EDGE W. KENTUCKY. 87-81
Cagers tally important win
The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, November 29, 1977-Page 13
if 'rp prwey
By ERNIE DUNBAR
While Michigan's season opening basketball vic-
tory last Saturday may have taken second fiddle to
those devouring leftover turkey and dressing, the
game may well prove to be' one of the Wolverines
most important early season wins.
Travelling to Western Kentucky to inaugurate
the 1977-78 season, Michigan came away with an 87-
81 win over the Hilltoppers, marking the seventh
straight opening'game victory for the Wolverines.
Coach Johnny Orr was all smiles yesterday as he
reflected on his team's performance.
"I CAN'T REMEMBER when I felt any better
about an opening game victory," said Orr. "That
was probably the most important first game victory
in a long time. It could have made the difference of
us being 3-0 instead of 0-3 at the end of this week."
Guard Dave Baxter made the most of his start-
ing assignment, netting a game high 28 points and
dishing out 11 assists.
"Offensively, that was one of the greatest per-
formances by a guard we've ever had here at
Michigan," praised Orr.
Baxter, who accounted for Michigan's opening
two points of the 77-78 season, teamed with fresh-
man forward Mike McGee who had a fine college
opener with 24 points. Center Joel Thompson collec-
ted 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
"I WAS READY to go from the start on Satur-
day, where before coming off the bench I wasn't
mentally prepared. When they introduced me as a
starter, I was in a daze," said Baxter, who's been
Orr's third guard the past two seasons.
"They had this little guard (Steve Ashby, 6-0) on
me and he wasn't very quick," the senior co-captain
added. "I had a good view of the basket every time I
shot and when I get that type of situation I'm
usually going to hit my shots." Baxter's dtats
backed up his statements, as he went 11 for 15
against the Hilltoppers.
Orr also had praise for McGee. "After he got
,going he played very good. He had 24 points in the
last 30 minutes and down the stretch hit some
crucial baskets for us."
Despite playing in his first game as a collegian,
McGee didn't seem awed by the situation. "It felt
just like any other game. You've got to go out and
Don't miss tomorrow's edition of
the Daily. In it will appear the
annual basketball supplement-
'M' HOOP SCOOP-including full
details of the upcoming 'gage sea-
son for the Wolverines.
play," McGee said. "I was a little bit nervous at the
start of the game, but I adjusted pretty good. I
didn't have too many difficulties because my man
(Mike Prince) only got four points."
THE KEY TO THE Wolverines' victory was
their performance at the foul line. After failing to
make a trip to the line the entire first half, Michigan
netted 17 of 18 free throws in the second half, in-
cluding 12 in a row.
In contrast, the Hilltoppers were awarded 32
chances, but connected only 19 times.
"One of our goals is to be the best free throw
shooting team in the nation," said assistant coach
Bill Frieder, "and we got off to a good start on Sat-
urday."
Michigan's rebounding total of 41 to Western
Kentucky's 37 also pleased Orr. "We rebounded bet-
ter than we anticipated," he said.
The Wolverines entered the game as a question
mark on defense and their weakness popped up in
the second half as Western Kentucky erased a 12-
point Michigan edge to take a brief lead.
"WE RAN OUR OFFENSE really well, but we
were a bit lax on defense," Orr said.
"We came from behind to win," he said.
"Usually when a team comes back like Western
Kentucky did, they go on and win. But we bounced
right back. We beat a damn good basketball team.
That team was no patsy.
"That victory should certainly give us some con-
fidence. We should feel that we should win our
games now."
Michigan had foul trouble at both forward and
center as Alan Hardy and Thompson were forced to
the bench with five personals. But Orr wasn't
hesitant to spell his starters throughout the game,
as 10 of the 12 players saw action.
FRESHMAN PAUL HEUERMAN substituted at
forward, in what Orr called "an excellent job. He
played very hard."
Tom Bergen and Mike Robinson shared the relief
duty at center. "Bergen was adequate and Rob gave
us three pretty good minutes," Orr said.
The Wolverine mentor is 'still leary about his
squad's team defense and commented that the team
will continue to work on all phases of the game. "We
need to improve," said Orr. "But at least we showed
some hope on Saturday."
1. Texas (49)
1. (tie) DAILY
Libels (49)
2. Oklahoma (5)
3. Alabama (1)
4. MICHIGAN
5. Notre Dame (1).
6. Arkansas
7. Kentucky (1)
8. Penn St.
9. Ohio St.
10. Pittsburgh
11. Clemson
12. Nebraska
13. Washington
14. North Carolina
15. Arizona St.
16. San Diego St.
17. Brigham Young
(tie) Texas A&M
19. Florida St.
20. Southern Cal
Hockey Po
Team
1. Denver (9)
2. Wisconsin (i)
3. Boston University
4. MICHIGAN
5. St. Louis
6. Tie: Michigan Tech
Clarkson
8. Tie: Bowling Green
Colo. College
10. Cornell
11-0-0 1.124 How the Top 20 teams in the
Associated Press college basketball
11-0-0 1.124 poll fared in this week's games:
10-1-0 940 1. North Carolina 1-0 beat Oregon
10-1-0 893 State9443.
