
(Southern Illinois) and one horrible game (U of D). However
the important question on everyone' s mind is. Is this year's
team better than last year's?
At this time there is no way to make any realistic judge-
ments, but a few things are clear. This year's team is a lot
younger than the squad that played last year, starting three
juniors, a sophomore and a freshman.
"We're a young team, and I was really pleased with the
determination they showed," smiled Orr.
Russell, who was the only underclassman to start all the
games last year feels that determination is a characteristic of
this year's green squad.
pointing games, showed some of
the board power he was supposed
to provide the Wolverines byvgrah-
bing 15 caroms. "He was a little
down on himself before," said Orr.
"But I think he is coming around
now."
But, according to Orr, the key
player in the second half was
guard Joe Johnson. "Joe came
back and played a superb second
half," enthused the balding Wol-
verine mentor. John disrupted the
Xavier attack with his ball-hawk-
ing, feeding Russell for several
baskets and scoring a few himself
on Superflv drives that got a mild
rise out of the assembled 'mini-
tude' in Crisler Arena.
The Wolverines pushed the mar-
gin to 20 points midwvav through
the second period when the plucky
Mi skies tried to null off a rally.
The cause was hopeless as Orr
emptied the bench and let the
glamettx eand Foley lead Xav'ier
with 18 and 19 noints, resnective-
lv. Grote was the second leadling
sc orer for Michigan with 15 points.
1of them in the first half. Ch'wk
Rogers carme off the bench in the
second half to score 8. and add
his onme to the 1iW of c'onvidates
for the second forward job.
Xair xanp
Doily Photo by DAVID MARGOLICK
THE PLAY of the Michigan backeourt men, Joe Johnson and
Steve Grote, was instrumental in the Wolverines' win over the
Xavier Muskateers last night. Johnson, shown here driving to the
bucket against Mike Plunkett (S4), tallied 11 points.
TARHEELS WIN
By 'I'he AVo( iated Pie~~s
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~*fCenticore Booksho~s )~
Jonson
Gate
A vier
Rogers
D.Johnson
schinnerer
Kiizma
Team
Totals
M. Piinkett
Pehrwood
Rippe
Deidrick
waison
Laker
Hubbard
Team
Totals
SC'
MICIGAN
xavier
Officials:
Crowd: 41]
FG FT
3-10 2-2>
5-11 1-2
6.-14 3-3
0-3 0-0
4-5 0-0
0-0 0-0
0-0 0-0
32-75 13-18
XAVIER
R F TP
15 2 8
1 2 11
6 4 15
120
0 1 0
1 1 8
01 0
6
51 21 77
71 4
9 3 18
431 2
41 6
7
42 14 61
EFST LANSING-Junior ndsey
iga State and led the Spartans to
a crushing 91-69 victory over East-
ern Michigan in nonconference col-
lee bsketball last night.hed
throvgh the second half, when
Hairston scored seven points in a
16-point surge as Michigan State
took a secure 71-53 lead with 8:45
remaining. Hairston had 21 points
before fouling out with 4:43 left.
Michigan State was ahead 47-27
at halftime and built up their big-
gest lead of 50-27 a half-minute
into the second half.
Eastern Michigan's Gary Tyson',
who led all scorers with 34 points,
paced the 1HLros' comeback. Mike'
Mack added gv points for ihe
Eastern fell to 1-3.Itswas the fis
feeting of the teams since 1945.
The Hurons bottled up the Spar-
tans' standout scorer, Mike Rabin-
son, with astifling zone defense
that held him scoreless fur the
first 12 minutes of the game. ie
finishe~d with 18 for the night.
-7
-2
3-6
2-6
0-0
2-5
F-T
2-2
4-6
0-0
24-64 13-18
O)RE BY PERIODS
39 38-77
Bb35 26-61 Cats hw1ked
Jim Eaddy, BbWortman
.3 GREENSBORO, N. C.
Sen ior
center Bobby Jones pumped in 21
points and puilled down 12 rebounds
last night to spark fifth-ranked1 1229 S. University 336 Maynard
North Carolina to a 101-84 victory _______________________________
over Kentucky, the third straight _- -.--- .- .
loss of the college basketball cam--
paign for the Wildcats. ~
rIt wast the fourt victory ina
lantic Coast Conference, while the ' .
Southeastern Conference Wildcats
fell to 1-3.
In a dramatic finish to the I.M.
bowling campaign, Boze's Boozin'
Bawlers took all three games and
totals from I.D.G.A.F. for the
league championship with a 37-
11 record. The Bawlers were led
by former all-campus champ Dn
Gorge audzel, M ik B zem a
The turning point of the match
came in the second game after
I.D.G.A.F.'s Keith West closed
with four straight strikes and
forced Waidron to double in the
tenth for the win. Waldron added
about the victory, "The Union
played tough, but we got a solid
team effort."-
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