_J a s

4 When was the last time the Michi-
gan men's basketball team lost to
a Big East conference team?
(Answer, page 2)
'M' regresses
i meanngless
mi-year game
T he juggling rollerbladers who performed at
halftime of yesterday's Michigan-St. John's'
game jokingly called their act "boring and
pointless."
Unfortunately, so was the game they weree
performing at.
The Wolverines ran up and down the floor <;'
against the Red Storm and, despite a number of
dazzling dunks, great defensive
plays and numerous lead
changes, lost a boring game to a f
team that they should have ;
beaten.
St. John's entered the game
having lost six straight games ..
and the team's leader was a
freshman -- Felipe Lopez.
RYAN Michigan was coming off of
WHITE an enormous victory at Indiana
White on Target -- ending the Hoosiers 50-game
winning streak in Assembly Hall
- and playing its best basketball
of the season.
The Wolverines no longer looked like the team
that struggled to a 6-5 non-conference record. They
looked like a team that was ready to contend for the
Big Ten title.
Then Michigan came, upon a game with no y
bearing on the conference at all.
And the Wolverines regressed, playing more like
the team of November and December and less like
the team of just a week ago.
With the exception of a few spurts, Michigan
played with little emotion in a game that meant
nothing to the conference race.
"We took (the game) too lightly to a certain f ,
extent," freshman Maceo Baston said. "It wasn't a ,
See TARGET, Page 5 St. John's broke its six-game losing streak yesterday by

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Q&A
Hoc key
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Michigan Red-
Stormed, 82-77

By Antoine Pitts
Daily Basketball Writer
The emotion seen in last
Tuesday's victory at Indiana didn't
follow the Michigan basketball team
into yesterday's game with St.
John's.
The Wolverines (5-2 Big Ten,
11-8 overall) and St. John's (2-6
Big East, 9-7 overall) battled back
and forth, forcing 27 lead chances
and 12 ties, but the Red Storm pre-
vailed, 82-77.
St. John's out-rebounded Michi-
gan 43-34 and broke a six-game
losing streak.
"They were much more emo-
tional and on edge for 40 minutes
than we were," Michigan coach
Steve Fisher said. "We came and
went and that's everybody's fault,
including mine. I
"We didn't have the little extra
that you have to have at this level to
beat a good team," Fisher added.
"We failed to do a couple of things
probably because we were not as
eager as we needed to be. We didn't
defend with the type of passion that
you have to have."
James Scott, a replacement in
the starting lineup for Rowan
Barrett, led the Red Storm with 28
points and came up with a critical
steal late in the game..
"We've been searching for about
three weeks," St. John's coach Brian
Mahoney said. "Today for the first
time in many, many days our guys
stepped up and we got terrific con-

tributions from many people."
St. John's took the lead for good
on a free throw by Zendon Hamilton
with 1:23 left in the game. The fresh-
man finished with 13 points.
The Wolverines let chances to
retake the lead slip by. Michiga-
had possession of the ball with un-
der 30 seconds to go, trailing 76-75,
but turned the ball over before it
could even run a play.
With Fisher on the sideline mo-
tioning for a timeout, Dugan Fife
tried a bounce pass to Ray Jackson
near the sideline.
Scott intercepted the pass, forcing
the Wolverines to foul him. His two
foul shots put the Red Storm up, 78-
75.
"I just didn't see the guy com-
ing," Fife said. "I should have kept
the ball and called timeout. It's my
fault."
Michigan still had a chance to
tie, but Jimmy King's 3-pointer from
the corner with 12 seconds left was
off the mark.
Scott finished off the scoring
with four-straight free throws. St
John's scored its last nine points of
the game from the line.
Michigan's only field goal in the
last three-and-a-half minutes was a
Ray Jackson layup with six seconds
left.
Scott helped the Red Storm to a
seven-point halftime lead scoring
17 points on 8-for-9 shooting in the
See RED STORM, Page 5

DOUGLAS KANTER/Daily
beating Michigan at Crisler Arena.