10-1-0 771 2. Kentucky 1-0 beat SMU 110-86.
9-1-0 66 3. Marquette 0-0 did not play.
1-1-0 568 4. Notre Dame 1-0 beat Missis-
10-1-0 527 sippi 111-92.
10-1-0 467 5. San Francisco 1-0 beat San
92-0 437 Francisco St.100-67
-2-1 299 6. UCLA 2-0 beat Brigham Young
8-2-1 198 75-73, beat Seattle 106-73.
8-3-0 128 7. Arkansas 1-0 beat SW Missouri
7-4-0 124 St. 6547.
8-2-1 118 8. Nevada-Las Vegas 1-0 beat NW
9-2-0 109 Louisiana 85-80.
10-1-0 78 9. Cincinnati 1-0 beat Akron 91-81.
9-2-0 48 10. Louisville 0-0 did not play.
7-3-0 48 11. Syracuse 1-0 beat Cornell,
8-2-0 358 "1.
7-4-0 31 12. Purdue 1-0 beat Xavier, Ohio
90-82.
13, MICHIGAN 1-0 beat West-
ern Kentucky 87-81.
14. Maryland 2-0 beat Bucknell
Pts. 95-62, beat American 78-65.
9-1 99 15. Alabama 0-0 did not play.
9-2-1 90 16. Minnesota 0-1 lost to South
2-0 72 Carolina 62-65.
9-3 62 17. Wake Forest 1-0 beat UC-Wil-
6-3-1 51, mington 83-79.
6-6 35 18. Holy Cross 0-0 did not play.
4-3 35 19. Detroit 0-0 did not play.
7-4 27 20. St. John's 2-0 beat Lafayette
5-5 27 66-60, beat Old Dominion 81-75.
2-0 26
I
VET PASSES UP SR. YEAR
Lillard leaves cag ers
_
One under their belts
MiCHIGAN
By ERNIE DUNBAR
Reserve forward Len Lillard re-
vealed yesterday that he will not con-
tinue as a member of the Michigan
basketball team due to academic
considerations.
The senior from Ann Arbor St.
Thomas High School totaled 18 points
and 14 rebounds in 15 games span-
ning his sophomore and junior years.
"I didn't feel I was going to get a lot
of playing time this year," said
Lillard. "I'm having a particularly
tough school semester and it looks
like I'll have a worse one next semes-
ter. I want to get into graduate
school," the natural resources major
added, "so playing basketball and
not getting much playing time would
ISCORES I
College Basketball
Michigan State 68, Central Michigan 61
Indiana State 91, Purdue 63
Ohio State 81, Marshall 65
Iowa 82, Kent State 62
NBA
New York 104, Houston 86
hurt my school work."
Lillard commented that coach
Johnny Orr's decision to leave him
behind this past weekend for the
Western Kentucky season opener
"facilitated my decision.''
He added that he was uncertain at
this time whether he would continue
to receive his basketball scholarship.
"I don't think basketball was a
waste of time," said Lillard. "I have
a lot of good experiences from
basketball."
State streaks
EAST LANSING (AP)-Michigan
State had to rely on freshman Jay
Vincent's 25.points and Greg Kelser's
18 points to defeat Central Michigan, 68-
61, in the Spartans' season opener last
night.
Freshman Earvin "Magic" John-
son's first game in the MSU lineup was
marred by cold shooting on both teams.
Johnson was held to seven points but
handed out eight assists and pulled
down eight rebounds.
Vincent came off the bench to score
Michigan State's first field goal on a
pass from Johnson after 9:09 of the first
half. It was the Spartans' first field goal
in 12 shots.
Mike McGee........
Alan Hardy ............
Joel Thompson ........
Dave Baxter...........
Tom Staton.........
Paul Heuerman ...
Tom Bergen ...........
Johnny Johnson .......
Mark Lozier.........
Mike Robinson...
FG/A
9-18
2-3
8-11
11-15
3-9
1-1.
0-3
1-4
0-0
0-0
FT/A
66
0-0
3-4
6-6
0-0
2-2
0-0
0-0
0-0
0-0
R
5
4
8
6
4
3
1
0
3
A
2
5
1
11
3
1
0
0
0
0
T
24
4
19
28
6
4
0
2
0
0
James Johnson ..
Greg Jackson.......
Aaron Bryant........
Steve Ashby..........
Mike Prince.........
Casey Cebula........
Greg Burbach.......
Mike Reese..........
Total ................
FG/A
12-17
6-10
5-16
4-6
1-8
1-3
1-3
1-3
31-66
FT/A
5-8
2-7
8-9
1-3
2-2
1-1
0-1
0-0
19-32
R
13
0
5
2
5
2
5
1
37
A
2
0
3
5
2
0
14
WESTERN KENTUCKY
T
29
14
18
9
4
3
2
2
81
Total..............354
17-18 41 23 87
OA4C4Ze#01
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156 North Hall U-M 764-2403
Put it all together in Air Force ROTC.
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