i ScN e ftjeSdim Jtwail MEN'S BASKETBALL (3) KENTUCKY 82, Western Carolina 55 (5) UTAH 85, Brigham Young 49 (9) New Mexico 75, S. METHODIST 72 Saint Louis 64, (11) LOUISVILLE 62 (12) CINCINNATI 65, (21) Tulane 64 (20) N. CAROLINA 90, Florida State 62 RICE 75, (22) Tulsa 58 PRO BASKETBALL DETROIT 96, Houston 87 CHARLOTTE 115, Sacramento 100 MIAMI 102, Milwaukee 90 Indiana 104, NEW JERSEY 100 NEW YORK 96. San Antonio 84 ORLANDO 119, Boston 111 MINNESOTA 103, Vancouver 86 PRO HOCKEY Vancouver 7, DETROIT 4 Hartford 5, BOSTON 3 PHILADELPHIA 9, Montreal 'S Friday February 7, 1997 10 I I I di d a d b led ,* f Effort not enough i game Michzgan should have won ' ADISON - When all was said and done last night, Mchiganstdidn't quite have enough. Despite the best efforts of every player on the floor, the Wolverines left UW Fieldhouse with a 58-53 loss. On paper, it was a game they should have won. Michigan was facing'a Wisconsin team that scored a mere 11 points in the first halftitis last outing, a 60-42 loss to lowly Ohio State ... a team that s ts two players averaging less than 11/2 points per game. Altiis against a Michigan squad on a three-game winning streak.a squad that was coming off of a blowout of its intrastate rival;asquad that had four players with double-digit scoring averages and a fifth knocking on the door. But that, as they say, is why the games are played. No one in the packed-to-the- crumbling-rafters crowd of 11,500 could have foreseen what went down last night. Just under seven minutes into the game, junior forward Maurice Taylor stepped up to the top of the key to guard NWILL Wisconsin forward Paul Grant. As McCAHILL Grant pivoted to face the basket, he hateha talk in'caught Taylor with an inadvertent, but koI'Wh ilkins? punishing, elbow. 'tils Taylor collapsed on the court, face down, and stayed that way for several minutes, until he rolled over to reveal a puddle of blood. As he was helped off the court, one couldn't help but think that Michigan's chance for a victory was leaving with him. The Wolverines were only down a point at the half, 23-22, despite being held to 33-percent shooting by the league's best defense. But as the second half wore on, Taylor's absence and the weight of Traylor's fouls pulled Michigan down. Travis Conlan, Bpandun Hughes and Louis Bullock were forced to play simul- taneously, and for longer than they've been used to. Forward Mace& Baston was asked to shoulder the burden of both the missing big men after coming off the bench the entire season. And, all gave valiant efforts. Conlan played 39 minutes, Hughes 30. And Bullock somehow tossed in 20 points, includ- ing a 3-pointer that cut the Badgers' lead to 56-53. with 10.5 ticks left on the clock. Baston added nine points and seven boards in 32 minutes of action. But it wasn't quite enough. With Taylor out, Wisconsin out- rebounded Michigan, 37-19, a simply astounding margin. And fatigue compounded by the noise forced the Wolverines into some bad mental errors - such as when Baston was called for offensive goaltending on a Hughes floater that would have cut the score to 53-50 with less than a minute left. - Last night's defeat was a tough loss for the Wolverines, and one that certainly eliminated them from the Big Ten title race. 9 showed them how much they need Taylor - a sobering tiought - but also showed them how tough they can be. - But it also showed them how much tougher they need to be, low much tougher they must be down the stretch. ' The Wolverines must now take a long, hard look at them- elves, andgauge the mental distance between the result their efforts brought last night and actually winning. And for their season to be a success, they need to figure out Low to get from here to there. - Will McCahill can be reached over e-mail at wmcc@umich.edu. Wolverines down and Taylor out Badgers bully Blue, ruin Big Ten title hopes By Alan Goldenbach Daily Sports Editor MADISON - It had the tough and grind-it-out play of a football game. And for the most part, it had the score of one as well. Wisconsin used its in-your-face defensive style to put a muz- zle on just about any kind of Michigan offense as the Badgers beat the Wolverines, 58-53, at UW Fieldhouse last night. Michigan (6-4 Big Ten, 16-6 overall) played all but s minutes of the game without forward Maurice Taylor, whoa the game after taking an elbow to the face from Wisconsin's Paul