Sunday, February.25, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Nine Sunday, February 25, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Nine W restlers win Big Ten By JIM ECKER slightly frustrated Bay. "But we've Special to The Daily worked all year for the champion- MINNEAPOLIS - Michigan won ship, and now we've got it." the war but lost some major battles Gary Ernst and Jeff Guyton yesterday in capturing its tenth replaced their dethroned team- Big Ten wrestling title here. A mates as Big Ten champions. fast-closing Iowa crew narrowed The top-seeded Ernst, barely the final margin to a respectable pressed throughout the tourney, 76-69, but Rick Bay's boys had it handled Minnesota's Dave Simon- e all the way. son 6-2. Guyton decisioned the The Wolverines dropped five of Spartans' Conrad Calendar 6-4 hseve championship battles, in- for the 134-lb. honors. cseding the bitterly disappointing Cuyton, a freshman who started' dethroning of Jerry Hibbard and gthe season on the bench, grappled Mitch Mendrygal, Michigan's de- a charmed path to the champion- fending conference title-holders. ship. His opening round victory Wisconsin's Rich Lawinger ruin-;came on a referee's decision after ed Hubbard's bid for three straight three overtime periods still left conference crowns with a 2-1 the match score knotted. scueaker at 150 lbs. Mendrygal On Friday, a last second ma- surrendered his 158-lb. title to Jan neuver earned him an 8-7 semi- Sanderson of Iowa. ;final decision. A n d yesterday, "It certainly takes some of the Michigan's lone rookie wrestler icing off the cake," s immarized a built an early lead but had to hang on for the victory. What's Hail! his secret? * l."Clean living," explained the Championship man with the bloodshot left eye. 118 pounds - Dan Sherman, Iowa, "Anyway, I just like to make it outpointed JIM BROWN, MICH, 6-5. d .ectig Keethfasiertd. 126-Mark Massery, NW, outpointed exciting: ep the fans interested." BILL DAVIDS, MICH, 12-2. Jim Brown, Bill Davids and 134-JEFF GUYTON, MICH, outpoint- Roger Ritzman all dropped title ed Conrad Calendar, MSU, 6-4. tilts. Davids and Ritzman never 142-Tom Milkovich, MSU, outpointed ha acane gisttrgr Dean Armstrong, OsU, 9-4. had a chance against stronger, 150-Rich Lawinger, Wis, outpointed opponents, but Brown came with- JERRY HUBBARD, MICH, 2-1. in four seconds of the top. 158-Jan Sanderson, Iowa, outpointed MITCH MENDRYGAL, MICH, 7-5. The Akron acrobat lost by a point 167-Ed Vatch, Wis, outpointed ROG- in a well wrestled bout that could ER RITZMAN, MICH, 9-2. have gone either way. The Hawk- 177-John Panning, Minn, pinned Bill eye 1:04 riding advantage spelled Reinbolt, OSU; :50.ev104rdnavntgspld 190-Fred Penrod, Iowa, outpointed defeat for Brown, making this the Jerry Guth, Wis, 14.1. second straight year the sopho- Heavyweight-GARY ERNST, MICH, more has settled for runnerup con- outpointed Dave Simonson, Minn, 6-2. ference laurels. ADD WRESTLING STATS Team scores - MICHIGAN 76, Iowa Northwestern's M a r k Massery 69, Wisconsin 59/, Minnesota 49, simply outgunned Davids 12-3 for Michigan State 432r2, Ohio State a', the 126-1b. crown. The Wildcat Northwestern 27, Purdue 13, Indiana wracked up two take downs, a Illinois 5. wakdu w aedws predicament, and a near fall against Michigan's en'try and clear- ly displayed his divisional super- iority. Ritzman did not disgrace bim- self in the 9-2 loss to Ed Vatch as Wisconsin's 167-pounder just proved too tough to handle. Considering Ritzman's history of injuries and bad luck, a second place showing in the tourney wasn't bad at all. As the newly crowned Wolver- ines milled around Minnesota's Bierman gym following the team picture Hubbard and Mendrygal related, not only how it felt to be team champions, but personal run- ners up. Someone tried to console Hub- bard by telling him winning and losing is all part of the game.! "Yeah, that's true," affirmed Hub. "But I like that winning part bet- ter. I don't dig the losing. That's not cool." Mendrygal, team