The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, February 7, 1994 - 5 Futility continues for women Losing streak hits 10 with loss to Fighting Illini By BOB ABRAMSON nied by Michigan's inability to fight lent defensive player," said Illinois DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER through screens, left Illinois' Mandy coach Kathy Lindsey, whose team Inconsistency has been the dis- Cunningham and Kris Dupps wide broke a four-game losing streak of its ease that has plagued the Michigan open all night. own. "I thought she did a good job on women's basketball team all season Dupps, a junior guard, and Kiefer. She rattled her a little bit. She long, and the symptoms arose once Cunningham, a senior guard, com- picked her a few times." again Friday night at Crisler Arena. bined for 47 of the 77 Illinois points. Kiefer added, "I was disappointed The Wolverines, (3-15 overall, 0- The duo scored the Illini's first 21 in the way I played. I don't think I 9 Big Ten), in a battle of the cellar points. handled the ball very well." dwellers of the conference, simply "In our scouting report and in the Michigan cut Illinois' lead to 39- coughed up another chance at their films that we watched, we knew these 33 with 16:52 remaining in the sec- first Big Ten victory of the season two kids were going to be the key," ond half, but a 13-0 Illinois run put the with a comatose 77-62 loss to Illinois Roberts said. "They didn't do any- Wolverines away for good. (7-11, 2-7). thing different in the game than we Silver Shellman led Michigan with In the process, Michigan extended told our kids. We just didn't box out. 15 points. Catherine DiGiacinto its losing streak to 10 games. We stood around and watched." poured in 12 points and Shimmy Gray "Yes, we need a win," Michigan The Jeckyl-and-Hyde guard tan- added 10. coach Trish Roberts said. "But right dem of Jennifer Keifer and Amy Anita Clinton tossed in 14 for the now, we've got to do the little things Johnson, who combined for 60 points Fighting Illini before fouling out. that count. If we concentrate on the in the last two games against Iowa "Inconsistency is something we've little things, then the wins will come." and Minnesota, simply vanished in got to work on. We never know who Amazingly enough, this game fea- the first half. Kiefer scored two points, is going to show up and play," Rob- tured a duel of sevens. Both schools while Johnson didn't even register a erts said. only had seven scholarship players point. "As a coach, you would like to on their rosters, but it was Michigan Trailing 33-24 at halftime, Johnson know who is going to come in and which had a distinct height advan- exploded for 14 points in the second give you 10-15 rebounds a game. You tage. stanza, but Tonya Booker's tough would like to know who is going to However, the Fighting Illini domi- perimeter defense held Kiefer score- give 10-15 points a game. It seems nated the boards, outrebounding their less for the rest of the game. that we have a different leading scorer counterparts 43-33. This, accompa- "I think Tanya Booker is an excel- every night." MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily Michigan and Illinois battle for a loose ball during the Wolverines' 77-62 loss to the Fighting Iltini Friday night. Time for 'M' to scrap excuses, produce results By SCOTT BURTON DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER * The time has come when the same old excuses just won't cut it anymore for the Michigan women's basketball team. The "they're freshmen and inexperienced" ex- cuse, which had some value at the beginning of the year, now rings painfully hollow at the halfway point of the Big Ten season. The "we only have seven play ers" excuse -" is pointless *fer losing to a simi- larly de- RESS pleted Illi- nois team. Coach Trish Roberts knows this. So do the Wolverines. Instead of excuses, they want results. Results not just measured in terms of wins and losses but simply tangible improvement on the court. "The thing that I am frustrated about is that they *ontinue to make the same mistakes over and over again," Roberts said. Hoping to enter the second half of the Big Ten season on a positive note, the bottom fell out Friday night against Illinois - the second-worst team in the Big Ten. All the things they hoped to put together for a win simply fell apart. Where does this leave the Wolverines? They have nine more games on the season, and it is not unreasonable to expect them to pick up a win the *econd time around the conference. "I have a positive attitude. I am not one to give up and everyone else on the team won't give up either," Michigan forward