8 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSWednesday - Wednesday, January 5, 1994
Arizona punishes Michigan,119-95 .
Reeves'
record 40 points leads Wildcats to Fiesta Bowl Classic title
By JOSH KARP
and BARRY SOLLENBERGER
DAILY SPORTS WRITERS
TUCSON, Ariz. - One of the few
constants in college basketball over the
past few years has been that the Ari-
zona basketball team does not lose at
home.
In fact, going into last Thursday's
Fiesta Bowl Classic final against sev-
enth-ranked Michigan, the No.12 Wild-
cats were 97-2 in their previous 99
games at the McKale Center.
The Wolverines, however, fig-
ured to challenge Arizona's
homecourt supremacy. After all, the
Fab Four had experienced success
in front of hostile crowds in the
past.
But as it turned out, Michigan was
hardly achallenge to the Wildcats, who
led by as many as 36 points in their 119-
95 victory.
"We got a good old-fashioned whip-
ping from start to finish ... that's all you
can say," Wolverine coach Steve Fisher
said.
The Wildcats were led by Khalid
Reeves, who scored a career-high 40
points, while Juwan Howard paced
Michigan with 20 points.
The fact that the Wolverines lost
to Arizona wasn't as surprising as
the manner in which they were
beaten.
The Fab Fourhas neverbeen beaten
so badly, and the last time Michigan
lost a game by more than 24 points was
a 112-70 thrashing by Indiana during
the 1990-91 campaign.
Two critical junctures in the game
sealed Michigan's fate.
The first came at the 10:32 mark
of the first half.
The Wolverines enjoyed a 23-19
lead, thanks largely to Ray Jackson's
eight points in the game's first six
Date
Dec. 11
Dec. 20
Dec. 28
Dec. 30
Jan. 3
Opponent
No. 4 Duke
Central Michigan
Result
L 63-73
W 86-44
W 102-81
L 95-119
W 111-84
Leading Scorer
Rose 31
Rose 16
King 22
Howard 20
Howard, Rose 19
minutes.
But Jimmy King was whistled for
his third foul when he hammered the
Wildcats' Dylan Rigdon on a three-
point attempt.
Rigdon made all three foul shots to
start a 35-15 run that propelled Arizona
to a 54-38 halftime lead.
The second momentum shift came
at the beginning of the second half.
Jalen Rose missed both free
throws that had been awarded to
Michigan when Arizona coach Lute
Olson was hit with a technical foul
for arguing a first-half play during
halftime.
Rose then proceeded to miss an
open three-pointer from the top of the
key, and then two more free throws 30
seconds later.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats were in
the midst of a 23-12 run that put the
game out of reach at 77-50 with 11:45
to play.
"Arizona made some big-time bas-
After losses to Duke and
Arizona, Michigan fell from
No. 3 to No. 13 in the AP
poll. Tonight the Wolverines
face unranked Michigan State
at Crisler Arena.
kets," Rose said. "Wewould try to cut
it back and they would shoot it back
up."
Rose did not score in the second
halfand finished with 12 points, nearly
half his team-leading average of 23 a
game.
"When Jalen is good, Michigan is
good. And when Jalen is not good,
Michigan is usually going to struggle,
and Jalen was not good tonight," Fisher
said.
One reason for Rose's poor play,
aside from a slight case of the flu, was
the defense of Arizona guard Reggie
Geary.
Geary, who had 12 points and a
team-high 10 assists, held Rose
scoreless in the second half and
set the tone for an Arizona de-
fense that resembled that of its
football team.
"I thought Reggie did a great job,"
Olson said. "I think the fact that he was
so tenacious wore Rose down."
In addition to the Arizona defense,
the Wolverines could not stop Reeves
The tournament MVP repeatedly
beat Michigan defenders for back-
door layups and buried open jump-
ers. He was a blistering l3-for-14
from the field, and his 40 points set
a Fiesta Bowl Classic record.
"Khalid Reeves is as good a
player as I have had the misfortune
to sit on the opposite bench and go
against," Fisher said. "He was abso-
lutely sensational."
Besides Reeves' brilliant play, Ari-
zona received big production from for-
ward Ray Owes, who had 21 points and
five rebounds.
