8B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - February 15, 1999
Quintet rolls dice in Vegas
'M' tennis drops two
By Dan Dingerson
Daily Sports Writer
Five members of the Michigan men's gymnas-
tics team had a Vegas vacation this weekend. But
they didn't win big.
Michigan coach Kurt Golder took five of his
gymnasts to Las Vegas this weekend for the Winter
Cup Challenge, an event that is used to determine
who will compose various national teams.
Michigan sent sophomore co-captain Justin
Toman, junior Ethan Johnson and three freshmen
- Daniel Diaz-Luong, Scott Vetere and Josh
Levin.
The freshmen were competing in the all-around
competition while Toman and Johnson were spe-
cializing in individual events. Toman was kept off
of the still rings because of an arm injury, but com-
peted in the other five events. Johnson only per-
formed on still rings.
The all-around event consisted of two days of
competition. The opening day featured 77 gym-
nasts competing for the top 36 positions to
advance to the second round. All three Wolverines
competing qualified for the second day of compe-
tition, although some almost didn't.
Diaz-Luong was 13th at the end of the first day
with a 51.5, Vetere was 33rd and Levin qualified
for the last spot, finishing 36th. The scores from
the first round were erased for the second day of
competition, and the gymnasts started anew.
Diaz-Luong finished 18th overall, scoring a
51.05. Although he didn't win the all-around, he
nearly won the vault, finishing second with a score
of 9.5. His second-place finish was the highest fin-
ish for any Wolverine.
Vetere placed 25th in the all-around with a
49.75. He also excelled in the vault, scoring 9.45,
leaving him in third place behind Diaz-Luong.
Levin scored a 49.7, leaving him 26th in the all-
around. His performance was led by his strongest
event, the pommel horse, but was more accurately
characterized by consistency.
Toman also performed consistently on the first
day of competition, led by his fourth-place finish
on the parallel bar. His performances on the other
five events were strong enough that an average
performance on the still rings - would have
placed him in the top 10 in the all-around.
Particularly disappointing for Toman is that the
still rings are considered his strongest event.
Johnson rounded out the contingent of
Wolverines competing, scoring a 7.75 on the still
rings. His performance was sub-par, and left him
far behind the top competitors on the rings.
Former Buckeye Blaine Wilson won the all-
around competition with a score of 56.4, keeping
him ahead of Jason Gatson, who scored 55.8 to
take second place. Wilson has been the all-around
national champion for the last three years, an
unprecedented string in recent years.
By Adam J. Falkauff
For The Daily
The No. 49 Michigan women's tennis
team traveled south this past weekend
to face two nationally-ranked oppo-
nents - Tennessee, ranked No. 26 and
Kentucky ranked No. 23.
Michigan seemed prepared for the
tough match it was about to encounter.
But in the end, Tennessee had too much
talent and experience. The Wolverines
got blanked 9-0 on Sunday.
The Wolverines started off their dual-
match season with a convincing win
over Western Michigan, but their sea-
son soon withered when Michigan
headed south, to Lexington, with hopes
of upsetting Kentucky.
The Wolverines came up on the short
end of the stick, at the Boone Indoor
Tennis Center, as they were trounced
8-1 by a strong Kentucky team.
The Wildcats' domination showed in
singles play as junior Danielle Lund,
sophomores Szandra Fuzesi and Alison
Sinclair and freshman Jen Vaughn all
lost in straight sets.
Lund may now tumble from her No.
28 ranking in the country, after losing
to three lower-ranked players.
Lund's cold streak continues as she
is still looking to tally her first win of
the season and her 60th of her career.
She now rests at 0-3 for this season, in
contrast to her 59-32 career record.
Junior Brooke Hart started her match
against Massoumeh Emami strong, net-
ting the first set 6-4. But Hart dropped
the second set by the same margin and
deteriorated in the third and decisive set
suffering a 6-0 loss. The defeat dropped
Hart to 5-4 on the season.
