BASKETBALL The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - February 17, 1997 - 58 Wolverines peer into past in 84-81 loss to Hoosiers By Danioel Rumore Daily Sports Editor Ahe Michigan men's basketball team walked to the lockerroom after the half- time buzzer sounded yesterday and walked into its past. Michigan dropped an 84-81 decision to Indiana yesterday at Crisler Arena that couldn't help but spark memories of its 72-70 loss at Indiana on Jan. 21. Despite Michigan's first half domina- tion and a near-career day from forward Maceo Baston, the Wolverines fell to I ana in a few of the same ways they to the Hoosiers in Bloomington. A hot-handed freshman guard, A.J. Guyton, caught fire in the second half - again - while a hot-handed sopho- more named Louis Bullock lost a little fire in the second -- again. While at the same time, Baston's steady, solid game was overshadowed by the same out- come. "We're mad, we're very angry," junior ard Maurice Taylor said. "We got to .Out who in this lockerroom really wants to win. There's no explanation for the way we played today" The first and second halves were like night and day for the Wolverines. They held. an 18-point lead at halftime, 43-25, playing arguably their best half this sea- son., The Wolverines outplayed the Hoosiers, especially at the charity stripe -- possibly the difference in the first '. The Wolverines sank 12 of 13 foul shots compared to Indiana's one of three. Three trips to the foul line is usually indicative of a lack of aggressiveness, especially in the post. The Hoosiers' starting three big men - Jason Collier, Charlie Miller and Richard Mandeville -- scored a combined six points in the first half. Indiana's 11 turnovers, and Michigan's 15-0 run halfway through the first, added to the Hoosiers' offensive problems. "We didn't talk about trying to win the second half," Indiana coach Bobby Knight said. "We just talked about trying to run a little bit different approach on offense and do some things differently." The momentum turned in the second half, when the Wolverines took a trip into the past. In the Jan. 21 loss at Indiana, Guyton scored all 15 of his total points in the second half. Yesterday, he scored all but five of his 31 total points in the second stanza. "I guess they tightened up on me in the first half, and figured I can't do noth- ing in the second half, and they let me go," Guyton said. Guyton hit 11 of 20 shots from the field, including seven of 12 from 3-point range. The Hoosiers set screens for Guyton, setting up key threes, especially down the stretch. The Wolverines were up 60-50 with 10:02 remaining in the game when Guyton buried a triple, cutting the Michigan lead to seven. On the Hoosiers' next trip down the floor, with Bullock guarding him, Guyton controlled the ball near the top of the key. The 7-foot Collier stepped out near the top of the key, and the 6-2 Bullock ran into him. The screen left Guyton open for another triple, cutting the lead to 60-56. After Taylor gave the Wolverines a 75- 69 lead with 1:12 remaining, Guyton burned defender Travis Conlan, launch- ing a three from the right side with 50.6 seconds remaining. With a three-point lead, Bullock con- trolled the ball near midcourt, letting the shot clock wind down. He drove to the left side and popped an off-balanced jumper that clanked off the rim. At Indiana, Bullock tried two consecutive 3-pointers - in that case, for the win - that also glanced off the rim. In that game, Bullock finished with 10 points. Yesterday, he finished with 15. After Bullock's miss with 19.8 sec- onds remaining, Guyton faked out Conlan, took a step, and let the game- tying triple fly - the one that sent the game into overtime. "The thing that pleased me most about the whole game was the last bas- ket that put us into overtime that Guyton hit;' Knight said. "He makes a shot-fake, he gets the defender up in the air, he comes under, gets squared away, and hits a hell of a shot." The Wolverines shot just 1-of-7 in overtime compared to the Hoosiers' 3- of-7. Baston buried four consecutive free throws before fouling out, helping Michigan stay close in the overtime peri- od. He finished with 24 points - two short of his career high - and eight boards. A pick set up for Guyton to shoot the game-clincher. He buried a jumper from the free-throw line off a Neil Reed feed. "We fought hard but they just did a great job of executing, and they got a couple of guys hot," Bullock said. "One thing about their offense is when they get one guy hot, they do a great job of getting him more and more looks." Thouhstope here by Andre patterson, Michigan forward Maceo Baston went to town on Indiana, yester- day. He scored 24 points - two off his career shooting fron the flhoor and 1Oo4 accuracy from s~r the free-throw line an pulled down eight k rebounds. ^ Unfortunately for. Michigan, Bastor . } was the ::r"^ {.S f yWolverines' best hope down the ~....