Monday, January 24, 2000 - The Michigan Daily 7B
Halftime turnaround sparks 'M' women to victory, 82-78
Wolverines stumble in first half, come alive in the second
By Arun Gopal
Daily Sports Writer
In the first half of yesterday's game
gainst Iowa, the Michigan women's basket-
all team struggled miserably against a sub-
.500 team.
In the second half, the Wolverines demon-
strated the form that has put them near the
top of the Big Ten standings.
For the Wolverines, it was truly a tale of
two halves.
Actually, for Michigan, the worst of times
came first. After a turbulent week that
included an injury to starting shooting guard
Alayne Ingram and the suspension of for-
vard Ruth Kipping, the Wolverines came out
and played one of their worst halves of thei
season.
Michigan's performance in the first halfa
would have been a good cure for insomnia.
The Wolverines didn't come flying out of thei
gate against the Hawkeyes; more accurately,
they staggered around the floor as if they
-woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
Michigan shot 43-percent from the field,I
committed 13 turnovers, and generally 1
" oked like they didn't know what they were
doing. The result was a 37-32 halftime !
deficit, the first time that the Wolverines had
trailed at the break since a home loss to ;
Vanderbilt on December 7.
"The first half was just horrible,";
Michigan forward Stacy Thomas said. "Our
defense was slacking, we were missing easy <
Sophomore
layups. We knew that we needed to come out
in the second half and perform."
Michigan looked distracted the entire half,
as if their bodies were in Crisler Arena but
their minds were elsewhere. According to
coach Sue Guevara, this may have been the
case.
"I don't think we were thinking about the
Wisconsin loss in the first half," Guevara
said. ?I think we were thinking about Alayne
Ingram being out and Ruth Kipping not
being dressed."
A telling statistic from the first half was
that Iowa attempted 36 shots, while
Michigan put up just 21. While the
Wolverines lacked focus, credit must also go
to the Hawkeyes, who took it to Michigan in
the first half and were rewarded for their
efforts.
"Usually, we're a very sound defensive
team and I think we came in here and we
tried to be the aggressor," Iowa coach Angie
Lee said. "The team that gets aggressive
early defensively will see a lot of things go
their way, and I think that was it in the first
half."
Fortunately for the Wolverines, the second
half lrought the best of times. Led by
Thomas' career-high 32 points, Michigan
gradually clawed its way back into the game
and reassumed the lead with 15:41 left in the
game, 45-44.
"We had a lot of turnovers in the first half,
and we can't have that if we want to win ball
games," Thomas said. "We needed to come
in and correct that, and we did a better job of
taking care of the ball in the second half."
Along with a more efficient scoring
attack, the Wolverines clamped down on
defense. Iowa sophomore guard Lindsey
Meder, Iowa's leading scorer, was hounded
by Michigan's defense into a nightmarish I-
for-12 shooting night.
Her seven points were 15 below her con-
ference scoring average coming into
Sunday's contest.
"This was Lindsey's worst day by far," Lee
said. "She seemed very tentative and she
hesitated - when you hesitate, you get lost
in this game."
With this victory in hand, the Wolverines
can now train their sights on No. 4 Penn
State, whom they face on Thursday night in
State College.
While the Wolverines have surmounted
several major hurdles thus far (Purdue,
Illinois), the upcoming game will be their
toughest challenge yet. In order to win,
Michigan cannot afford another tale of two
halves.
"We have a very big challenge coming up
on Thursday, and I know the team will be
ready to play," Guevara said. "I know one
thing (Penn State coach) Rene Portland will
say - 'the way to stop Michigan is to stop
Stacy Thomas.'
"So the challenge is for the other kids,
because they can play."
DAVID KATZ/Daily
After scoring only 10 points in the first half, Michigan forward Stacey Thomas (11) came out firing in
the second half. In the 82-78 victory over the Hawkeyes, Thomas scored a career high 32 points.