Catherine DiGiacinto said. "We're going to keep learning from our losses and take it with us to our next game." With Illinois representing the halfway point of the Wolverines' season, here is an evaluation of each position this year and where improvement needs to come from during the second-half of the season. The Post: Catherine DiGiacinto, Jennifer Brzezinski. Freshman DiGiacinto has started the majority of the Wolverines' games, but it is Brzezinski who has provided the most consistent play down low. She is a decent rebounder and shot-blocker who can execute effectively in the paint. DiGiacinto has been the more spectacular of the two, often demonstrating crisp pump-fakes and interior movement. But she also has been streaky, forcing her shots and missing too many chippies. For Michigan to be successful, they must have more consistent scoring in the post. As was pain- fully demonstrated against Illinois, if Michigan can't score inside, opposing defenses can cut off its deadly outside shooting. Defensively, the two players have to get tougher and improve on boxing-out to keep other teams honest on the offensive boards. The Forwards: Shimmy Gray, Silver Shellman. Gray is the most vocal Wolverine on the court and the captain often carries the Wolverines offen- sively. Although occasionally forcing her shot too far from the rim, she usually keeps within her range and zones in ten to fifteen feet from the bucket. Shellman often demonstrates a flair for the spectacular, nailing a three-pointer one minute, scoring on a slashing drive the next. Unfortunately, Michigan's leading scorer dis- appears for stretches, and too often her drives are left awkwardly unfinished. Gray's relative consistency has been a corner- stone to the team, and if some of that can rub off on Shellman, the Wolverines would have a standout tandem here. Again, the defense needs to get meaner - right now, if you set a pick on Michigan, you will have an open shot. The Guards: Amy Johnson, Jennifer Kiefer, Mekisha Ross. If you watch Johnson for five minutes, you might wonder why she doesn't score 20 points a game. She is agile, intense, confident in taking it to the hole and in possession of a smooth jump shot. Opposing coaches all point to her as the future superstar of the team. Then five minutes later you'll see her moping down the court, getting burned defensively by picks and throwing up prayers of shots offensively. Her inconsistency is perhaps the biggest enigma of the team, and in no uncertain terms, if Michigan wants to win, she has to maintain her presence on the court for 40 minutes. In a vast turnaround from significant struggles early this season, point guard Kiefer has become a legitimate force. She has learned how to break the press. She knows when to take her shot, leading the Big Ten in three-point shooting percentage. She moves the offense more efficiently and has become a leader on the court. Ross can often be a handy sparkplug off the bench, and her ball-handling skills have been valu- able in fending off the press. She can also impress with her hanging drives, if she has the confidence to take them. But because she plays no more than 15 minutes a game, she often comes in the game too tentative and soft. MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily Catherine DiGiacinto takes a shot during Michigan's 77-62 loss to Illinois Friday night at Crisler Arena. She had 12 points in the contest. 44S44B NOT4EB1 41 4OOK44 BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK 'Ilrnovers, lack of experience are problems in latest conference defeat By J.L. ROSTAM-ABADI DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER When push came to shove, Illinois did most of the shoving. Despite the fact that the Illini bench contained only three more bodies over the seven scholarship players Michigan has on its roster, the Wolverines couldn't keep up. "I knew it would be a tough game," Illinois coach Kathy Lindsey said. "We basically have *even scholarship players playing right now too, even though we have a few extras on the bench." " I thought it was going to come down to this kind of game, but I was hoping that our experi- ence would be in our favor and we'd be able to come up with a win." And experience did play a key role. When it came down to crunch time, Illinois kept its game together, whereas Michigan crumbled. "We need a little more leadership out on the Court," Michigan coach Trish Roberts said. "(Jennifer) Kiefer does a good job. To ask a freshman to come in and play 40 minutes a game is just tremendous. She's giving it all she has, but I think we need some more lead- ership from other kids; we've just got to