10- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November, 24 1999
Crawford storms back from early slump
By Mark Francescutti
Daily Sports Writer
Halftime in the Michigan lockerroom, and Jamal
Crawford felt down. His halftime stats didn't look
pretty - 0-9 from the field, 0-3 from 3-point land
and no assists for the freshman.
"I was down on myself," Crawford said. "All the
guys told me 'Hey, keep your head up. There's one
more half, and you can't play any worse."'
Early in the second half, a fight broke out in the
Crisler Arena stands, and suddenly, the fight inside
Crawford built back up at the same time.
"I told him to keep his head up," Michigan guard
Kevin Gaines said. "He had to take over."
With 17:09 left, Crawford hit his first jumper..The
cold streak was over. The Crawford comeback was
on. He hit a run-stopping 3-pointer, one of many big
shots that Michigan nailer during a second-half
stretch to come back from a 15-point deficit.
With three minutes to go in the game and
Michigan down three, Kevin Gaines fouled out. Now
the ball rested in Crawford's hands - and instead of
looking at 0-10, he looked at Rashad Philips.
The Detroit superstar guard had already schooled
Crawford with his quickness on several plays, netting
22 points in the process. But the 6-foot-6 Crawford
used his long arms to freeze the 5-10 Phillips in his
tracks. Crawford got a piece of Phillips' shot, and in
the scramble for the ball, Phillps fouls Crawford.
The Crawford comeback continued. He banged
home two free throws, then took the ball to the hole
and hit a fadeaway jumper.
"If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will,"
Crawford said of his strong response. "I said 'I can't
miss forever."'
Then, Michigan guard Leon Jones and forward Josh
Asselin fouled out. The Wolverines got a break as
Detroit's Terrell Riggs missed two free throws. With
three starters on the bench, the game tied at 62 and sec-
onds remaining, Michigan put the ball in Crawford's
hands. It takes two timeouts to get the ball in, and two
passes to get the ball to Crawford, but Michigan had its
set - and that set was "give the ball to Jamal."
The clock wound down ... 10 seconds ... eight ...
six. Crawford senses the time is now. The freshman
drives, crosses over, leaps into the air and jumps.
Swish - Michigan goes up by two.
"I was trying to stall," Crawford said. "I didn't
want them to get another shot off. We have a play
designed for situations like that to make our move."
And then -- as if he hadn't made himself star of
the game yet, Crawford stole the Titans' inbound
pass. He travels, but no official saw anything except
his pass to Michigan's LaVell Blanchard for a thun-
derous game-ending dunk. Crawford finished with a
team-high 13 points, all in the second half. He also
added four assists and four rebounds.
"Any given night it can be anyone," Crawford said.
"But I kind of wanted to put the ball on my shoulders
and make something of it."
SAM HOLLENSHEAD/Daily
Detroit's Rashad Phillips netted 22 points, but his second-
half injury gave the Wolverines a window to comeback.
'State pride' at stake for volleyball in finale
Detroit 1(62)
FG FT REB
MIN M-A M-A 4T A F PTS
Whye 26 48 0-0 22 2 8
Craft 14 02 0-0 14 2 2 0
Phillips 37 8-17 34 0-5 5 2 22
Ferguson 37 6-16 0-0 1-6 3 1 14
Bein 24 1-2 0-0 12 0 1 2
Harmon 8 12 0-1 0.4 0 5 2
Riggs 14 44 2-8 2-4 1 3 10
Walton 6 12 0-0 2-2 0 1 2
VanDyvke 2 00 0-0 01 0 0 0
Green 16 15 0.0 11 0 0 2
Mazur 16 0-0 00 0.1 0 4 0
Totals 200 26-58 5-14 1240 13 21. 62
FG%:.448. FT%: 357. 3-point FG: 5-22.227
Whillips 3-7, Ferguson 2-8. Green 0-3, Wye 0-1).
Stocks: none. Steals: 4 (Belin 3. Harmon 1).