"We've got to take this game and
learn from it and move on. It's the past
and we can't dwell on it," Howardsaid.
Fisher agreed, adding that the sea-
son is still young.
"I don't put a lot of stock into
one performance," Fisher said. "If-
we get beat by 30 or 40 points three
or four times in the league I'll say
that we've got big-time problems. 1
"But I remember when Indiana
got beat by UCLA by about 30 in the
finals of the NIT and then Indiana
beat them in the elite eight to get to
the Final Four."
Both squads reached the finals by
rolling up easy victories in first round
competition. The Wolverines pounded
Auburn, 102-81, as the four juniors
totaled 77 points.
King and Jackson also combined
for21 rebounds.
Arizona had no trouble with
Fordham, 111-84, as Reeves led all
scorers with 23 points on 10-of-I I
shooting.
Point guard Damon Stoudamire
was also solid, netting 14 points and
dishing out 10 assists with no turn-,
overs.
Junior guard Ray Jackson dunks in Monday night's game against Boston
University at Crisler Arena. Jackson had 16 points and three rebounds.,
HOOPS
Continued from page 1
in awe of them," Terriers coach Bob
Brown said.
Crawford squared up three times
from the top of the key in the first half
and found the bottom of the net each
attempt. He was a perfect 4-for-4 from
three-point range.
"My shot's here and there,"
Crawford said. "It was there today."
The rest of the team's shot was, too,
as the Wolverines shot a collective 64
percent from the field.
Boston freshman and native Nige-
rian Tijani Awojobi, in just his third
year playing basketball, posted a team
high 18 points.
"This was not a good rebounding
game for him," Brown said. "Usually
he's close to double figures on re-
bounds."
Boston junior Dave Stiff came off
the bench to score nine second-half
points and push his team's scoring per-
centage from 44 to68 percent.
Michigan staved off Awojobi,
Boston's zone defense and a Terrier
second-half scoring blip to win a game
in which substitutes abounded. Even
alternate cheerleaders and an alumni
band stood.in for the regulars.
Despite Michigan's bench players'
contributions, they did not steal the
show. According to one of the replace-
ments himself, that function is still
reserved for the team's four headliners.
"I think my role is to play good
defense and when guys like Jalen and
Jimmy penetrate, to hit the open jumper
if they kick it out," Crawford said.
Boston coach Brown concurred, say-
ing the Fab Four are still the team's most
feared threat as well as its biggest draw.
"I look at the stats and I think most
of the starters played close to 30 min-
utes," Brown said. "I was more im-
pressed with them staying on the floor
than I was with the bench, to be honest."
ExitBoston, stage left.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY (84)
FG FT RES
MIN MA A A A .T A F PTS
Awojobi 29 8-13 1-4 0-3 2 1 18
Brown 29 6-13 2-3 1-7 3 3 15
Stiff 29 5-6 5-8 2-9 4 2 15
Wallace 38 3-5 2-3 0-2 5 3 8
Delgardo 13 2-6 0-0 0-0 2 0 5
Byrd 18 5-5 3-3 1-1 2 0 16
Schwartz 12 0-2 0-2 0-0 1 2 0
Delayeffitte 12 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 2
Rosu-Myles 20 1-2 0-0 0-1 2 2 2
Hubbard 5 1-2 0-0 0-1 0 0 3
Totals 200 32-56 13-23 6.26 2115 84
F6%: .571. FT%:.565. Threelpolnt goals: 7-11,
.636 (Awojobi 1-2, Brown 1-1, Delgardo 1-3, Byrd 3-
3, Hubbard 1-1). Tunovers: 23 (Wallace 5. Stiff 4,
Brown, Awojobi 3, Byrd 2, Rosu-Myles, Delayeffitte).
Steals: 4 (Awojobi, Brown, Wallace, Rosu-Myles).