~. ,~stretch, and he fouled out with 1:22 remaining in -- 05 NB" overtime. SARA STILLMAN/Daily Spectacular first half prelude to horrendous second for Blue By John Leroi Daily Sports Editor If you thought Michigan looked really good in the first half, you were right. If you wondered what happened to the Wolverines in the second half, you're not alone. If a team could put together two halves that were polar opposites in the same game, Michigan did so yester- day. The Wolverines were brilliant in the first, especially on the defensive end. They held Indiana to 34 percent shoot- ing from the floor. No Hoosier had more than five points. Heck, the whole team had just 25. And despite hitting only 40 percent of its shots, Michigan got to the line 13 times, capitalizing on 12 of them. The Wolverines had five first-half steals and forced I1 Indiana turnovers. The second half was not so good. The Hoosiers shot an unbelievable 64 percent from the floor. A.J. Guyton lit Michigan up for 24 second-half points, including six 3-pointers. Indiana scored 59 points after the intermission. ,"As phenomenal as we were in the first half, they were in the second," Fisher said. "We just played really, really poorly." It didn't help that Michigan shot just 14 percent in overtime either. THE SEEDING GAME: Today is 'February 17. It says so at the top of the page. That, in and of itself, is not so excit- ing, but when you count the days from now until the NCAA announces the pairings for the 64-team tournament, you'll get 20 days. The Wolverinesghave .six games before then: three tough road games (at Iowa, Purdue and Illinois) and one not-so-tough one (at Ohio State). One GOLDEN BACH Continued from Page 11B leticism and it's not working now that the meat of their schedule is upon them. It worked in the early going of the season when Michigan squeaked by teams like Cleveland State and Bradley. Michigan got even luckier in December when it beat Duke. But as far as what has transpired dur- ing its Big Ten slate, forget about any kind of heart. Those close games? Just look at yes- terday's catastrophe, where Michigan fumbled away a 20-point second-half lead. Want more? Look back a few weeks to when these same two teams of Michigan's home games is against No. 3 Minnesota (the other is against Northwestern). It doesn't exactly take an engineer- ing professor to see that the Wolverines' tournament seed is up in the air. ESPN projected Michigan as a three-seed in the Southeast bracket as early as last week in a projected brack- et on its Internet site. If Michigan wins its final six con- tests and ends up 23-7, a three-seed is likely. But, if Michigan drops two or three more games - a distinct possi- bility - it could receive anywhere between a five and a seven seed. If the Wolverines end up losing the three road games to Iowa, Purdue and Illinois and lose at home to the Golden Gophers, they're looking at a seed considerably worse. A SMALL PRICE TO PAY: The Athletic Department's budget was set back a couple hundred bucks this week after the custom mask Maurice Taylor wears to protect his broken nose was cracked this week in practice. Fisher said it cost between $400 and $500 to get a new one made, but the expense must have been worth it: Taylor scored 14 points in both games he's worn the mask. ON THE REBOUND: To say the Wolverines have had trouble rebound- ing lately would be like saying beta- max VCRs were a minor disappoint- ment. Despite one of the meatiest and most talented frontcourts in the nation, Michigan has been outre- bounded more often than not this sea- son, many times by smaller oppo- nents. Even though the Wolverines Michigan went into Minnesota and pretty much conceded victory to the Gophers. Never did the game get out of hand, but the result was never in doubt. Minnesota played Michigan like a yo- yo in that game, letting the Wolverines get close, but never close enough to think they could beat the Big Ten's frontrunner. And