The Michigan Daily - Monday, January 25, 1999 - 78
Boston College hands reeling
UConn third defeat of season
H uskies without services of four key players in loss to Eagles
BOSTON (AP) -- Boston
llege's 78-66 upset win over sud-
ely vulnerable Connecticut left the
coach of the second-ranked Huskies
facing a rare dilemma Saturday-
how to cope with failure.
"Maybe this brings everybody
back to reality a little bit," said Geno
Auriemma, whose last four UConn
teams had a total of just eight losses.
"I don't have a real good read on this
team."
Connecticut (9-1 Big East, 16-3
, rall) has split its last six games,
t the other two losses were to No.
2 Tennessee and No. 5 Louisiana
Tech.
Boston College (7-3, 15-3) was
ranked 21st before dropping out of
the poll after two losses last week.
"I said to the kids when they broke
into the top 25, 'Don't be content.
We've got to continue to move for-
ward,"' said Boston College coach
*hy Inglese.
The Eagles won despite the
absence of their third leading scorer,
Cal Bouchard, who suffered a knee
injury.
UConn was missing four of its top
nine scorers after two were hurt
Wednesday against Miami.
"Every year everybody's been
talking about how great our bench
has been," said Connecticut's Stacy
Hnsmeyer. "Then you come out and
perform like this. It's very disap-
pointing."
BC's Alissa Murphy led all scorers
with a career-high 32. During
pregame warmups, she talked with
Bouchard and said she felt pretty
good.
"I think I missed one shot,"
Murphy said. "I told her I think it's
going to be a good day."
It was very good as the biggest
crowd in Massachusetts women's
basketball history, 8,606 fans,
watched the Eagles take the lead for
good less than five minutes into the
game.
Boston College stayed in front by
at least nine points after a 46-28
halftime lead.
"When we're great, we're great,
and when we're not, we look pitiful,"
said Tamika Williams, who led the
Huskies with 20 points. "They lost
16 straight (to UConn). They wanted
to prove something to Connecticut
and they did."
The Huskies, averaging 97.8
points, made several runs in the sec-
ond half but were held 10 below their
previous season low, which they set
in a 90-76 loss at Louisiana Tech last
Monday.
The Eagles celebrated after the
game "just because they're UConn,"
Boston College's Brianne Stepherson
said. "I was hoping we'd go out and
play the game we did."
UConn played without Shea
Ralph, Swin Cash, Amy Duran and
Sue Bird.
The Huskies' leading scorer and
rebounder, Svetlana Abrosimova
struggled all game, making just 4-of-
20 shots and scoring 10 points with
seven turnovers. Asjha Jones added
11 points.
The Eagles took the lead for good
on Whitney Steele's basket and fin-
ished the half with a 3-pointer at the
buzzer by Murphy, whose previous
high was 20 points Jan. 5 against
Syracuse.
"Alissa's been our most underrated
player all year," Inglese said. "Am I
surprised what she did? Absolutely
not."
The Huskies scored the first seven
points of the second half, cutting the
lead to 46-35. But Boston College
responded with a 10-2 run to take
their biggest lead of the contest, 56-
37.
UConn drew within nine points as
consecutive baskets by Williams
made it 66-57 with 4:54 left.
Boston College called a timeout
and proceeded to score the next four
points afterwards on baskets by
Murphy and Becky Gottstein, who
had 14 points.
The Huskies never came closer
than nine points after that.
1w,
AP PHOTO
The Connecticut women's basketball team suffered its third loss in its last six games on Saturday, losing 78-66 to Boston
College. "Maybe this brings everybody back to reality a little bit," UConn coach Geno Aurlemma said.
'M' tennis shines over weekend
AP PHOTO
Syracuse turned In a stellar defensive performance against South Carolina yesterday, forcing the Gamecocks into com-
mitting 20 turnovers In the Orangemen's 8437 rout.
s
Syracuse shuts down Gameco..cks
The Michigan men's tennis team
put on a show yesterday at the
Varsity Tennis Center, demolishing
DePaul 7-0.
The shutout was Michigan's sec-
ond straight to start the 1999 dual
match season. Michigan improved
to 2-0 on the season.
"This gives us a real good indica-
tion of how good a team we have,"
Michigan co-captain Jake Raiton
said.
"I don't think we've shut out two
teams in a row since the (former
Michigan star and current assistant
coach Dan) Goldberg era."
Michigan started the match by
winning the doubles point by way of
victories from its No. 2 and 3 spots.
Senior co-captain William Farah
and junior Brad McFarlane won an
8-5 match against DePaul's Andreas
Morfiadakis and Rory McKinney at
the No. 2 slot.
Raiton and freshman Henry Beam
also won 8-5 in the No. 3 spot over
the duo of Robert Kurek and Dan
Bennett.
The Wolverines then slammed the
door shut on DePaul by sweeping all
six singles matches. Among the six
matches, Michigan only dropped
two total sets.
