Men's and Women's Swimming Hosts US Open Thursday 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Canham Natatorium S Men's Basketball vs. Tulane Tonight 7:30 (ESPN) Crisler Arena Women cagers ground visiting Eagles, 76-62 :OURT CRESS Roberts captures first ever home victory as coach of Wolverines Icredible buttue, 'M stands undefeated By SCOTT BURTON DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER What was the strangest thing that happened last night in the Michigan- Eastern Michigan game at Crisler Arena? A. Eagle player Angie Suggs tumbles into the Michigan basketball band, taking out the drum player and his drum set. B. One of the three Eastern Michi- gan fans at the game does three con- secutive cartwheels on the sidelines. C. The Wolverines win, 76-62. The answer for any Michigan fan in the know is, of course, C. After a much maligned 2-28 sea- son last year, the Wolverines have a sparkling, unblemished, undisputed, perfect record. OK, so they have only played one game, and their win came against a team that was 3-22 last year. None- theless, Michigan is an unbeaten 1-0 and have a lot to be proud of. Coach Trish Roberts earned her first home victory in her career at Michigan. The Wolverines won a home game for the first time since the 1991-92 season. And Michigan is above .500 for the first time since winning their opener against Boston College two years ago. "I was just very happy," Roberts said. "I don't know how to act." "It's great," freshman Silver Shellman said. "It gives us a lot of confidence in ourselves and in the By BOB ABRAMSON DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER With a depleted roster dwindled down to six players, the Michigan women's basketball team got 21 points apiece from freshmen Amy Roberts and Catherine DiGiacinto and pulled away with a 76-62 victory over East- ern Michigan yesterday night at Crisler Arena. For Michigan coach Trish Rob- erts, the win was especially sweet. It was Robert's first victory at home since becoming head coach last year. "I don't know how to act," a be- lated Roberts exclaimed. "I'm just happy. This was my first victory at Crisler." The Wolverines raced out to a 12- 0 lead in the first half, and held the Eagles scoreless for the first 3:30. "Our shots just weren't falling," Eastern guard Jean Akin said, refer- ring to the team's 29 percent shooting in the first half. "We got down really early and it seemed like there was a lid on the basket." Trailing 34-27 at halftime, the Eagles pulled within two, 38-36, with 15 minutes left in the second half. Michigan then went on a 13-2 run, shooting 60 percent in the second half to seal the victory. "Those freshman play without fear," Eastern coach Paulette Stein said, acknowledging the five fresh- man who started for Michigan. "They just go out and play. They're not afraid to make a mistake." Michigan's biggest concern head- ing into the game was getting into foul trouble. With walk-on Angie Mustonen out with an illness, the Wolverines were forced to go with only six players, one of them being Jennifer Brezinski, who was just com- ing off a knee injury. Only DiGiacinto ended up fouling out. "I liked the fact that they didn't give up, they played with a lot of heart, even though they were tired," Roberts said. "We're low in numbers and we came out with a lot of character and we weren't going to give up," Michi- gan freshman point guard Jennifer Kiefer said. "Whether we have six players or 15 players, we are going to play our hearts out and it's a great feeling to win tonight." One of the areas that Michigan dominated was on the boards. The Wolverines outrebounded the Eagles, 61-49, getting a game-high 15 re- bounds from DiGiacinto. "It was something we had to do," Michigan forward Silver Shellman said. "Coach Roberts told us that re- bounding was going to be the key. Even though we were the smaller team, we were able to box out and get the rebound. And that somewhat kept us in the game." The guard tandem of Jennifer Keifer and Johnson combined for 14 of the Michigan's 19 assists. Shellman poured in 14 points and Sonya Mays added 10 for the Wolverines. "This game was very important to our season,"Roberts said. "I think it showed our kids that if we play hard, we can win. I really.thought it would be a tough game. But our kids came out and played well." E. MICHIGAN (62) FQ FT REB MIN M-A M-A O-T A F PTS Bryant 9 0-1' 0-0 1-2 0 1 0 Waters 18 1-8 0-0 2-5 1 3 2 Akin 36 6-29 8-11 2-5 0 1 20 Suggs 23 4-8 0-0 1-4 0 2 8 Wieinga 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 0 Parsons 22 1-7 1-2 3-5 0 4 3 Brabson 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 10 0 Kulikowski 23 2-5 0-2 1-6 0 5 4 Lane 14 3-6 3-4" 2-2 0 3 9 Dowell 17 2-6 1-1 2-4 1 4 5 Moorman 34 4-10 3-4 4-10 0 1 11 Totals 200 23-77 16.25 1&-49 3 26 62 FG%: .298. FT%:.640. Threepont goals:0-4. Blocks: 2 (Suggs 2). Turnovers: 29 (Akin 12, Waters 3, Brabson 2, Dowell 2, Kulikowski 2, Lane 2, Moorman 2, Suggs 2, Wieringa 2). Steals: 17 (Akin 5, Waters 5, Parsons 2, Suggs 2, Bryant, Kulikowski, Lane). Technical Fouls: none. MICHIGAN (76) FG FT REB MIN M-A M-A O-T A F PTS Kiefer 38 0-5 4-6 1-1 6 4 4 Johnson 40 11-23 0-5 5-10 8 2 21 Brzezinski 23 3-11 0-0 8-15 2 4 6 Mays 31 3-9 5-6 3-8 2 4 14 Shellman 34 5-13 4-8 4-12 1 4 14 DiGiacinto 34 7-17 7-8 5-15 0 5 21 Totals 200 29-79 2033 2668 1921 76 FG%:.355. FT%: .606. Three-point goals: 2-3, .667 (Johnson 1-2, Mays 1-1). Blocks: 3 (Mays 2, Shellman 1). Turnovers: 29 (Shellman 8, DiGiacinto 7. Johnson 6, Kiefer 5, Mays 2. Brzezinski). Steals: 10 (Kiefer 4, Mays 2, Brzezinski, DiGiacinto, Johnson, Mays). Technical Fouls: none. E. Mihicgan. 