Kipping 'is'done here at Michigan'
By Dena Beth Krischer
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan coach Sue Guevara said
yesterday that sophomore forward Ruth
Kipping is "done here at Michigan," as
she has been indefinitely suspended
from the Michigan women's basketball
team.
Kipping had played in all 17 games of
the season, averaging 3.0 points and 2.3
rebounds. Kipping will leave Michigan
with 47 career games, 331 points and
209 rebounds under her belt.
According to unnamed sources,
Kipping was extremely unhappy here at
Michigan and wants to be closer to her
hometown, Quincy, Ill.
"She liked her teammates, she just
wasn't happy with the atmosphere at
Michigan," a source said. "Obviously
when you're not happy, you're going to
be struggling a little and I think it's in her
best interest what happened."
Guevara said in a press conference
that she hopes Kipping will stay at
Michigan for the remainder of the
semester and will transfer at the end of
the winter term.
Kipping could not be reached for
comment.
THOMAS BREAKSAGAIN: As if holding
the Big Ten career steals record wasn't
enough, senior forward Stacey Thomas
netted a career-high 30 points against
Iowa.
The 30 points gives Thomas 1,407 on
her career - 97 away from climbing up
to fourth place on another Michigan
stats ladder. Thomas needs 144 more to
move ahead of Abby Currier (1977-81).
Thomas also recorded eight more
rebounds, placing her fourth on the
Michigan career rebounding chart with
764. She needs 57 to take third place
from Tanya Powell (1986-90).
Thomas leads the Wolverines in four
categories this season; scoring (289
points), rebounds (145), steals (68) and
minutes (582).
THORIUS NEEDS A NEW "TWO": Junior
point guard Anne Thorius was without
counterpart sophomore shooting guard
Alayne Ingram yesterday.
Ingram, who had started every game
this season until yesterday, suffered a
sprained ankle late in the Wisconsin
game this past Thursday.
Ingram is first in three-pointers with
30 (42.3-percent) and second behind
Stacey Thomas in scoring (215 points)
and minutes (534).
"Alayne is always a contributor on the
offensive and the defensive end,"
Thorius said. "We know once Alayne
has the ball something's going to hap-
pen.
"Either she's going to take a good shot
or she's going to create something and I
think that's where we were lacking in the
first half of the game."
Ingram's presence was much needed
in the first half as Michigan created a
meager 21 shots from the floor, the low-
est field goal attempts during a first half
this season.
"Anytime you have a shooter out, it
causes problems," senior forward
Kenisha Walker said. "We had to step it
up and Stacey did that and she took over
for the whole team."
For Thorius, her 40 minutes on the
court yesterday were a little awkward
without her second fiddle.
"I love playing with Alayne because I
know she's going to set up for a shot,"
Thorius said. "When you all of a sudden
have somebody new on the floor, it
makes a difference. But I think we came
together as a team in the second half and
proved that we can still win."
Ingram is expected to practice on
Tuesday and will hopefully be ready to
play against Big Ten leader Penn State
on Thursday.
"We're looking forward to having her
back," Walker said.
MICHIGAN REBOUNDS SECOND HALF:
For the first time since playing
Vanderbilt on December 7, Michigan
was losing at the end of the first half yes-
terday.
Only unlike the game against
Vanderbilt, Michigan was able to
rebound from an unusually slow start
against Iowa.
The Hawkeyes out-rebounded the
Wolverines 21-16 throughout the first 20
minutes, but Michigan countered with
22 the second half and held Iowa to 18.
"We decided that after being yelled at
by coach, both halves wouldn't be good,"
Walker said. "We decided to come out
and play with a little bit more heart, a lit-
tle more intensity, we stepped it up on
our defense and our shots started to fall."
Michigan made 51.6 percent of its
shots during the second half and only
allowed Iowa to sink 33.3 percent.
BIES LIKES THE LINE: At 6-foot-3,
freshman back-up center LeeAnn Bies is
very good at creating her shots.
She gets into the low-post, sets up her
shot and the opposition almost always
manages to send her where it counts -
to the free throw line.
