The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - December 6, 1999 - 78
Quote of the weekend
rrI'd like to have him."
- Chattanooga coach Hemy Dickerson, on
Michigan point guard Kevin Gaines.
K Michigan 72
Player of the game
Wing forward LaVe Blanchard
Blanchard took a stagnant Michigan ontjnse
and kicked it into high gear on Saturday ignit-
ing a second-halrun that would 1ury
Chattanoogafor good. The freshman finished
with 21 points.
Chattanooga
61
Cable guy Gaines jumps 'M'
, ;
' 't1
.
By Jacob Wheeler
Daily Sports Writer
P#f#4 1If the Michigan basketball team
resembled a dead car battery in the
first half of Saturday's game against
Chattanooga, then point guard Kevin
Gaines jump-started the automobile.
"If he didn't play as hard and as well
on the basketball, it would have been a
very different game," Michigan coach
Brian Ellerbe said, referring to how
Gaines hounded the Chattanooga ball-
handlers. "He was definitely the rea-
son we were able to do some things
defensively."
The Wolverines never shifted past
second gear in the game's first 20 min-
utes, and Ellerbe would later cite
exhaustion as one reason for his team's
lackluster beginning. Michigan had
racked up plenty of miles earlier in the
week, traveling to Atlanta on Tuesday
for Wednesday night's ACC-Big Ten
Challenge.
Ellerbe's squad awoke at 4 a.m. on
Thursday so as not to lose a day of
classes and exams back in Ann Arbor.
But Gaines, the freshman guard who
weaves through traffic and accelerates
DAVIDKATZ/Daily quicker than Bond's new BMW,
chigan point guard Kevin Gaines, whose moves and acceleration would impress pumped up his tired teammates.
O ople at BMW, pulled his team out of stagnation against Chattanooga, after After the Mocs opened the game
Aiding a gum-throwing technical in Atlanta. with a 5-2 run, Gaines put Michigan's
)uke ralles from1down
:o steal one fromDePaul
offense on his shoulders and drove
horizontally across the lane for a pret-
ty reverse layup.
So far this season, Gaines has
aroused fans and broken full-court
presses all by himself, showing ball-
handling skills and speed that
Michigan hasn't seen since Jalen Rose
of the Fab Five.
On the ensuing offensive possession
though, Gaines carelessly coughed up
the ball as he dribbled into the paint.
But embarrassment didn't get the best
of him. An upset Gaines sprinted back
on defense and knocked the ball away
from his adversary, re-claiming the
basketball and his prominence on the
court.
A player like this is fun to watch.
Gaines drove the length of the court
and dropped in another two. igniting
an 8-2 Michigan run.
"I'd like to have him," said
Chattanooga coach Henry Dickerson,
who described Gaines as "a player who
can push the ball, guard you, get to the
paint and make the big man step up.
He's a complete player."
But unlike the soft-spoken LaVell
Blanchard, who has very quietly
picked up the scoring load in the last
two games, Gaines feeds off his own
intensity.
And he helps the team with that
itensity on defense. as well as on
offense.
"I had to set the tempo for the
defense," Gaines said. "I had to force
their guards to turn the ball over"
Whenever Gaines forces a turnover
on defense, it reinforces Michigan's
run-and-gun style of basketball.
Gaines' passion on the court can
sometimes turn a little sour - as a few
fans and media members saw last
Wednesday in Atlanta.
As the Wolverines sank deeper into
foul trouble against Georgia Tech, and
watched their lead evaporate, the
Yellow Jackets frustrated Gaines with
"a full-court press he had to permeate
all by himself.
After a bad break for the
Wolverines, an aggravated Gaines
inconspicuously threw his chewing
gum into the crowd, in the direction of
a heckler. The antic wasn't seen by any
officials - important for Michigan.
and Gaines quick outburst didn't make
him self-destruct. He broke Georgia
Tech's full court press enough in the
final minutes to hold on to the victory.
The gum incident would have gone
unnoticed, had the pellet not flown
over press row and landed in front of
the ESPN television cameras.
SCORING (ThROUGH SVEGAMES)
PLAYER VS. MocS AVERAGE
Crawford 9 15.6
Blanchard 21 14.4
Groninger 7 11.8
Gaines 16 9.6
REBOUNDING
Blanchard 8
Vignier 12
Asselin 4
ASSISTS
Gaines 4
F Crawford 6
Blanchard 0
8.6
74
5.8
5.4
4.6
2.2
1.8
0.8
0.8
STEALS
Ganes
1
0
TURNOVERS
Crawford 3 3.6
Gaines 1 3.4
Jones 2 3.4
FIEw'GOAL PERCENTAGE
Groninger . 22-38 .579
. Yignier 13-23 .565
Blanchard 27-48 . .563
3-POINT PERCENTAGE
Groninger 15-27
Blanchard . 6-12
- Jones 5-11
FREE THROW PERCENi
Asselins 12-15'.