The only bright spot for the
Wolverines came from senior Jen
Boylan who tallied a straight-set victo-
ry (7-5, 6-3) over the Wildcats' hottest
player, Shannon Stafford, and
Kentucky's two-match winning streak.
In doubles play, the Wolverines did-
n't fare well either. The team of Hart
and Lund couldn't stop Kentucky's No.
I doubles team, falling 8-2.
Adding to the Wolverines' woes, the
duo of Boylan and Fuzesi also dropped
their match 8-5.
Sinclair and Vaughn mustered the
greatest opposition to the Wildcats,
barely edged out, 9-7 in a competitive
match that took a total of 16 games to
complete.
,.
". A
.I
NATHAN RUFFER/Daily
Five members of the Michigan men's gymnastics team com-
peted in the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas this
weekend.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Mateen
Cleaves hit a driving layup with 1.2
seconds left and No. 5 Michigan State
rallied to win its school-record I1th
straight Big Ten game, 84-82 over No.
22 Minnesota on Saturday night.
Cleaves finished with 23 points and
helped the Spartans wipe out a 10-
point deficit in the final seven minutes.
After Minnesota's Terrance
Simmons made a tying 3-pointer with
eight seconds remaining, Cleaves took
the inbounds pass and drove the length
of the court.
Cleaves scored in traffic to stun the
Golden Gophers, who desperately
needed a win to bolster their chances
of qualifying for the NCAA tourna-
ment.
Morris Peterson scored 20 points for
the Spartans (11-1 Big Ten, 22-4 over-
all), including eight in the final 5:16 to
spark Michigan State's rally.
Big Ten scoring leader Quincy
Lewis scored 29 points for Minnesota
(5-7, 14-8), which has lost three
straight and four of five.
Charlie Bell dunked on a breakaway
to make it 82-79 with 18 seconds left,
but Simmons answered with a 3-point-
er to tie it 10 seconds later, bringing the
already delirious crowd to its feet.
But Cleaves, last year's Big Ten play-
er of the year, silenced them with his
full-court drive, capping his second-
highest scoring game of the season.
No. 21 PURDUE 63, ILLINOIS 56
Illinois coach Lon Kruger called it a
game d "streaks and stretches."
But while Kruger's team had runs of
10-0 and 17-0, No. 21 Purdue had a
streak when it really counted - hitting
all eight free throw attempts in the last
three minutes to beat Illinois 63-56
Saturday.
The victory was the first time all
season the Boilermakers (6-5, 18-7)
have won back-to-back games in the
conference - something that made
coach Gene Keady very pleased.
"It's the first Saturday, I think since
Christmas, that I'm going to be able to
go home and enjoy seeing my wife and
not have to worry about the next morn-
ing's papers saying something negative
about the way I coach. Hah," Keady
laughed. "Is that beautiful or what?"
Jaraan Cornell scored a career-high
30 points - including three crucial 3-
pointers within three minutes in the
second half - to lead Purdue.
No. 17 INDIANA 69, NORTHWESTERN
62 (0T)
After the 17th-ranked Hoosiers
pitched a shutout in overtime to beat
the Wildcats 69-62, Indiana coach Bob
Knight wanted O'Neill to know he did-
n't appreciate some of the chants res-
onating from the bleachers at the end
of the floor.
O'Neill, combustible in his own
right, didn't appreciate it and had to be
separated from his counterpart, an ugly
ending to an emotional game. Less
than an hour after the game, the two
met on a side practice court, sat togeth-
er under a basket and talked.
"I'm going to fight Knight at noon
tomorrow over in Bloomington," joked
O'Neill.
But it wasn't funny when it first
happened. The loss was tough enough
for Northwestern, battling for a first-
ever bid to the NCAA tournament.
Knight said he approached O'Neill
to tell him he didn't like the crowd's
behavior and that set things off. "Kevin
said, 'I have no control over it,' and I
said, 'I know that,",' Knight related.