lastly, let's look at those games where you know you're going to win, but you just need to show up for 40 minutes and simply remember how to dribble. When Michigan lost its Big Ten sea- son-opener at home to Ohio State, the most significant dribbling was a result of Michigan choking on its Gatorade. The heck with covering the spread. grabbed four more rebounds than' Indiana in the first half of yesterday's game, the Hoosiers ended with just as; many boards as Michigan: 41. That marks the fifth-straight gam£ Michigan hasn't won the war on the glass and the seventh time in its last eight games. LOFTY COMPARISONS: No one would dispute that Guyton played anr enormous factor in the yesterday's Indiana win. It would be hard to find anyone who would say Guyton's 3 pointer with 2.1 seconds left in regu- lation that tied the game at 75 wasn't a huge play. But Indiana coach Bob Knight laid: it one pretty thick when answering reporter's questions about his fresh-; man phenom's clutch shot in the post- game press conference: "That's as good a play as I've ever; had a kid make under that kind of pressure," Knight said. "Well, maybe Keith Smart's shot in the '87 national championship game was a little more important." Smart hit a running jumper with five seconds left in the 1987 NCAA title game against Syracuse that won Knight his third national championship. Big Ten Standings Team Conf. Overall Minnesota 11-1 22-2 Illinois 8-5 18-7 Purdue 8-5 1310 Wisconsin 8-5 15.7 Iowa 7-5 16.8 Michigan 7- -7.7 Indiana T20-7 Michigan State 5-7 1.2-9 Ohio State 5-7 10-1.1 Penn State 2-11 913 Northwestern 1-12 6-18, MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily Indiana's Jason Collier and A.J. Guyton force Brandun Hughes into a spot he doesn't want to be In - a place the Wolverines found themselves a lot during the second half yesterday. Hughes scored just four points and had just one assist in 23 minutes. H00SIERS Continued from Page 1.6 What's really devastating is that as poorly as the Wolverines (7-5 Big Ten, 17-6 overall) played in the second half, they beat the hell out of Indiana (7-6, 19-8) in the first. Michigan led by 18 at the break, thanks mostly to superb defense and excellent free-throw shooting. .Michigan shot just 40 percent in the st half but went to the line 13 times and made all but one of them, while sending the Hoosiers to the stripe just three times. The Wolverines held Indiana to 34-percent shooting and forced 11 first-half turnovers. The Hniers haid no luck getting Robert Traylor's dunk 1 1/2 minutes into the second half gave the Wolverines a 20-point lead in what looked to be a Michigan blowout. But the Hoosiers reeled of a 15-3 run over the next three minutes, capped by two 3-pointers from Guyton. Michigan's lead was still 10 follow- ing a Baston dunk with 10 minutes left. But Guyton hit two more threes on Indiana's next two possessions. Patterson's two free throws with 8:19 left drew the Hoosiers to within two. But the Wolverines never let Indiana have a chance to take the lead, getting baskets or points from the line after every Indiana basket, until Guyton went to work in the final minute. "Guyton was obviously sensational P h C F t t F E 1 INDIANA (84) FO FT REB MIN A M-A T A F PTS Miller 41 2-7 0-0 2-4 3 5 4 Mandeville 10 1-2 0-0 0-2 1 5 2 Collier 40 7-12 3-3 1-9 0 3 17 Reed 35 5-9 0-1 0-3 5 1 11 Guyton 43 11-20 2-2 0-1 5 1 31 Mujezinovic 9 2-3 0-0 2-2 0 2 4 Lewis 16 0-2 1-2 0-2 1 1 1 Patterson 26 4-11 6-7 4-8 2 4 14 Eggers 5 0-1 0-1 2-3 0 0 0 Totals 225 32.6712-1615411722 84 FG:.478. FT%:.750. 3-point FG: 8-21, .381 (Guyton 7-12, Reed 1-3, Collier 0-1, Lewis 0-1, Patterson 0-1, Miller 0-3). Blocks: 3 (Collier 3). Steals: 2 (Guyton, Reed). Turnovers: 20 (Guyton 4, Reed 4, Mujezinovic 3, Collier 2, Lewis 2, Miller 2, Patterson 2, Eggers) Technical Fouls: none. MICHIGAN (81) FO FT REB those 64 teams; 13. still playing on March Yesterday's loss is the crowning achievement of Michigan's season. It encapsulates all that is wrong with this team. There is absolutely no reason that the Wolverines should have let that lead get away from them - especially after watching Maceo Baston's emphatic slam and Bullock's 16-foot jumper in the final 10 seconds of the first half. Bullock ran off the court raising the roof and the Crisler crowd was rocking: Michigan must have gone into the lockerroom and given itself a gut check. And then promptly left those guts in the lockerroom.