MICHIGAN (111)
FQ FT REB
MIN W-A M-A O-T A F PTS
Jackson 27 8-12 0-1 3-3 5 3 16
King 28 8-14 1-2 3-5 3 0 18
Howard 32 8-14 3-5 1-6 5 2 19
Fife 21 2-4 0-0 1-1 6 1 6
Rose 259-13 0-0 0-4 42 19
Derricks 13 3-3 0-2 1-4 2 3 6
Crawford 21 4-4 1-2 0-5 0 1 13
Saint-Jean 14 3-4 1-2 2-3 1 4 7
Bossard 15 1-5 2-2 1-1 1 1 5
Fields 2 1-1 0-0 G . 0 2 2
Moore 2 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Totals 200 47-74 8-16 14.37 2719 lit
F0%-.635. F1%G .500. ThreepOnt goals: 9.20,
.450 (Bossard 1-5, Crawford 4-4, Fife 24, King 1-3,
Rose 13, Jackson 0.1). Tunem:16 (Jackson 3,
Rose 3, Howard 2, Crawford 2, Bossardi 2. King, Fife,
Derricks, Saint-Jean). Steals: 11 (King 3, Howard 3,
Rose 2, Jackson, Crawford, Bossard).
At: Crisier Arena A:11,132
Underdog Spartans to challenge 'M'
By TIM RARDIN
DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER
When Michigan andMichigan State
face off at 8 p.m. tonight at Crisler
Arena to kick off their respective Big
Ten schedules, they will see a bit of
themselves in each other.
Lastyear, both teams reliedon solid
inside games, and the Wolverines won
both games between the two - a nar-
row 73-69 victory in East Lansing and
an 87-81 overtime thriller at Crisler.
Michigan (8-2 overall) had Chris
Webber, Juwan Howard and Eric Riley.
The Spartans (9-3) had Mike
Peplowski, Dwayne Stephens and An-
thony Miller.
This season, the two rivals enter the
Big Ten race in similar circumstances,
with just one legitimate post threat in
the lineup.
Webber and Riley are gone for the
Wolverines, while Michigan State is
now without the services of Peplowski
and Stephens. As aresult, both teams no
longer boast their strength inside, but
instead utilize smaller, quicker lineups.
"We're backtoa three-guard lineup,
and not with great enthusiasm," Michi-
gan State coach Jud Heathcote said.
"Afterexperimenting with about amil-
lion different combinations, we feel
this is our best lineum"
Senior shooting guard Shawn
Respert, a second-team all-Big Ten
selection last season, paces Michigan
State with 22.9 points per game. Six-
foot-7 sophomore Quinton Brooks and
the 6-9, 255-pound Miller each con-
tribute more than 14 points a contest.
"I've watched enough film on them
to know that Shawn Respert's as good
a guard as there is in the league," Fisher
said. "Anthony Miller's lost about 20
pounds and is playing like a veteran
senior."
Junior guard Eric Snow (6.5 assists
per game) and senior guard Kris
Weshinskey (7.8 ppg) round out the
Spartans' three-guard set.
Similarly, Michigan starts four pe-
rimeter players to complementits lone
big man, Juwan Howard.
With 6-2 guard Dugan Fife now in
the lineup instead of the 6-9 Webber,
Heathcote knows the Wolverines area
very different team from a year ago,
though not necessarily a less talented
one.
"If Ihadmy choice of Dugan Fife or
Chris Webber, I guess I'd choose Chris
Webber," he said. "It's a smaller team,
and they're not as physical inside, but
you still haveavery talentedfirstfive.
"They have an unbelievable ability
to score in a hurry, but then they have
these lapses where they don't score any
points. We hope they have about 40
minutes of lapses."
Heathcote hopes to exploit
Michigan's lackofdepth with his team's
new up-tempo style of play. The Spar-
tans rely on many substitutions, hoping-9
to wear down their opponents.
"We'll still do a lot of substituting
against Michigan," Heathcote said.
"They don't have the good experience
coming off the bench that they had last
year."
Still, the Wolverines have seen im-
proved bench play from their fourmain
contributors - Bobby Crawford,,;
Olivier Saint-Jean, Leon Derricks and
Jason Bossard. The foursome has com-
bined for 22,27 and 26 points in the last
three games.
Michigan enters the Big Ten sched-
ule seeking a title it never won with;
Webber. The preseason favorite Wol-
verines feel they're ready for confer-
ence play despite disappointing losses
to Duke and Arizona.
"Going into the Big Ten, it's like
everyone's 0-0," Jalen Rose said. "I
think we have the kind of team that's
capable of winning the Big Ten title...
We need to take advantage of our
strengths -our speed and our athletic
ability."
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