captain and only the fourth four letter grap- pler in the long history of Wolver- ine wrestling, had a sad look in his eyes while managing a thin smile. It was a bitter-sweet tour-' ney for the hard working Detroiter. "It is. But the team winning is the only really important thing," said Mendrygal. "I don't feel bad personally though when you wrestle well and lose, no it's not so hard to accept defeat." Earlier in the afternoon, Hub- bard had revealed plans for an aggressive, wide open attack on Lawinger. "I didn't change my mind," maintained the junior from Joliet. "But his style's winning by a point or two. Lawinger is a de- fensive wrestler, and a damn good one. I tried to play it smart, only take what he'd give me. Only problem was he didn't give me anything." The Wolverines' championship success revolves around overall team depth. Iowa won more in- dividual crowns (three), and Wisconsin secured just as many. But Michigan's five second place showings, supported by Ernst and Guyton, provided valuable team points and the inevitable victory. Michigan's title, first for three- year head coach Bay and assistant Bill Johanneson, snapped Michigan State's seven year domination of Big Ten wrestling. The Spartans, a distant fifth place finisher, can take some consolation in Tom Milkovich's award as the tourna- ment's outstanding wrestler. Mil- kovich, a senior undefeated in four years of league competition be- came the first matman since 1950 to cop four consecutive conference crowns. The Big Ten season is finally over, but for seven Wolverines the year goes on. Next stop on the agenda is Seattle, Wash., and the NCAA tournament March 8, 9 and 10, but more about that later. For now, Ann Arbor, roll out the wel- come mat. Here come the Woiver- ines with the Big Ten wrestling championship. AP Photo Ritzman (on his back) tumbles in Big Ten meet ®~ A*-U,,Lr maul full court PRESS The Golden Gophers . . e. grand and glorious By BOB McGINN special To The Daily MINNEAPOLIS "I'LL TELL YOU one thing, I sure wouldn't want to have to design a defense to stop us. God, we were just awesome on those boards today. It was just a matter of pure physical re- bounding strength." That's how the most loved man in Minneapolis and St. Paul and perhaps the most loathed major sports figure in the mid- west, Bill Musselman, saw his team's incredible obliteration of a psyched-up Michigan team yesterday. Sounds pretty cocky, doesn't he? Well, he is. And you know, he has a damned good reason to talk like that. Sure, it's obvious to everyone that this Minnesota team has unbelievable personnel. In big men Jim Brewer, Ron Behagen, and Clyde Turner, the Gophers have perhaps the most talented triumvirate of players in the country. And with additional brute strength underneath in Dave Winfield and two more-than-adequate guards in Bob Nix and Keith Young, Musselman could seemingly just roll the ball out at the start of every practice and say, "Do your thing." But you need more than talent alone to win consistently in the Big Ten this season. Everyone except Northwestern has at least a few good players who can pull a big upset, especially in front of the home crowd. When it gets down to the crunch and you're trailing by two with two minutes left, a team needs something to pull it together. That's the situation Michigan has been in on at least half a dozen different occasions during this tragic campaign. And really only twice, weeks ago in Columbus and at East Lansing, did the Wolverines win a pressure game. Coach John Orr agrees that it should have been dif- ferent. "We should be going in there (Minnesota) 9-1 or 8-2," he said last week. "But we've lost seven games this year by a total of 29 points, three of them by one point and two of those by shots at the buzzer." Orr has explained the losses by continually pointing to mis- takes and bad shooting and rough breaks. But everybody has those problems. Even Minnesota, and the talent gap between the two teams is far wider than we have been led to