have it." Illinois has two senior starters, point guard Tonya Booker and guard Mandy Cunningham. Booker paced the Fighting Illini for the entire 40 minutes, while Cunningham scored a team- high 24 points. Cunningham hit two out of three from be- hind the arc, moving her up on the Big Ten career scoring list. She needs 595 more points to surpass Jonell Polk (1983-87), Illinois career scoring leader, with 1,984 points. TERRIBLE TURNOVERS: When teams are evenly matched, as Illinois and Michigan were, the game can boil down to simple ball control and mental concentration. The fact that Michigan committed a few more turnovers than Illinois didn't help its losing situation. "I thought we needed to take care of the ball, and we held our turnovers down to 15," Lindsey said. "I think we did a much better job of controlling the tempo with our offense. Maybe experience should bring more patience to the offense." SHOOTING STORY: If one were to look solely at both teams' shooting percentages, a closer final score might have been predicted. Michigan out-shot the Fighting Illini, 49.1 per- cent to 47.0 percent. But Illinois was better from the free throws, with 13-for-16, compared to Michigan's seven- for-14. The Wolverines' hot shooting, espe- cially Amy Johnson's, did not go unnoticed by Illinois. "A few times we broke down on our commu- nication with Amy Johnson, particularly near the end of the game," Lindsey said. Johnson was second in scoring for the Wol- verines with 14 points, all of which came in the second half. GOALS? WHAT GOALS?: Both teams had made a set of goals they wished to achieve before the night was over. Illinois achieved its list -low turnovers, high boards, good perim- eter shooting - but the Wolverines didn't even come close. "We outlined for the kids before the game exactly what they need to do if we were to win the game," Michigan coach Trish Roberts said. "(Illinois) outrebounded us. Their perimeter play hurt us - they shot the ball extremely well. We did get (Anita) Clinton in foul trouble, which we wanted to do, but we didn't take advantage of that. They had a couple people come off the bench and do a pretty decent job, which we weren't expecting. "The bottom line is, we didn't do the little things that counted, for us to win this game." ILUNOIS (77) FO FT REB MIN h-A hi-A 0-T A F PTSi Kinger 31 2-2 0-0. 2-6 1 2 4' Dupps 31 10-14 3-4 2-7 2 2 23' Clinton 24 7-13 0.1 2-5 1 5 14 Cunningham 32 8-14 6.7 i-5 2 2 24, Booker 40 1-8 0-0 2-4 5 1 2 Henderson 21 1-6 0-0 3-8 3 3 2 Dill 21 2-9 4-4 3-511 8'i Totals 200 31-8 13.16 1743 1516 77 FQ%:.470. FT%: .813. Three-point goals: 2-4, .500 (Cunningham 2-3, Booker 0-1). Blocks: 0. Turnovers: 12 (Booker 3, Dupps 3, Klingler 2, Clinton, Cunningham, Dill, Henderson). Steals: 5 (Dupps 2, Klingler 2, Booker). Technical Fouls: none. MICHIGAN (62) FO FT REB MIN hWA N-A "T A F PTS Gray 30 5-8 0-1 0-7 2 2 10 Sheilman 33 6-12 0-0 3-4 3 3 15 DiGiacinto 30 4-12 3-4 1-5 -0 2 11 Johnson 29 6-11 2-4,1-3 2 2 14 Kiefer 40' 1-3 0-1 0.1 5 1 21 Brzezinski 20 2 2 2-4 2-8 1 2 6 Ross 18 2-5 0-0 1-3 0 3 4I Totals 200 26-53 7-14 9-33 1315 62 FG%: .491. FT%: .500. Three-point goals: 3-5, .600 (Sheliman 3-4, Johnson 0.1). Blocks: 1 (DiGiacinto). Turnovers: 14 (DiGiacinto 6, Shelman 3, Kiefer 2, Ross 2, Johnson). Steals: 7 (mrzezinski 2, Kiefer 2, Johnson, Ross, Shellman). Technical Fouls: none. Illinois .........33 44 - 77 Michigan. 24 38 - 62 At: Crisler Arena; A: 870 Women tankers cruise past Hoosiers . sR 3 . By RAVI GOPAL DAILY SPORTS WRITER In the final home swim meet of their careers last Friday, the seniors of the Michigan women's swimming #am turned the normally blue-green waters of Canham Natatorium bright red with a sizzling performance in a victory over Indiana. Cheered on by a large turnout of parents and friends, the Wolverines (6-0 Big Ten, 8-0 overall) dominated the meet, defeating the Hoosiers (0-6, time was a large motivational factor for them. "I was definitely motivated. It was real exciting," Deibler said. "You wanted to swim well in front of the home crowd, since it was your last meet at Canham," added Munson. Along with Deibler, Barnes and Munson, the rest of the Michigan women's swimming and diving class of 1994 includes tri-captains Tara Higgins and Cinnamon Woods, along with Judy Barto, Snip Francis, Kate performance to date. "My backs have been a lot faster this year," Humphrey said. "They're faster than they were at about the same time last year." Hooiveld, the Big Ten's reigning champion in the 100 and 200 breast- stroke, won the 100 breast and swam a leg on the victorious 200 medley relay team. 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