Turnovers: 16 (Phillips 6. Riggs 3. Walton 2. Behn
2, Green 1. Harmon 1, Ferguson 1. Technical
Fouls: Harmon.
MICHIGAN (66)
FT REB
MIN M-A M-A O4T A F PTS
Jones 27 3-7 0-0 0-3 1 5 8
Blanchard 37 3-11 6-8 29 2 3 12
Asselin 22 3-3 2-4 3-4 0 5 8
Crawford 35 518 2-2 04 4 2 13
Gaines 23 2-6 2-3 02 2 5 6
Groninger 25 4-6 0-0 0-0 1 0 11
Young 8 0-0 0-2 1.1 0 0 0
Anderson 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Vignier 22 1-3 6-8 19 1 0 8
Totals 200 21-54 18-27 8-34 11 21* 66
FG%:.389. FT%: .667. 3-point FG: 6 -1, .333.
(Groninger 3-4. Jones 2-3. Crawford 1-7, Blanchard
0-1, Gaines 0-1). Blocks: 2 (Jones. Crawford).
Steals: 3 (Crawford 2, Gaines). Turnovers: 14
(Gaies 5, Jones 3. Crawford 2, Blanchard.
Asselin, Groninger, Young). Technical Fouls: none.
Detroit--------------34 28 - 62
Michigan-------------26 40 -66
At: Crisler Arena
Attendance: 9,537
TITANS'
Continued from Page 8
Crawford was the first Wolverine to
score from the field, and the Wolverines
began to claw back. With Gaines fight-
ing Phillips, Crawford hit a 3-pointer
that brought Michigan within single dig-
its. The crowd got loud, he asked them
for more, and they gave it. With Asselin
and Peter Vignier in the Michigan line-
up, physical play began to chip away at
the Titans.
"They went to smash-mouth on us,"
said Detroit coach and Michigan specter
Perry Watson. "Vignier was being phys-
ical and knocking guys of the block."
Detroit's offensive production began
to grind, and a technical foul on Mike
Harmon provided Michigan with a per-
fect opportunity. Asselin cut the lead to
six with one of two technical-foul free
throws, and a jumper from Leon Jones
made it four. Phillips did what he could
to keep his team's lead, but Crawford
answered right back.
Phillips, who had since gone down
with a severe camp but refused to sit out,
succeeded in disqualifying Gaines, but
could do no more from the field.
Ellerbe called timeout once the
Wolverines led by three, and Gaines
offered encouragement to the cold and
hot Crawford from the bench.
"I just told him, 'Keep your head up
- you've got to feel it and run the team
these last couple minutes."'
As the clock ticked, a layup by Terrel
Riggs put Detroit up 61-60. Then,
Crawford felt it. The freshman answered
with a jumper of his own, and when
Riggs tied the game at 62 with 57 sec-
onds to go, the play was his to make.
Hockey tickets
still available for
all home games
Michigan hockey tickets are still
available for all home games.
Hundreds of tickets are avail able for
both games in this weekend's
College Hockey Showcase -
against Minnesota at 7:30 p.m. on
Friday and Wisconsin at 7:00 p.m.
on Saturday.
Tickets are available for every
other home game except Michigan
State on Feb. 25.
Tickets cost S12 and $15.
Fans who must see the Spartand,
can purchase standing room tickets *
for $9.
'M' grapples with
each other today
Michigan wrestling team hits the mat
again today at the Maize and Blue
Intrasquad meet in Davison in another
preseason tuneup.
The Wolverines had a strong showing
the last time out, at the unattached
Michigan State Open on Nov. 13-14 at
Jenison Fieldhouse in East Lansing.
Junior all-America candidate Otto
Olson continued his strong early-season
showing, winning - his second straight
meet. Senior Joe Warren and junior
Damion Logan won their weight classes,
133 and 141 pounds, respectively.
Freshman Foley Dowd finished sec-
ond to Warren at 133 pounds, and
sophomore Andy Hrovat was the run-
ner-up at 184 pounds.