Blanchard . 12-18,
Gaines12-18
.556
.500
.455
TAGE
.80
.667
.667
JRHAM, N.C. (AP) -
onventional, no way. Effective, you
t.
Freshman Nick Horvath hit a 3-
int bank shot with 14.6 seconds
ft in overtime as No. 17 Duke ral-
ed from a 12-point deficit to beat
o. 22 DePaul, 84-83, on Saturday
ght.
Horvath, who had just replaced
r os Boozer for added offense, hit
me-winner from the top of the
y as Duke (5-2) extended its win-
ng streak in steamy Cameron
door Stadium to 39 games.
The Blue Devils, who got a career-
gh 22 points from Nate James, won
eir fifth straight after starting the
ason 0-2.
Freshman Steven Hunter led the
ue Demons (4-2) with 21 points
10 rebounds. All five DePaul
rs had at least 14 points.
DePaul, which led most of the
me, had one last chance for the
ctory.
But Quentin Richardson, who
ored 20 points, threw up an airball
am in close against. Chris
irrawell's tight defense. The ball
nt out of bounds to Duke with a
cond left, and fans stormed the
or at the final buzzer.
4 ARIZONA 88, No. 9 TEXAS
ichard Jefferson did all he
uld do to beat Texas, then had to
tit, and wait and wait.
Jefferson scored 19 points - all in
e second half - as No. 4 Arizona
at No. 9 Texas on Saturday night.
But after scoring eight straight
ints, including two 3-pointers, to
rn a 66-66 tie into a 74-68 Arizona
id with 1:29 left, Jefferson had to
*"on his teammates to preserve
e victory.
They did as the Wildcats hit 14 of
free throws over the final 1:09,
ssibly knocking the Longhorns
im their first Top 10 ranking since
82.
Texas, which had fought back
am a 10-point second-half deficit,
lied again and pulled within 83-81
Chris McColpins' 3-pointer with
.9 seconds left before Luke Walton
reshman guard Gilbert Arenas
:nt 5-of-6 from the foul line in the
ial seconds for Arizona (6-0).
No. 24 MARYLAND 69, No. 16
ILLINOIS 67: On the surface, it was
nothing more than an early season
game to determine the finalist in a
relatively obscure tournament. To the
players and the coaches, it was so
much more.
Juan Dixon hit a running jumper
with 6.3 seconds left and Terence
Morris scored 14 of his 21 points in
the second half as No. 24 Maryland
edged No. 16 Illinois 69-67 Saturday
in the BB&T Classic.
This game, which rivaled March
Madness in terms of its intensity,
featured 22 lead changes and was
tied 10 times.
Neither team led by more than
three points over the final eight min-
utes, and by the end virtually every-
one at the MCI Center was on their
feet.
Maryland (6-1) faced George
Washington, a 72-63 winner over
Seton Hall, in Sunday night's cham-
pionship game.
WAKE FOREST 77, NO. 10 TEMPLE
72: Robert O'Kelley scored 19 of his
22 points in the first half and reserve
Craig Dawson added 16 as unbeaten
Wake Forest hung on to beat No. 10
Temple 77-72 Saturday.
O'Kelley and the Demon Deacons
(5-0) put on a basketball clinic
against the Owls, committing only
one turnover in a near-perfect open-
ing half while building a 26-point
lead.
But the Owls (2-2), behind a
career-high 33 points from Mark
Karcher, threw a late scare into Wake
Forest, which opened 5-0 for the
third time in the last four seasons
under coach Dave Odom. Karcher's
points came on a career-high 33
shots.
The Owls, playing their third
straight game without injured point
guard Pepe Sanchez (ankle), were an
offensive nightmare, starting the
game 1-for-18 from the field to fall
behind big early.
Wake Forest started the second
half 1-for-10 as Temple got within
15, but the 48-22 halftime score was
too much for the Owls to overcome.
No. 23 INDIANA 83, No. 13
KENTUCKY 75: For the first time
since 1990, the Kentucky Wildcats
have lost three straight games.
No. 23 Indiana ended a five-game
fl Big
game-
tickets
still available
The Michigan Ticket Office still
has tickets available for the home
games against Duke on Dec. 11
and Michigan State on Feb. 1.