Grant. Wisconsin 58 Michigan 53 ers examined him. "I lost consciousness for about came over,' Taylor said. No foul was called on the play, and Taylor sus- tamed a broken nose and concussion. He laid on the ground for about five minutes while team train- a minute until the train# JOE WESTRATE/Daily Sean Daugherty (left) and David Burkemper bully Maceo Baston around in the paint. Baston was forced to shoulder the load inside after Maurice Taylor went out with a broken nose and Robert Traylor once again found himself in deep foul trouble. Taylor plans to have doctors reset his nose today in Ann Arbor and have a mask fitted in time for tomorrow's game against Penn State at Crisler Arena. "It's frustrating when you see one of your teammates down, because for one, there was no foul called, and two, because there's a teammate on the ground bleeding," Travis Conlan said. According to Michigan coach Steve Fisher, Taylor tried to give it a go in the second half, but the team's doctors told him not to. But perhaps more important than the temporary loss f Taylor is the more permanent departure of Michigan's Big title hopes. The loss puts Michigan at 6-4 in the conference, three games behind front-runner Minnesota, which has already beaten Michigan once this season. No team has won the Big Ten title with more than three losses. "You're always thinking about the Big Ten title in the back of your head," Conlan said. "It's hard not to think about it. "It's a big loss for us, but we were right in it until the end.' Despite missing its most dominant inside force, Michigan managed to stay in the game, never letting Wisconsin's l become too large. Wisconsin (5-5, 12-7), the Big Ten's top defensive squad, allowed the Wolverines 43 shots - their lowest output of the season - while outrebounding Michigan, 37-19. In fact, Wisconsin grabbed as many rebounds off the offen- sive glass as Michigan did on both ends. "I think we could say that we won because we played well defensively and rebounded extremely well," Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett said. "I think that was the story of the game." Michigan came out shooting the ball well and seemed unfazed by Wisconsin's aggressive defense. All three members of Michigan's starting frontcourt - Taylor, Jerod Ward a Robert Traylor- helped build an 8-6 lead. But then a 3-pointer from Hennssy Auriantal followed by a Grant jumper gave the Badgers an 11-8 advantage. Grant was left unguarded at the top of the key after his right elbow landed squarely on Taylor's nose. "I feel bad about the kid getting hurt," Bennett said. "Certainly, that makes a difference in this game.' The game remained close for the remainder of the half. Wisconsin held the lead for most of the first half but never by more than a three-point margin. Michigan's second death blow of the game came with 13W left when Traylor picked up his fourth foul, leaving Maceo Baston as the only legitimate inside presence. "When Robert got into foul trouble, we had to bring Jerod inside," Fisher said. Traylor was whistled for his third foul with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first half, forcing the Wolverines to go small. That hurt the Wolverines, especially when Wisconsin threw 6-foot-10 Sean Daugherty and 7-foot Grant at them for most of the game. The pair helped turn the rebounding margin into a brutal mismatch by game's end. Nonetheless, Louis Bullock, on the brink of breaking Rice's career 3-point mark, almost single-handedly kept Wolverines in the game in the second half, while Traylor and Taylor were on the bench. Bullock scored 15 of his game-high 20 points after the inter: mission. His four threes tie him with Rice at 135 3-pointers far: his career. Following a Brandun Hughes three with 7:50 to go that gave Michigan a 38-37 edge, Wisconsin stormed back with seven straight points to take a six-point lead with 5:40 left. But Bullock tried to keep his team in it. scoring seven points in the final five minutes. However, Michigan went cold when it could least afford it, going scoreless over an 80-second stretch in the game's final. two minutes. JOE WESTRATE/Daily Maurice Taylor's night ended here, after he blocked the elbow of Wisconsin forward Paul Grant - with his nose. Taylor missed the final 33 minutes of the game with a concussion and a broken nose. t ________ ___I,_U!U . * U!WS ~K ONE ME ME INN of- m MlM *UEEUU .... .