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 Michigan State Michigan Illinois Purdue Wisconsin Northwestern Ohio State Indiana Iowa Minnesota W 7 5 5 5 4 4 3 2 2 2 1 L. 1 2 2 3 3 3 4 5 5S 6 6 w 16 14 13 15 12 10 6 9 7 5 8 L 3 4 5 7 5 6 11 8 11 12 10 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 U EU"TE ~EM ik4 U IP in Health Administration for Undergraduate Minority Students at The University of Michigan School of Public Health :, ::.........: . . * .Paid Internships ~PPLITGRE course by KAPLAN and S.:~:~H 3 ~other benefits r Rhhtenstein or enin son WMMM lJCH MENT PROGRAM Dep rntelnt of Health Management & Policy M3226 The University of Michigan EARN $10.00-$20.00/hr Do you have a car? 77e MVichl Gutterman Award in Poetry he Roy W Cowden Memorial Fellowship -he Louise and George Piranian Scholarshp Will be announced Tuesday, January 25 3:30 .in. _. -__ A __ . .: ,.* Ann Arbor, MI 481C 734-936-3296 D9-2029 I : :;O