The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 20, 1996 - 11 Walton nips Cleaves for top hoops honor DETROIT (AP) - Winfred Walton says he's still havinga hardtime trying to deal with Detroit Pershing's ouster from the Michigan state high school basketball tournament Friday. But the Doughboys' star got a nice consolation prize Monday when he was named winner of the 1996 Hal Schram Mr. Basketball Award. Walton, a6-foot-8 forward, edged Flint orthern guard Mateen Cleaves by 13 points in the closest voting ever for the award, presented annually to Michigan's top senior high school basketball player. "I still haven't gotten over the game Friday," Walton said, "so I don't know if I enjoy this as much as I would if we were still in the tournament." Walton received579pointsto Cleaves' 566 in voting among 276 members of the WsketballCoachesAssociationofMichi- gan. Mike Chappell, whose Southfield Lathrup team upset Pershing, 67-65, in Friday's regional finals, was a distant third in the voting with 185 points while Todd Schroetenboer of Grand Rapids South Christian was fourth at 183. Newaygo's Mike Burde garnered 154 points to round out the top five. Walton averaged 28 points and 15 re- hounds a game for Pershing, which was ~beaten, nationally ranked and a pro- hibitive favorite to win the Class A state championshipbeforethelossto Southfield Lathrup. "That was my No. 1 prize, to win the state title," Walton said. "But this award, myteammates and coaches supportedme a lot for this, so I owe a lot to them." Walton is the second player from Peishingto wintheMr. Basketball Award the past three years. Former Doughboy illie Mitchell, who just completed his sophomore season at Michigan, was the 1994 winner. Walton and Cleaves were generally regarded all season as the favorites to become Mr. Basketball. Walton said he has narrowed his col- lege choices down to Michigan State, Syracuse, Kansas, California and Ala- bama-Birmingham and would soon be- in official visits to all five schools. "Me and my coach and family are going to sit down in about a week or so and talk it over," Walton said. "I was focused on the season more than about next year." Walton said he fell two points short of therequired 17 score on the ACT test and will retake the exam next month. Walton is the 16th winner of the Hal SchramMr. Basketball Award. Itisnamed ,r the late Hal Schram, who covered gh school sports at the Detroit Free Press for more than 40 years. 'M' netters look to dethrone - -0 reignmg" By Richard Shin Daily Sports Writer In the wild, the ordinary gopher is no match for the sharp claws and waiting jaws of the fearless wolver- ine. A duel between the furry creature of "Caddyshack" fame and the car- nivorous mammal usually turns into a quick meal for the latter. What could save the gopher from the clutches of the predator? Give him a tennis racket. In the past four years, the Minne- sota Golden Gophers have dominated men's tennis in conferenceplay, win- ning four consecutive championships, including a 4-2 victory over the top- seeded Wolverines in last season's final. That victory marked the second time in as many years that Minnesota beat Michigan for the title. The Wolverines, hoping to regain the Big Ten title they last won in 1988, take a swipe at the Gophers today at 1 p.m. in a dual match. At stake today is first place in the Big Ten standings in addition to a more personal milestone. Michigan coach Brian Eisner is looking for his 400th win as head coach of the Wolverines. For Eisner, reaching that milestone against a team Big TenC that has defeated his squad in the Big Ten finals the past two seasons would be sweet revenge. The Wolverines have won their only Big Ten match going into today, de- feating Penn State in early February. Overall, Michigan is 6-6 after going 1-2 in the Blue-Gray championships in Alabama. The Gophers are 2-1 in the Big Ten and a win today could propel them toward a fifth-straight title. Minne- sota is 4-9 on the season, but Eisner is cautious. "All of the (early) losses were to very good teams," Eisner said. "I know how good they are and the team knows how good they are." Even so, the timing of the match is excellent for Michigan. In the new Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Rolex Collegiate Rank- ing released yesterday, Michigan vaulted from No. 25 to a season-high No. 14. Individually, the Wolverines' No. I singles Peter Pusztai continued to climb, moving up a spot to No. 22, while the duo of Pusztai and John Costanzo jumped into the top 20 as the No. 17 doubles pair. The Wolver- ines seem to be clicking on all cylin- ders. Minnesota, however, dropped out bamps of the top 50 in the new rankings. "Minnesota poses an unbelievable challenge