No. 1 singles player Matt Wright
dropped a set for the Wolverines, in
addition to No. 6 player Ben Cox.
Michigan coach Brian Eisner and
Goldberg "have given us just the
right amount of preparation and
detail so that we can perform at our
highest level," Raiton said.
SOLID START: The Michigan
women's tennis team started off its
season with a bang yesterday,
defeating Western Michigan at the
Varsity Tennis Center.
The Wolverines captured the dou-
bles point with wins from No. 1
team Brooke Hart and Danielle
Lund, as well as No. 3 team Alison
Sinclair and Maya Canfield.
On the singles side, Lund wasn't
able to repeat her success in dou-
bles, dropping her match to Western
Michigan's Larissa Chinwah in the
No. I slot.
Michigan's only other loss came
at the No. 6 position, where Western
Michigan's Hillary Schaffer defeat-
ed Marya Farah, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
- Compiled from staff reports.
FILE PHOTO
Yesterday, the Michigan men's tennis team blanked DePaul 7-0 for Its second
straight dual meet shutout.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - The
strategy was simple for No. 20
Syracuse: Hold guard B.J. McKie in
check and South Carolina likely
would fall.
That the Gamecocks landed with a
thud yesterday was a testament to the
rangemen's determined defense.
Syracuse (14-5 overall) held
McKie to just nine points and ran off
a 27-4 spurt in the closing minutes of
the first half, winning 84-37 and
handing the Gamecocks (5-13) their
seventh straight loss.
It was the fewest points allowed by
Syracuse in coach Jim Boeheim's 23
years, but it was a struggle at the out-
et. Syracuse made just four of its
irst 17 shots.
"Our defense just held us in
there," Boeheim said. "Our forwards
helped keep McKie from getting
inside the lane and made him give up
the ball as much as possible."
To put Syracuse's defensive per-
formance in perspective, it's only the
second time in three years that
McKie has been kept below double
figures in scoring.
"We locked it down on defense,"
Preston Shumpert said, who came
off the bench and got Syracuse
untracked offensively with a 3-point-
er and a pair of free throws midway
through the first half. "That was our
best defensive effort of the year. We
concentrated on helping everybody
out. We knew McKie was a great
player. We tried to hedge, hedge,
hedge all night long on screens, try
to get him out of his rhythm."
They did. McKie, who had made
nearly half his shots from anywhere
on the floor in the past 11 games and
was averaging 18.3 points per game,
was 3-for-I I in 25 minutes of play.
. "It was embarrassing because I
don't think Syracuse is 50 points bet-
ter than us," McKie said, who needs
just 36 points to become South
Carolina's career scoring leader.
Alex English scored 1,972 points in
the 1970s. "But at the same time,
this team is really lacking confi-
dence. We're our own worst enemy."
Jason Hart led Syracuse with 15
points, Damone Brown added 13,
and Etan Thomas finished with 11
points, nine rebounds and six blocks.
Syracuse held the Gamecocks to
just 23.8 percent shooting in the first
half and built an insurmountable
lead despite their erratic early play.
The Orangemen also outrebounded
South Carolina 50-27 and forced 20
turnovers.
"We are struggling," South
Carolina coach Eddie Fogler said.
"It's obvious we are not a very good
team. It seems to me our confidence
goes and we don't react very well."
McKie searched unsuccessfully
all game for some kind of opening
but rarely got an open look at the
basket.
"We tried to eliminate some of the
things he likes to do," Hart said, who
had four of Syracuse's nine steals to
move past Pearl Washington into
third place on the Orangemen's
career steals list with 223. Sherman
Douglas ranks first with 235.
"We couldn't get any shots in the
first eight or nine minutes of the
game, but we were able to keep our
balance and focus on defense," Hart
said. "Once they started being a little
careless with the ball, I started going
for it, trying to get some easy steals,
and get us going."
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DiMaigo in grave condition
WIN
A
F
NEW YORK (AP) - Joe DiMaggio
is, in grave condition at his home, per-
'nanently bedridden and using a venti-
lator, the Daily News reported Sunday.
The 84-year-old baseball great was
eased from the hospital Jan. 18
because there was nothing else the
hospital could do for him, the newspa-
per said, quoting an unidentified
source.
DiMaggio spent 99 days in intensive
care at Memorial Regional Hospital in
V
walked out on his own when he left the
hospital, the Daily News said he was
taken home on a stretcher. He is
receiving around-the-clock nursing
care.
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner
said at the time of DiMaggio's release
he was looking forward to having
DiMaggio throw out the first ball on
opening day April 9 at Yankee
Stadium.
Lawyer Morris Engelberg, a neigh-
Engelberg.
DiMaggio entered the hospital Oct.
12 and had surgery two days later to
remove a cancerous lung tumor. He
then was stricken with pneumonia in
his left lung and had fluid drained
from his lung several times. He slipped
into a coma last month and was given
last rites.
He was voted into the Hall of Fame
in 1955, four years after his retirement,
and in 1969 was chosen as the greatest
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