believe all year, has lost twice in the conference. What a team desperately needs in the late stages of a close game is an instinct, a discipline, an inner force that just won't permit a player to throw the ball away. It's developed on the practice floor, not in the heat of battle. Minnesota has shown that they possess it, and Michigan has shown that they don't. "I'd say the difference between our two teams is, of course, rebounding, and then leadership," Winfield commented after- ward. "Both coaching, and the captain, 'Brew.' We have an inner pride." These Minnesota superstars, particularly Behagen and Turner, and maybe even Brewer (he gunned up 35 shots in Crisler Arena two winters ago), are offensive-minded, individual players. They have brilliant one-on-one talent and you can just sense that they'd love to really break loose. But they don't take many wild shots, and they play hard- nosed defense. Turner's effort against Henry Wilmore in the second half, which Musselman termed "a sacrifice on Clyde's part-he took himself out of the offense," was evidence of this. These multi-talented individuals performed as a cohesive unit, and you know it's because of their little 32 year old drill sargeant from Ashland College. He's never apologized publicly for the never to be for- gotten "incident" with Ohio State last winter, and for that you simply can't accept the man or his methods. As Mich- igan assistant Jim Dutcher has put it, "Once you stick by your squad in a situation such as that, they'll do anything for you in return." Be that as it may, the intensity of the man is crystal-clear as 'he watches the machine he has created perform. He is constantly up and down, barking commands at his players as IJUPIIUL- Myichigan, ( By BOB McGINN Special To The Daily MINNEAPOLIS - It was a great basketball game for a half here in Williams Arena yesterday. The second half was pretty good, too, but only one team was enjoying itself. And for the fifth time in this Big Ten campaign it wasn't Michigan. Instead it was Minnesota's awesome, power-laden Golden Gophers who did the enjoying as they burst open the second half scoring floodgates to rout a stubborn Michigan team, 98-80. The triumph thrusts Coach Bill SUINIJAY NIGHT EDITOR: Musselman's crew into a com-, manding position irl the Big Ten! race at 8-2 with only one genuine stumbling block remaining in its bid for a second straight champion- ship-a March 3 encounter at Purdue. Regardless of the final margin of victory, fourth-ranked Minnesota the opening stanza. "The turning point came when. The issue was still in doubt four they hit everything in sight; during minutes into that decisive second that three or four minute span in half as Minnesota led only 49-47. the second half," Coach John Orr But then the Wolverines ran into commented. "And while they were one of those spurts that always hot we took some bad shots and seem to make the difference, and turned the ball over. S P 4 H IT S U-it was all but over four minutes "But it might not have made later. much difference. They're just so FRANK LONGO First, 6-8 guard Clyde Turner hit powerful under the boards. Minne- a short jumper off the baseline, sota's certainly the best team then, in succession, Ron Behagen we've faced this season." connected from 20 feet out of the For the first twenty minutes, had to pull out all the stops in or- right corner, hit another seconds however, the mistakes were being der to subdue the Wolverines. It later from the same spot and then made the other way around. Min- was anybody's ballgame at inter- Turner casted one in from the top nesota missed the driving layups mission, with the Gophers holding of the circle. and rebound tips, and Michigan a precarious 45-41 advantage. After Campy Russell finally re- played the tough defense and the But the Gophers responded to taliated for the Blue with a follow patient, controlled offense. But the challenge as champions do, of his own miss to make it 57-49, even after the Maize and Blue had much to the