to us," Eisner said. "We have lost to them in the final of the championships the past two years' and last year, we had beaten them, decisively, 6-1, in a dual meet weeks before the tournament. "The fact that they dropped out of the top 50 really means little to us." The Gophers are led by No.38 Lars Hjarrand and No. 22 Ben Gabler at the first two singles slots. Both are 19-11 on the season and both match up well against Michigan's singles players on paper. "(Minnesota) is big, strong anda very aggressive and powerful team, Eisner said. "They usually play better indoors than outdoors." Last season, in the only meeting between the two teams during the regular season, Michigan broke the Gophers' Big Ten home winning streak at 40 games. That match put the Wolverines alone in first place and captured the top seed in the Big Ten tournament. which Minnesota eventually won. "It was a very competitive match and both teams went at it," Eisner said. "We expect as much (today)." Michigan is next in action March 30 at Northwestern. FILE PHOTO/Daily The Michigan's men's tennis team gets Into the swing of things today against Minnesota, the reigning Big Ten champion. Women's tennis bests Spartans, 6-1, in East Lansing By Jiten Ghelani Daily Sports Writer In yesterday afternoon's tennis match, Michigan coach Bitsy Ritt found herself opening up a mixed bag of treats. While putting her hand in for the first time, Ritt could only anticipate three doubles victories. Ritt, however, didn't know what she was getting herself into. She was able to pull out three distinct, but equally pleasing treats. Michigan beat Michigan State, 6-1, last night in East Lansing. Entering the match, the Wolverine doubles' tandems knew they had to im- prove upon their recent performances. Sarah Cyganiak and Sora Moon, play- ing No. I doubles, gave the coach what she was looking for. They took command right from the start and stormed by the Spartan duo of Laura Worzniak and Isabel Oelze, 8-0. The No. 2 doubles match wasn't quite as appealing to Ritt early on. Things got off to a sour start for Angie Popek and Tara Graff as the two seniors fell behind 3-1. They showed great expe- rience, breaking serve to cut the deficit to 3-2. After that, the veterans stayed even with the Spartans' Stacie Bowman and Sarah Hulewicz. Popek and Graff were up, 7-6, when Popek held serve to finish off the match. "I didn't feel pressure because I held serve in the (entire) match," Popek said. Ritt couldn't have been happier be- cause one of the most important goals before the match was to hold serve 100 percent of the time. As the third doubles game was un- wrapped, the most exciting part of the afternoon developed. Tumeka Harris and Sibyl Smith played a long match that concluded in a tiebreaker. To even up the match at 8-8, Harris and Smith faced a tough challenge. Angie Catron and Jamie Tannenbaum had put Michigan State ahead, 8-7, and were on their way to closing out the match. Harris and Smith weren't ready to crumble just yet. They saved three match points and broke Tannenbaum's serve, sending the match to the tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Michigan led, 6-3, before Ritt almost choked on her seem- ingly delightful treat. Michigan State won the next two points but the Wolverines survivedthe scare and won the tiebreaker, 7-5. Smith and Harris had worked on attacking aggressively and did so suc- cessfully enough to come out on top. They reduced their unforced errors as the match progressed and also seized oppor- tunities for winning shots.. "We played well today," Smith said. "We were a big improvement from.San Diego." Then Ritt reached into the bag once more, pulling out five similar items. In her palm were five convincing singles victories for the Wolverines. In No. 1 singles, Cyganiak cruised by Hulewicz 6-3, 6-2. Moon put on a clinic, defeating Oelze 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2. The third slot belonged to Harris in her 6-1, 6- 2 win over Worzniak. Ritt's last draw wasn't as appealing as the others. The No. 6 singles match didn't go exactly as Michigan had hoped. Smith lost 6-4,6-3 to Bowman, bringing a rotten taste to Ritt's mouth. Smith was some- what happy because she did play better than she had the past few weeks. She was up against a tougher opponent who usu- ally played higher in the lineup. Bowman was saddled with a back injury. Read Daily Sports. More interesting than homework. Less athletic than Sega. Quieter than Dick Vitale. Safer than smoking crack. MICHIGAN RECORDS " phone: 663.5800 1140 south university (above goodtime chadeys), AA m mon.-thurs.: 9:00a-10:OOp sundays I fri. & sat.: 9:00a-11:OOp 11:00a-8:OO ..".. 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