Hockey vs. Bowling Green Saturday, 7:35 p.m. Yost Ice Arena SPORTS Wrestling vs. Notre Dame and Clarion St. Saturday, 1 p.m. Crisler Arena The Michigan Daily Wednesday, January8, 1986 Page 9 'M'AT 14-O AFTER TWO CONFERENCE ROAD WINS Blue bursts into Big Ten By BARB McQUADE Defense and balanced scoring hushed any critics the Michigan basketball team may have had, as the 4-0 Wolverines won their last seven -games, including a pair on the road against conference foes Indiana and Ohio State. Michigan had little trouble with its ' non-conference opponents, but passed the true test by sweeping both games on perhaps the toughest road trip of the season. The Wolverines topped Indiana, 74-69, and Ohio State, 78-68, to start the Big Ten campaign.. MICHIGAN entered Indiana's Assembly Hall with a 12-0 record, its best start ever, but after the Hoosiers went up 8-0 in the first four minutes, the skeptics had to wonder if a light .non-conference schedule had taken its "toll. Following a timeout, though, Michigan center Roy Tarpley put the Wolverines on the board with a back- door slam to lead his team on a 17-2 scoring run. "I think our kids were a little over- anxious," said Michigan head coach Bill Frieder. "We just had to calm them down a little. The thing that surprised me was that we got the tur- naround so quickly." AGGRESSIVE play by the Wolverines sent them to the free throw line 35 times, compared to In- diana's 10, and proved to be the dif- ference in the game. Michigan received help from everyone in the scoring department Vith four players in double figures. Gary Grant notched 21, Tarpley ad- ded 20, Antoine Joubert 18 and Richard Rellford 10. "We got out to a quick lead, but that Was also our undoing," said Indiana 'bead coach Bob Knight. "We got careless after that. We got completely away from what we wanted to do." BUT THE Hoosier head man, who did not escape the game without a technical foul, took nothing away from the Wolverines. "Michigan made some big plays in "the last seven or eight minutes of the !"game," Knight said. "Michigan played as hard as I've ever seen Michigan play. We had a difficult time handling them inside." The key to Michigan's 35-27 half- time lead was its defense, led by Grant. The sophomore guard played shadow to Indiana's scoring machine Steve Alford, holding him to three points on one-of-five shooting before intermission. THE DEFENSIVE handiwork carried over to Columbus, where Michigan was all over the Buckeyes in the first half. Ohio State managed to shoot just 39 percent in the first half. "These kids have really come along defensively," Frieder said. Michigan's effective inside game was also a determining factor in the Ohio State defeat, and should play a big role throughout the season. "THEY'RE probably a lot stronger than most people," said OSU head coach Eldon Miller. Physical strength is an asset the Wolverines enjoy, Frieder echoed. "We're more physical, we're not finesse," he said. finesse," he said. "We pound the boards and go in there and rebound. Rellford was a terror on the boards." The 6-6 forward pulled down eight caroms versus the Buckeyes, while leading an outstanding defensive ef- fort. Rellford held Ohio State's Den- nis Hopson to 12 points, 13 below his average. GRANT sparked Michigan's offense with 23 points. Rellford chipped in with 18. Brad Sellars kept the Buckeyes in the game, scoring 25 points and rip- ping 15 rebounds off the glass. "It would have been a different game if we had done what we had wanted to do," the 7-0 forward said. "They played good defense, but we made a lot of mistakes." ONE MAN who made few mistakes was Frieder. The sixth-year coach made effective use of his bench, calling on senior Robert Henderson for nine points in the contest, fresh- man Glen Rice for six and junior Gar- de Thompson for some solid play. Rice did not see the playing time he enjoyed during the non-conference season, but should see more and more BySteve"Wise Grant reverses road woes .. . *o, new hope for '86 G ARY GRANT earned an A+ at Ohio State. Big deal, right? You could get good grades in Columbus after your second lobotomy. But Gary's was a special examination. The sophomore guard didn't simply bust the curve in one of OSU's gut courses like chemistry of engineering. He did it in a forum more familiar to those of us studying near the motor city, the road test. Grant's play at Columbus, added to his game at Indiana two days earlier, gave him the best pair of consecutive away games in his career. His 23 points against the Buckeyes established a career high, but more importantly, established at least the possibility that Grant can play con- sistenly on the road. After the Indiana game, in which Grant scored 21, Michigan coach Bill Frieder said Grant had played "one and a half good games at Indiana." In other words, Frieder thought Grant had not played well on the road other than last Thursday and the final 20 minutes of last year's Hoosier game, when the 6-3 guard tossed in 18 points. The record, especially from big games, bears Frieder out. Against then top-ranked Georgia Tech, Grant had a miserable oh-for-10 shooting day. That followed his previous best on the road, a 22-point outing against Virginia Tech. Then there was the NCAA tournament last year. That's where Grant set the standard for the Georgia Tech debacle with three-for-eight shooting against Fairleigh Dickinson and (Holy deja vu, Batman) an oh-for-10 performance in Michigan's loss to Villanova. Those two struggles came directly after the first good half at Indiana. So much for consistency. On his transcript, Grant's marks from early '86 look even better: * vs. Indiana - nine of 13 from the floor. " vs. Ohio State - nine of 11 from the floor. Tally it up, throw in the free throws and you get 44 points and 75 percent field goal shooting. The Big Ten totals also shine in comparison to what Grant "achieved" during the non-conference season. His 12.4 points per game were close to last year's average, but his shooting average of 46 percent was nine points below the figure he compiled last season. Grant added to the offensive display with his usual standout defensive play, stealing and tipping passes that led to Michigan scores. "I remember a couple times we came down with a couple good reboun- ds and went on the break," said Ohio State center Brad Sellers. "Next thing I know they were bringing the ball the other way and that's because we lost control of the ball." Sellers said he thought the reversals resulted from sloppiness by the Buckeyes, but Grant lent a helping hand there too. With a steal and slam to start the OSU game, Grant set the tone for the rest of the Wolverines and perhaps for the rest of his own Big Ten season. "Gary Grant deserves a lot of credit," Frieder said. "He's been the defensive glue of our team and I think he's gotten the rest of our team ex- cited about playing defense." As Frieder is quick to point out though, last weekend's was only a two credit course in a semester that features eight more conference road games and presumably another tournament. "He's getting better," said Frieder. "But we've got'a lot more road games to check it out." Michigan center Roy Tarpley slams home two points with authority at In- diana last Thursday. Tarpley's 20 points helped lead the Wolverines to a 74- 69 win. as he gains experience. The 6-7 for- ward showed signs of what he can do in Michigan's 85-54 drubbing of Illinois-Chicago when he went seven- for-eight from the field, and in the 105- 85 runaway over Cleveland State when he shot eight-for-ten. In Michigan's other three victories, it defeated the state's location schools, knocking off Central Michigan, 82-61, Western Michigan, 74-54 and Northern Michigan 98-76. The Wolverines put their un- defeated record on the line tonight when they host 18th-ranked Illinois (1- 1 Big Ten, 10-3 overall). Announcing the Annual F CUL 11 ST FF Si Supp- E E ' Published: Jan. 8th Cost: $2.00 A limited number available ONLY at The Michigan Daily.