delight of the less- Dave Winfield and Behagen pound- turned in such an excellent first than-capacity announced crowd of ed in rebound buckets to push the half, they still found themselves 17,653, and ground the Maize and Gophers to a commanding 12 point down by four. That's hard to take. Blue into submission. lead. Michigan looked anything like "We sat down at the half and Michigan refused to fold, how- underdogs in the opening moments decided we had to do two things ever, and stayed on even terms as Ernie Johnson wheeled down the differently," Musselman said after-' until the 9:40 mark, when the heart of the Gopher matchup zone wards. "First, we had to stop Hen-'! not-to-be-denied Gophers reeled for the five Michigan points and a ry Wilmore from penetrating inside off three unanswered fast break 5-2 lead. and then we had to regain domina- baskets against the quickly tir- The success proved to be short- tion of the boards." ing Wolverines. The large over- lived, though, and Minnesota His charges couldn't have follow- head scoreboard read 74-57, and banged in ten tallies in a row to ed his orders more explicitly as the only thing left to be deter- forge an 18-11 lead. Winfield, who Min . ... Min i mined was the margin of victory. was honored at halftime as the )8-80 City of St. Paul proclaimed the sunny, unseasonably warm Sat- urday Dave Winfield Day, hit two buckets in the outburst. After a Michigan timeout Orr's warriors started to look more for the fast break and it paid off. Be- hagen drew his third personal mid- way throught the canto and sat out almost seven minutes, and Wil- more suddenly decided to take part in the proceedings after going scoreless until the eight minute mark., A seething Musselman could only look on helplessly as the superbly run Michigan break had his no- ticeably slower team shaking their heads. The Wolverines actually led by four, 32-38, before the Golden Gophers, especially Turner, started getting back on defense. quicker, forcing the Wolverines to set up. In the end, however, it was too much board power and overall co- hesion that spelled doom for Mich- igan. And the second half long range fireworks of Behagen (12) and Turner (10) didn't help either. It's all over for the Wolverines, and as they filed silently out of their dressing room with blank ex- pressions one wondered what they were thinking about. (hut-Musseled MICHIGAN E. Johnson Russell Brady Britt vilmore Kupec J. Johnson Whitten Ayler Team FG 7 -i 6-13 9-16 0-6 8-22 1-.5 0-2 0-1 0-12 FT 1-2 7-8 1-1 0-0 4-4 5-6 0-0 0-0 0-0 R 8 13 12 2 4 4 0 0 5 P 4 4 0 1 I I' 15 19 19 0 20 0 0 0 Turner Nix Taylor Young Sims Olsen Troland Sc h auer Team Totals SCORIN 9-24 3-4 6 4-9 0-0 2 4-7 0-3 4 2-8 4-4 5 1-2 0-0 1 0-) 2-2 1 1-1 0-0 0 0-0 0-0 0) 7 41-94 16-21 61 G BY PERIODS 2 3 1 1 21 21 8' 8 2 2 98 Totals 31-80 18-21 49 21 80 MICHiGAN MINNESOTA Minnesota FG FT TR P TP Total Fouls: Michi Behagen 10-21 0-0 16 3 20 21. Winfield 5-12 5-5 6 4 15 Fouled Out: None. Brewer 5-8 2-3 13 2 12 A-17,653. 41 45 2 T 39-80 53-98 igan, 21; Minnesota, tnnesota eut-re ouixc v cnigan 31-25 over the second twenty min- ut'As (it appeared to be much' Norse), and held Wilmore tojust six points (3 of 11 from the field), after he had sparkled with 14 in i I, i aaa.....vsa .. uv ....v :..aa. b... ... ....w. J . SET NEW LOSS RECORD: -.- I l es fc By ROGER ROSSITER Special to The Daily HOUGHTON - T h e Michigan hockey team dropped its 12th straight WCHA contest, 9-6, to the Michigan Tech Huskies last night, disappointingly establishing a new school r e c o r d for consecutive losses. Although Michigan allowed nine goals, Wolverine.netminder Robbie Moore was by far the more im- pressive of the two goalies as Tech goalie Morris Trewin looked extremely shaky in the Huskie net. Trewin was likely making his final appearance for the Huskies with last night's dismal perform- ance in this, his senior year. His sophomore year Trewin was'named first team All-America goaltender only to find himself floundering as