6 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday, February 13, 1995
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BASKEiBALL NOTEBOOK
Crisler crowd gives
Wolverines a lift
r-
WOMEN
continued from page 1
worried that Michigan would come
back.
"It's their job to catch up," she
said. "I never look over my shoul-
der."
Longworth, who tallied 21 points
Friday night, 12 over her average,
said the entire Penn State squad
stepped up in the absence of Potthoff.
"We knew we had 18 points and
10 rebounds to make up for,"
Longworth said. "We all did our
share."
The Michigan players were dis-
appointed by the final score, but
pleased with their performance.
"We gave the No. 12 team in the
country a good game," Johnson said.
Coach Roberts said her team could
have emerged with a victory if they
had not fallen behind early.
"We hung tough," she said. "We
handled full-court pressure well, we
crashed the boards, and we outhustled
them. We played intense. Compared
to our last game (with Penn State), this
was a moral victory."
The Wolverines have four confer-
ence games remaining before the Big
Ten Tournament March 3-6.
"If we play as tough as we played
tonight, we can win our next four
games," Roberts said.
By David Rothbart
Daily Basketball Writer
The Michigan women's basket-
ball team, depleted by injuries and
discouraged by close losses, can use
any help it can get. Friday night against
Penn State, that help came from the
Crisler Arena crbwd of 1,526.
As the Wolverines battled evenly
with the No. 12 Lady Lions, the crowd
went crazy, cheering after steals and
baskets, lambasting the referees for
bad calls. Coach Trish Roberts said
the fans give her team a boost.
"(A loud crowd) makes a big dif-
ference," Roberts said. "When we get
1300, instead of the 300 we've had
past seasons, it spurs (the team) on."
One of the loudest fans was John
Devlin, a Ph.D. philosophy student
from Toronto.
"It's important to support the
women's program," Devlin said."The
tenacity, courage and determination
here is more than you'll find on any
other varsity squad."
Devlin brings his two daughters to
the Michigan women's games. He
feels it is important for them to know
that playing sports is a real option for
women at the university level. He
said although the Wolverines have
had a tough season, they'll surprise
some teams next year.
"We'll have ten conference wins
next season," Devlin said. "The year
after that, watch out."
The Molly Murray Fan Club, a
group of ten young girls, sat behind
Michigan's bench and cheered on the
Wolverines. The girls are members of
a local team called the Granny Fugi-
tives. When they are not on the court
themselves, they are at Crisler, urg-
ing on their favorite player.
"Molly Murray is total lightning,"
Donna Taylor-Ross said. Taylor-
Ross, 10, said that Murray is her fa-
vorite player because she plays so
unselfishly.
Rebecca Zazove, 10, said Murray
is going to be famous.
"She's going to the Olympics,"
Zazove said. "She's awesome. She's
fantastic."
Also in attendance Friday night
was race car driver Eric Firavich.
Firavich said he loves the Wolver-
ines' fast-paced tempo.
"It's not as fast as automobile rac-
ing, but it's still good entertainment,"
he said.
MANUTE: The Lady Lions inserted
6-foot-6 backup center Julie Jarosz
with five minutes remaining in Friday
night's contest. Jarosz bullied her way
inside for six points and one rebound.
"I just tried to bump her out of
there," Michigan center Jennifer
Brzezinski said. "I tried to keep posi-
tion and distract her shot."
WHERE'S MARITZA?: Absent from
the Wolverines' bench Friday night
was little-used sub Maritza DuBois.
"She's no longer with the team,"
Roberts said.
DuBois, a native of Brinklow, Md.,
finished her unstoried career at Michi-
gan with two rebounds and zero points
on 0-for-3 shooting in five games.
MEKISHA's BACK: This weekend,
guard Mekisha Ross will return to
action for the Wolverines. Ross, who
has missed almost a month with a
minor stress fracture in her right shin,
will give starting point guard Akisha
Franklin some much-needed rest.
Ross' injury, in addition to a season-
ending ligament tear suffered by Jen-
nifer Kiefer, has forced Franklin to
log close to 40 minutes every game.