Of her 153 career points, 73 have
come from stripe.
Bies netted 12 of 13 free-throw shots
and scored 18 points for the game.
HAWKEYES
Continued from Page 11B
"I knew that somebody was going to
have to pick up the slack whether it be
the post players, the bench, or me,"
Thomas said. "I took the steps neces-
sary to go ahead and do it, and the shots
just fell."
On the back of Thomas, the
Wolverines built their lead to eight with
just over seven minutes to play. But the
Hawkeyes mounted a comeback, cut-
ting the lead back to two with 4:26 to
play.
With 2:18 to go, Iowa forward Randi
Peterson stepped to the free throw line
with a chance to tie the game. That was
as close as the Hawkeyes would get.
Peterson missed them both and the
Wolverines cruised from there to victo-
ry.
"We had some mental lapses;" Iowa
coach Angie Lee said. "We said some.
things during timeouts that didn't trans-
fer. We had a couple of missed free
throws with a chance to tie it. It's the lit-
tle things like that that keep us from
looking at the bright side of things."
SAM HOLLENSHEAD/Daily
Sophomore Ruth Kipping (34) was suspended indefinitely from the Michigan
women's basketball team Friday and did not play in yesterday's victory over Iowa.
JMCHIGAN (82)
FG FT REB
MIN M-A M-A 4T A F PTS
Jhornas 40 9.18 12-17 2-8 0 4 32
7 eterle 18 326 0-0 0-2 0 3 6
Goodlow 32 5-11 0-0 2-5 1 3 11
Miller' 23 1-2 1-3 2-5 1 3 3
R-OTmus 40 3-7 4-4 0-5 6 2 10
Walker 21 1-3 02 1-1 0 2 2
Robinson 2 0-0 0-0 04-0 0 0 0
Bies 24 3-5 12-13 3-10 2 2 18
Totals 200 25-52 29-39 11-38 9 19 82
FG%,: .481 FTlo 744. 3-point FG: 3-8 .375. (Thomas 2-
5; Goodlow 1-3). Blocks: 2 (Gies 2). Steals: 7 (Thomas 3,
ler, Thodus, Bies). Turnovers: 18 (Thomas 7, Bies 3).
hnical Fouls none.
IOWA (78)
FG FT REB
MIN M-A M-A O-T A F PTS
4lplack 17 2-5 0-0 1-2 1 3 4
'f son 30 2-7 1-4 5-14 13 5
Meder 30 1-12 5-6 3-6 1;2 7
M~agner 14 4-10 0-0 1-1 0 3 11
Comsuegra 40 6-14 11-11 0-1 7 4 23
O' Brian 10 0-3 2-2 1-3 0 3 2
Jennings 15 1-4 0-2 0-1 1 1 2
Berdo 22 5-8' 0-0 0-0 0 2 14
Schrupp 22 3-3 44 2-4 0 4 10
Totals 200 24-66 23-29 18-39 11 25 78
FG[o:.364. FT%: .793. 3-point FG: 7-23 (Berdo 4-6,
Magner 3-7, Meder 0-7, Comsuegra 0-3). Steals: 8
(Comsuegra 4, Jennings 2, Bullock Peterson).
Turovers: 14 (Peterson 3, Comsuegra 3, Schrupp 3,
fock 2, Meder Jennings, Berdo). Technical Fouls
ne.
lona ....... 37 41-78
Michigan.. .. :.......32 50- 82
At Crisler Arena Attendance: 2,243
Team
Penn State
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Illinois
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I I
SU MMER
Yesterday's results:
WISCONSIN 79, Ohio State 59
MICHIGAN 82, Iowa 78
MICHIGAN STATE 71, Penn State 63
Illinois 82, NORTHWESTERN 65
Purdue 71, INDIANA 65 (OT)
MINNESOTA 80, IUPUI 57
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WMMM lJCH MENT PROGRAM
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77e MVichl Gutterman Award in Poetry
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Will be announced
Tuesday, January 25
3:30 .in.
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