27 35 - 62 Michigan...r...34 42 - 76 At: Crisler Arena; A: 509 0 Sonya Mays scored 10 points in Michigan's 76-62 victory over Eastern. team also." Yes, the Wolverines were sloppy at times against Eastern Michigan, and looked like the inexperienced freshmen that they are. And no one expects that, just because they beat the Eagles, the program is somehow miraculously turned around. However, for a team with modest goals for the season, the kind of game Michigan played last night indicates that this season is not only going to be measured by victories, but by what the team shows on the inside. "We're low in numbers and we came out with a lot of character and we are not going to give up," fresh- man point guard Jennifer Kiefer said. "Whether we have six players or 15 players, we are going to play our heart out and it is a great feeling to win tonight." Bigger Green Wave to challenge Blue I I By TIM RARDIN DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER Athleticism and defense have been trademarks of all four of Perry Clark's Tulane basketball teams. And though the Green Wave lost nearly half of its players from last year's 22-9 squad, his fifth team will be no exception to that tradi- tion. "We're just as athletic as we've been," Clark said. "The question is whether we'll have the heart and toughness of past teams we've had." Michigan coach Steve Fisher, whose No. 5-ranked Michigan bas- ketball team will host Tulane tonight at 7:30 in Crisler Arena, thinks they will. "They're very talented and big," he said. "You're going to see better athletes than you saw against Georgia Tech." Among those athletes are an im- pressive blend of veterans and fresh- men - a fivesome that ranked among the top 10 recruiting classes in the country. That blend gives Clark what he considers the most potent scoring team he has had in his brief career. "Offensively, we've got more weapons than we've had before," he said. Among those weapons for Tulane (1-0) are 6-foot-7 senior Carlin Hartman (11.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg last season), 6-foot-4 junior Kim Lewis, who returns after receiving a medical hardship last season and aptly-named junior point guard Pointer Williams, who last year led the Metro Conference in steals (2.9) and was second in assists (5.4). Gone is four-year all-Metro per- former Anthony Reed (6-9,15.9 ppg), but the newcomers to this starting crew add legitimate size to Clark's lineup. Six-foot-10, 230-pound senior Makeba Perry, who started at times last year and freshman Jerald Honeycutt, at 6-feet-9, 210 pounds, will give the smaller Wolverines a handful. In Tulane's 94-77 rout of Cente- nary, Honeycutt led the way with 27 points - the most ever by a freshman at Tulane - and 12 rebounds in his debut. While size differential is a con- cern for Fisher, turnovers worry Michigan's head man even more. The Wolverines (2-0) turned the ball over 24 times against Cleveland State Monday, and will face a team that thrives on defensive pressure. In fact, Clark has already unleashed this year's version of "The Posse," a de- fensive unit called on to shut down the opponents' offense. "The Posse" originated on the 1964 Tulane football team, which held its opponents to eight points a game in the last six games of that season. The term was imported by the basketball squad beginning in the 1990-91 sea- son. Last season, the Green Wave - Posse and all - forced an average of 20.4 turnovers, and held 13 of 31 opponents to 60 points or less in regu- lation. "Sometimes when you play a team that presses like that, they make you become tentative," Fisher said. "We need to pick and choose when. we run. We want to push the ball up the floor, but we've got to make sure we score instead of turning the ball over. "We cut that (24 turnovers) in half and I'll be happy." Michigan and Tulane have only met only three times before, with the Wolverines winning all three games. The two teams last played in 1979, when Michigan won, 72-71. tiSTAU3AaN 0 osPO R aS . COME ENJOY: 12-inch Pizza w/ 1 Item...$4.89 Pitchers of Coors Light...$3.25 1220 S. University Call 665-7777 for deliveries All University of Michigan students, faculty, and staff 0 Cwrompr"p La 4ky aailtiu toI t-111 U V - t ' E - U -A-11111-i - UIN'Uo-