Michigan is still without the ser-
vices of center Pollyanna Johns.
Johns will not return this season, since
she tore her anterior cruciate liga-
ment early on in the season.
PENN STATE
Parsons
Nicholson
Coleman
Reimers
Thayer
Longworth
Masley
Hrivnak
Calhoun
Jarosz
Totals
MIN
21
27
25
12
1
34
30
13
32
5
200
(82)
FG
M7-A
4-7
7-8
1-5
2-4
0-0
8-14
4-12
12
5-8
12
33-62
Fr
M-A
0-1
0-0
3-4
0-2
0-0
2-2
0-1
0.0
2-3
4-4
11-17
REB
O-T
12
11
2-5
0-0
0-1
1-5
3-6
2-6
1-8
0-1
11-40
A F
0 0
10 2
0 3
0 2
1 1
2 2
0 4
2 2
0 4
0 0
1520
MICHIGAN (65)
PTS
9
15
S
4
0
21
8
2
12
6
82
Murray
Franklin
Johnson
Brzezinski
Shelman
Willard
DiGiacinto
Totals
FG%: 364
MIN
18
40
31
40
33
22
16
FG FT
W-A W-A
5-10 6-7
6-13 0-0
5-17 11
5-8 0-2
1-8 3-4
1-4 22
1-6 0-1
REB
4T
1-5
0-1
2-3
4-10
2-6
12
0-2
A
2
3
0
2
4
2
1
F
2
2
1
2
3
5
5
PTS
18
13
12
11
5
4
2
200 24-66 12-17 16-36 1420 65
FT%: 706 Three-point goals: 5-19,
FG%: .532. FT%: 647 Three-point goals: 5-8,
.625(Longworth 3-6, Parsons 11, Nicholson 1-1).
Blocks: 7(Calhoun 5, Hrinvak, Masley). Turnovers:
20(Calhoun 4, Coleman 4, Longworth 4. Masley 4,
Nicholson 3, Hrivnak). Steals: 7(Nicholson 3,
Longworth, Masley, Parsons, Reimers). Technical
Fouls: none
.263(Murray 2-5, Franklin 1-6, Johnson 1-4,
Brzezinski 1-3, Willard 0-1) Blocks: 1(Murray).
Turnovers: 20(Franklin 6, Brzezinski 5, Johnson 3,
Willard 3, Shellman 2, Murray) Steals: 10(Franklin
5, Shellman 2, Brzezinski, Johnson, Willard).
Technical Fouls: none
JUDITH PERKINS/ Daily
Michigan's Amy Johnson went 5-of-17 from the field Friday night, tallying
12 points. Her teammates didn't shoot much better, hitting on just 36.4%
of their shots en route to a 17-point loss to Penn State.
Penn State...........41 41- 82
Michigan ............30 35 - 65
At: Crisler Arena A. 1,526
Women 's season could have been so much more
Court
ress
Up next for the Wolverines:
Northwestern, Fri. 8:00 EST Michigan State, Sun. 1:00
LSA STUDENT GOVERNMENT INVITES YOU TO A
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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13,1995
7:00 PM MICHIGAN UNION
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4003 MICHIGAN UNION
763-4799
ATUDRT CARVEDPEENTT
ARTCARVED PRESENTS
By Ravi Gopal
Daiy Basketbal witer
Last Friday's 82-65 loss to Penn
State was yet another loss in the Wol-
verines' dreary season. Michigan fell
to 8-14 overall, 3-9 in the conference.
Does it even matter'?
Aside from the fact that Penn State
entered the game ranked No. 13 in the
nation, Michigan was given little
chance for success.
What hurt the Wolverines most
was the fact that the Lady Lions had
10 players see action; Michigan,
seven.
How many players were on the
Wolverines' bench, either injured,
redshirted, or not ready for action?
Six.
Those six bodies represent the dif-
ference between languishing in the
cellar of the conference, and possibly
being a title contender.