Swimmers earn
Big Ten awards
In the first week of nominations on
the season, two members of
Michigan's men's swimming and div-
ing team claimed Big Ten athlete of the
week awards.
Junior All-American Chris
Thompson was named swimmer of the
week. Thompson took first place in the
1,650-yard freestyle against Penn State
on Nov. 12.
His time of 15:05.75 also automati-
cally qualified him for the NCAA
championships. He was also part of the
first-place 800-yard relay.
Senior tri-captain Josh Trexler
earned diver of the week honors. He
lead his team with two individual first-
place performances.
He scored NCAA zone diving qual-
ifying marks in the three-meter and
one-meter competitions.
By Richard Haddad
Daily Sports Writer
Tonight, the Michigan volleyball team
is playing for pride.
Michigan State visits Cliff Keen Arena
for the second installment of the annual
"State Pride" matches. After being swept
earlier this year in East Lansing, the
Wolverines are eager to return the favor
and win at least a slice of that pride for
themselves.
"There's no question that one of the
special things about college athletics is
rivalries,"' Michigan coach Mark Rosen
said. "There'll always be rivalries between
certain schools, and this will always be a
good one. The kids always get fired up
about it, everyone works a little harder
this week, and hopefully that'll show on
the court."
In the last meeting, the Spartans deliv-
ered a thrashing and disposed of the
Wolverines in three games.
"We didn't play well in any facet of the
game, they outplayed us in every possible
way," Rosen said. "They executed well
and we didn't put up much of a fight, we
didn't execute in any capacity. It was one
of those matches in which we didn't play
near our style or up to our ability, this is a
chance to redeem ourselves."
According to the stats, Michigan's
downfall lay in a season-low -.017 team-
hitting percentage, resulting in a 9-15, 6-
15, 5-15 loss. But it isn't as simple as that.
Statistics are a reflection of execution, and
the Wolverines didn't execute. The statis-
tics were in the Spartans' favor in nearly
every category.
"It isn't as easy as saying 'we need to
hit better,' Rosen said. "Everything con-
tributed; we didn't pass the ball well, our
setting won't very good, our attackers did-
n't make good choices, and it all showed
up in the hitting percentage. We need to
improve from every standpoint."
The fifth-place Spartans (9-9 Big Ten,
19-11 overall), are beatable, but it will be
tough. Michigan's performance against
Illinois and Indiana last weekend provides
encouragement. In knocking off a formi-
dable Illinois squad and nearly doing the
same to the Hoosiers, the Wolverines
showed improvement from earlier outings
against those opponents.
More importantly, after turning in one
of their worst showings of the season at
Ohio State the previous week, Michigan
successfully bounced back. Whether or
not the team would be able to do so after
playing so poorly so late in the year was a
critical question, and Michigan answered
it affirmatively. The Wolverines' effort
showed that they are still intent on finish-
ing the season out strong.
The intra-state battle takes on a greater
significance because it represents the
final home match of the year.
"We talked about it, and we're not
going to have another home game for a
long time, 10 or 11 months, so we ought
to take advantage of this opportunity, be
able to finish and say that we played well,
played hard and took care of business,"
Rosen said.
Lost in all of the "State Pride" hype is
that Michigan still has to travel to
Evanston to take on Northwestern on
Friday. The cellar-dwelling Wildcats (2-
16 Big Ten, 4-24 overall) may be easy to
overlook, but Rosen feels that his team
will be able to avoid doing so.
"I don't think we've played consistent-
ly enough to be able to overlook anybody,
and that's something that our team is
aware of" Rosen said.
Despite their record, the Wildcats' style
of play makes them dangerous. Rosen
compared them to a football team with a
consistent big-play threat - if it gets hot,
its tough to stop. The Wolverines will
attempt to control the game early to pre-
vent Northwestern from finding its
rhythm.
But Michigan State is on everyone's
minds.
"It's more than just a state-pride com-
petition, and part of that is because they
beat us pretty badly up there. It will be
hard for us to beat them soundly enough
to make up for it," Rosen said. "It's the
chance to even the score with them."
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