his team's third string netminder two years later. AS WAS THE case the previous night, Tech jumped to an early lead when Jim Nahrgang blasted a slap shot between Moore's pads. The goal was set up by some bril- liant forechecking on the part of Bill Steele who held the puck in the Michigan zone to set up the tally at 3:14 of the opening stanza. A minute and a half later, -the Michigan defense broke down in its own zone, and Bob D'Alvise took a/perfect centering pass from Graham Wise at point blank range for an easy goal. The Wolverines came storming 1ll to Tech, 9-6 back to knot the score at 2-2 with into the Michigan cage. , a pair of goals exacttly one minute Just five seconds later, Nahrgang apart in the middle of the period, was sent off for cross-checking, Tom Lindskog bagged the first ore and Roy Ashworth knotted the when he blistered home a power score with Michigan's third power play goal, unassisted, from the play goal of the game at 6:20. right point at 10:59. As usual, the Huskies came back Frank Werner then snapped a to take the lead, 6-5, when local ten foot wrist shot into the twine hero Usitalo rifled a 25-foot wrist off pretty passes from Randy Neal shot through Moore's pads. and Paul Paris. Werner was un- believably left unchecked in front NAHRGANG TOOK his second of the Huskie net and had no trou- cross-checking penalty of the per- ble flipping the puck past the be- iod moments later, and the Wolver- wildered Trewin. ines put together their best offen- Mike Zuke deflected Bob Lori.. sive thrust of the night. Trewin mer's weak shot from the left point was equal to the task, robbing both past the totally screened Moore Ashworth and Angie Moretto from for a 3-2 Tech lead at the first short range. period's end. The Huskies weathered, the storm Nearly seven minutes into the and increased their lead to 7-5 second period, Paris picked up a when Zuke's c e n t e r i n g pass loose puck at the right point, fired bounced off teammate Elie Vor- a mild slap shot that Trewin licek's skate into the Michigan caught and that dropped on Neal's goal. Tech was on the power play stick. Neal nonchalantly tucked the at the time as Wolverine Don Far- puck between Trewin's pads, tying dig was off for roughing. , the score again, 3-3. Zuke, the Huskies' freshman sen- t t T MICHIGAN COACH Al Renfrew asked the officials to restrain the Tech pep band from playing while the play was in progress, 'which only inspired the band to play all the louder. Finally at the threat of a Tech bench penalty, the band stopped but the fans began pum- meling the ice with debris in pro- test. sation, netted the hat trick at 15:51 to put the game out of reach. Moretto potted a meaningless Wolverine goal at 16:57 on a rare Tech defensive lapse. That wasn't the final goal, however, as Tech's Darwin Mott stole the puck at his own blue line and skated the length of the ice for an unassisted tally. t All this extracurricular activity SLO R E Spto f proved to only fire tip the Tech I team more, and again with only 40 Deja-vu seconds remaining in the period, NHL FIRST PERIOD they took the lead. Zuke back- New York Islanders 4, Detroit 2 FCIGT-PNaRghanded a rebound into the net fr'm Vancouver 7, Montreal 3 SCORING: 1. T - Nahrgang (Steele, Toronto 4, St. Louis 2 Stamler) 3:14; 2. D'Alvise (Zuke) 4:46; a shallow angle for his second goal Pittsburgh 2, Chicago 0 3. M - Lindskog (unassisted) 10:59; 4. of the night right after Moore had NBA M - Werner (Neal, Paris) 11:59; 5. made a great save on Mike USi- Chicago 122, Phoenix100 T-- Zuke (Usitalo, Abbey) 17:26. ' s m 1 Baltimore 128, Portland 110 SECOND PERIOD sseaming slap hot. New York 125, Buffalo 97 SCORING: 6. M - Neal (Paris, Lind- Bob Falconer opened the third ABA skog) 6:51; 7. T - Zuke (Usitalo, Nahr- period scoring by stating the virginia 126, Indiana115 T1IRD PERIOD length of the ice and notching :he(Memphis 107, New York 98 THR PERIODc~vrjp' cndu ~gn Denver 115, Carolina 104 ..: : iii... J :. .: .... ::. .:. .r... . . .": { t . :, . :.