Icers work overtime at home
Michigan moves into first after win streak snapped

By Barry Sollenberger
Daily Hockey Writer
The No. I Michigan hockey team
figured to flatten Western Michigan
and Illinois-Chicago this weekend
at Yost Ice Arena.
After all, the seventh-place
Flames (7-9-2,10-13-3) and eighth-
place Broncos (6-10-2 CCHA, 14-
12-3 overall) aren't usually con-
fused with good hockey teams.
Additionally, motivation didn't
figure to be a problem for Michi-
gan.
With two wins, the Wolverines
would wrest first place in the con-
ference from Bowling Green.
Yet, in actuality, Michigan (14-
2-1, 19-4-1) resembled anything but
steamrollers in struggling to top
Illinois-Chicago, 5-4 in overtime,
Saturday afternoon after tying West-
ern Michigan, 2-2, the previous

night.
For now, the Wolverines must
be content to share first-place in the
CCHA with the No. 5 Falcons (14-
4-1, 17-7-1).
"We lost our total focus on how
to play hockey," Michigan coach
Red Berenson said. "We have to
become a better team than the one
we showed this weekend.
"We were so vulnerable it was
scary."
The Wolverines were indeed
lucky to snuff the Flames Saturday.
After Warren Luhning gave
Michigan a 4-2 lead with his 11th
goal of the season 22 seconds into
the final period, Illinois-Chicago
rallied.
Rob Hutson cut the deficit to one
at the 5:58 mark on a four-on-four
and Kevin O'Keefe's goal with just
under four minutes remaining in

regulation sent the game into over-
time.
Mike Knuble saved the Wolver-
ines from an embarrassing loss with
a shot that found the back of the net
2:12 into the extra stanza. It was his
20th goal and fourth game winning
score of the season.
"(Blake Sloan) got the puck on
the right and kind of saucered it into
the center," Knuble said. "I think v
their defenseman ... actually
knocked it right to me and I just shot
it and it went in."
Friday, the Broncos' Jeremy
Brown tallied his 19th goal of the
year with just 25 seconds remaining
in regulation to tie the game, 2-2.
The goal sent the game into over-
time and those fans who were head-
ing for the exits, scurrying back to.
their seats.
See ICERS, Page 4~

DOUGLAS KANTER/Daily

Top-ranked Michigan needed overtime to defeat seventh-place Illinois-Chicago last Saturday, 5-4.

'Women cagers drop
two over weekend

A Giant Awakes
Jackson emerges from shadows to lead Michigan

By Ravi Gopal
Daily Basketball Writer
Heartbreaking.
That's the only word to describe
the Michigan women's basketball
team's experience this past weekend.
Indiana's Quacy Barnes, a 6-5
freshman, hit a two-foot shot off an
inbounds play with 0.5 seconds to go
to lift the Hoosiers (4-5 Big Ten, 14-
5 overall) over the Wolverines, 78-
77, last night at Crisler Arena.
Coming on the heels of a 76-58
massacre at Minnesota (5-3, 10-8),
Michigan (2-7 ,7-12) is left picking
up the pieces of a weekend gone awry.
"We just have to regroup and keep
going," Wolverine coach Trish Rob-
erts said in light of her team's five-
game losing streak.

Willard said. "There's really no rea-
son to miss free throws."
Michigan found more than one
way to do it, however, as they made
just 10 of 17 shots from the line in the
second half.
Despite their horrid stats at the
charity stripe, the Wolverines were
able to stay in the game in the second
stanza, largely due to Willard. She
was able to gain position inside and
her teammates kept getting her the
ball on the right-side low-post. As a
result, she was able to either convert
on the shot, draw a foul, or both.
Sixteen of Willard's points came af-
ter halftime.
But Willard was not the only cog
in the Michigan machine. Fellow
freshman Akisha Franklin scored 11

By Scott Burton
Daily Basketball Writer'
Ray Jackson swaggers
down the runway into
Crisler Arena, carrying a
pair of black Nikes in his arms.
He's got ten minutes to get ready
for an early Saturday afternoon
practice, and yet, as he laces up his
shoes, he looks like he'd rather be
back in bed sleeping.
Across the court, walk-on Neil
Morton practices his three-point shot.
He started shooting at Crisler 40
minutes before Jackson arrived.
Freshmen Maurice Taylor works with
assistant coach Jay Smith at the south
basket. Guards Dugan Fife and Travis
Conlan nonchalantly toss up a few
shots at the north end.

gotten used to the routine.
A different Ray Jackson shows
up the next day, and the Red Storm
probably wished he had stayed in
bed. The senior forward hustles up
and down the court and suffocates
the man he's defending like a
malnourished boa constrictor.
Although Michigan loses to St.
John's, 82-77, Jackson is the catalyst
behind the Wolverines' effort. He
scores 27 points, and grabs six
rebounds in 39 minutes of play.
Where did the energy come
from? What turned such a sleepy
man into an intense warrior?
"It's my love for the game,"
Jackson says. "It's been so good for
me, it's naid my wav thronuh college.

'

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