Indiana's collapsing zone defense in
the second half was the difference
because it took 6-foot-IlI Northwestern
center Evan Eschmeyer out of the
game.
Eschmeyer, averaging 20.5 points,
was held to just 12 before fouling out
in overtime. He managed only two
points and two shots in the second half.
Little-used used Lynn Washington's
only basket gave Indiana (6-6, 19-8)
the lead at 64-62 in overtime. A.J.
Guyton sealed the win with four free
throws, capping his 22-point perfor-
mance.
No. 15 WIsCONSIN 73, PENN
STATE 63
First, the Wisconsin football team
had its winningest season in a century-
plus of competition. Now, it's the bas-
ketball team's turn.
Wisconsin got 16 points from Mark
Vershaw and 10 in the final three min-
utes from fellow sub Charlie Wills as
the 15th-ranked Badgers beat Penn
State 73-63 Saturday night for a
school-record 21st victory.
"I've coached a lot of teams over 34
years and I evaluate each of them on
one standard, and that is how close
each comes to its potential," Wisconsin
coach Dick Bennett said. "I've had a
lot of teams that have played close to
their potential. This one goes at the top
of the list because of the competition.
"It's remarkable that they have con-
sistently met the opposition and played
with the shortcomings we have. That's
a tribute to these kids because I don't
do anything different."
The Badgers are essentially the same
team that labored through a 12-19 sea-
son last year, except for a deeper
bench.
AP PHOTO
Minnesota's NCAA Tournament hopes would have risen significantly if they had
beaten Michigan State Saturday. But the Spartans edged the Gophers, 84-82,
placing Minnesota on the tournament bubble.
And that bench scored 41 points
Saturday night, including 16 by
Vershaw and 14 by Wills. Sean Mason
added 15 points for the Badgers (9-4,
21-5).
But the Nittany Lions (2-10, 10-12)
trailed just 63-59 with two minutes left
after Greg Grays' two foul shots. Dan
Earl, who had 15 points, scored eight
straight points to rally Penn State.
Wills re-established the Badgers'
momentum with an 18-foot jumper
with 1:18 left that made it 65-59. He
then hit all six of his foul shots in the
final 43 seconds.
In 101 years of basketball,
Wisconsin has just three 20-win sea-
sons, in 1915-16 and in 1940-41, when
the Badgers won their only NCAA
championship.
"I know it's something special to the
state and the university," sophomore
guard Mike Kelley said. "As time goes
on it will probably be even more sig-
nificant."
No.13 OHIo STATE 73, No.19 IOWA
69
Normally, a team that gets outre-
bounded by 11, shoots 38 percent from
the field and misses 12 of 30 free
throws is going to lose.
But if it has two guards like Scoonie
Penn and Michael Redd, anything can
happen.
It did Saturday night, when Penn
scored 24 of his 27 points in the second
half and Redd added 22 points to ra
13th-ranked Ohio State to a 73-69 viW
tory over No. 19 Iowa for the Buckeyes
fourth straight.win.
"Penn and Redd, they have such
good skills. They can shoot from out-
side or drive on you. And they are so
quick," Iowa coach Tom Davis said.
Penn and Redd combined to scored
32 of their team's last 37 points, which
Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien said was
by design.
"This game shows that we have two
premier guards in Michael Redd and
Scoonie Penn," O'Brien said. "We
decided to let Redd and Penn go with it
and carry the team with six minutes to
go in the game. They made some plays
and some good passes."
The Hawkeyes pounded Ohio State
on the backboards by a 48-37 margin
and enjoyed a 10-point lead about six
minutes into the second half but hurt
themselves with even worse free thro
shooting than Ohio State.
Penn said it didn't look good for the
Buckeyes, but they refused to fold.
"We kept our composure and we
kept working hard and eventually got
back into the game," he said. "I don't
know if there was any particular turn-
ing point, just the fact that we stayed
after it and kept playing hard the whole
game." Ak
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