The number used to be seven, un-
til the Wolverines lost freshman for-
ward Maritza DuBois over the course
of last week. DuBois' departure from
the team wasn't surprising, consider-
ing her most impressive stats were
minutes (3.3) and turnovers (.71)per
game.
DuBois aside, a look at Michigan's
"Harangued Half-Dozen" shows just
how far the Wolverines could have
gone this year.
Guard:
Redshirt sophomore Jennifer
Kiefer would have been the Wolver-
ines' starting point guard. Unfortu-
nately, she tore her anterior cnciate
ligament (ACL) during the summer,
forcing her to sit out the '94-'95 cam-
paign. She dished out 133 assists last
season while averaging 7.4 points and
1.26 steals pergame. Her fill-in, fresh-
man Akisha Franklin, has developed
rapidly as the season has progressed.
But who leads Michigan in assists
this season? Silver Shellman, who
has 75.
What position does Shellman
play?.
Small forward.
At the off-guard, freshman
Semelda Elverton would have been
an able back-up to Amy Johnson and
Molly Murray. But Elverton was
redshirted before the Wolverines'
conference season started. Michigan
coach Trish Roberts said she wanted
to give Elverton more time to de-
velop as a player.
Johnson is probably wishing that
the time flies by, as her nightmarish
season draws to a conclusion. Mired
in a season-long slump, she is aver-
aging nearly four full points lower
per game than her freshman cam-
paign (11.9 vs. 15.6) and, at times,
has been benched in favorof Murray.
This occurred Friday, as Murray
played most of the stretch run in the
second half. Although she was in-
serted for defensive purposes, Murray
also produced offensively-18min-
utes, 18 points.
But how has she performed the
past few games? Before Friday's
matchup, she shot 8-for-34 in her
past four outings. Broken up into two
categories, good and bad, Murray
has gone 4-for-8 and 4-for-26.
Don't mention Murray and con-
sistency in the same sentence.
Sophomore Mekisha Ross has
also been out of action, due to a stress
fracture. However, Ross is projected
to see action this weekend, when the
Wolverines take on Michigan State
and Northwestern.
Forward:
This is the Wolverines' main
strength.
Actually, it's their only strength.
Junior Jennifer Brzezinski leads
the team in most every category. Her
linemate has been either freshman
Tiffany Willard or sophomore
Catherine DiGiacinto. Both have per-
formed up to par, although
DiGiacinto's rebounding (a measly
4.7) could be improved upon.
At small forward, Shauna Sikorski
is beginning to see minutes -she had
a season high of 18 against Indiana
two weeks ago - but has remained a
rarely-used substitute this season.
The Wolverines could use 6-0
Tennille Caruthers in the lineup.
Named last year's USA Today top
player in the state of Michigan, the
freshman power forward from De-
troit was redshirted this season, with
reasons similar to Elverton's. With
Caruthers in the game, Michigan
would have another strong force
down low, to take the load off
Brzezinski.
In addition, there are other players
on the team who can play either the
forward position, making the Wol-
verines deep at the position.
Center:
Freshman Pollyanna Johns would
have been a key reserve off the bench.
She tore her ACL and was lost after
December 20. Johns was the only
player the Wolverines had who could
intimidate players by her mere pres-
ence under the basket. Standing 6-
foot-3, she is the tallest player on
Michigan's roster.
Due to her height, she could get
high-percentage shots, and made quite
a few of them, shooting 55.6% from
the field. More importantly, in just
13.8 minutes a game, Johns averaged
6.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks.
Can you say Mutombo?
If she were healthy and put up
stats similar to her pre-injury num-
bers, Johns would rank second in
the team in rebounds and fifth in
blocked shots. As if you needed
anything more, she also tallied five
points a game.
Seeing all this, one might be
tempted to say, oh, the Wolverines
would have been great, or, wow,
Michigan could be so much better.
With all these players healthy and
ready to play, the Wolverines would
be able to compete for the conference
crown. A couple of losses this season
could have easily been wins.
But does it really matter?
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