The office reports that a little less
than 1,000 tickets are available
for the game against the Blue
Devils. For Michigan State, 2,400
tickets remain. Both games only,
have $12 seats left.
Only Michigan students and fac-
ulty may purchase Michigan'
State tickets in an effort to halt
tickets purchases by other'
schools, while insuring a
Michigan community presence at
the game. Duke tickets are open
to the general public.
The ticket office is located at
1000 S. State St. next to Yost Ice
Arena.
losing streak to their Ohio River rival
with an 83-75 victory Saturday
before a divided mix of 37,056 fans
who came to the RCA Dome wearing
the contrasting colors of their
favorite team.
An 18-4 first-half run by the
Hoosiers (4-0), shooting 61 percent,
proved fatal to No. 13 Kentucky (3-
3), which last lost three straight dur-
ing Rick Pitino's' first year as coach
of the Wildcats when they lost four
in a row from Dec. 27, 1989 to Jan.
6, 1990.
A.J. Guyton led Indiana with 21
points, including a 3-pointer and a
jumper that put the Hoosiers up 72-
59 after Kentucky had reduced a 62-
46 deficit to eight points with about
six minutes to play.
The victory was the 747th for
Indiana's Bobby Knight, the NCAA's
winningest active coach in Division
I, and broke a tie with Phog Allen for
sixth place on the list of college bas-
ketball's winningest coaches.
- Compiled from wire reports by
Joe Smith, for The Daily
CHATTANOOGA (61)
CG FT REB
MIN M-A M-A OT A F PTS
Donald 28 3-9 2-3 5-9 0 4 8'
Phillips 15 1-6 -'0-0' 0-0 1 2 2 .
Morton 36 5-14 0-i 3-8 3 0.10
Watkins 31 4-9 3-4 0-3 2 2 12
Harper 20 1-3 0.0 12 1 2 2
Dickerson 9 ,0-0 0-0 0-0 1 2 0
Clark 3 0-0 0.0 0-2 00 0
Parker 14 5-8 0-0 02 0 3 11,
Comser 15 3-11 2-4 5-5 0 0 10
Coleman 29 2-9 0-0 0-2 0 0 6
Totals 200 24-67 7-12 15-34 8 15 '61:
FG%: .358. FT%: 583. 3-paint FG: 6-16 .375 (Cowser
2-4. Coleman 2-6, Parker 1-2;,Wtkins 1-2). Blocs: 3
(Donald 3). Steals: 10 (Cowser 3, Harper 3, Watkins 3,
Dickerson). Turnovers: 15 (Donald 6, Watkins 4,
Coe, Dickerson, Harper, Morton, team). Technical
Fouls: none.
MICHIGAN (72)
FG FT REB
MIN M-A M-A O-T A F PTS
Jones 27 1-4 2-2 0-2 4 4 4
Blanchard 30 8-11 1-2 2-8 0 2 21
Asselin 16 1-4 0-0 1-4 0 2 2
crawford 31 3-11 2-2 0-3 6 0 9
Gaines 34 8-10 0-1 2-5 4 3 16
Groninger 19 3-7 0.0 0-3 0 0 7
Young 11 1-2 0-0 1-4 0 2 2
Anderson 11 3-5 1-1 0-1 0l1 7
Vtignier 21 26 0-36-1221 4
Totals 200 30-60 6-11 14-45 16 15 72
FGW .00. %:.545 3-point FG; 6-15, .400.
(Banchard 4-6, Crawford 1-4, Groninger 1-4, Jontes 0.-
1). Blocks: 6 (Asselin 2, Blanchard, Groninger, Jones,
vig nier.Steals: 3 (Gaines, Vignier, Young). Turnovers:
17 (vignier4, Crawford 3, Asselin 2, Blanchard.2,
Groninger 2, Jones 2, Anderson, Gaines). Technical
Fouls: none.
Chattanooga. 29 32 - 61
Michigan... .....28 44 - 72
At: Cnsler Arena
Attendance: 11,034
DAVID KATZ/Daily
Michigan forward Leon Jones grimaces in disgust at the Wolverines' sluggish start
against Chattanooga. The Mocs led by one point at halftime.
MOCS
Continued from Page 1B
from Michigan's big men. Meanwhile
the Mocs controlled the offensive boards
when it counted.
"We played defense for about 26, 27
seconds and just didn't finish off,"
Ellerbe said. "They had five offensive
rebounds early in the game. And when
we did have a little bit of a run, we
turned it over trying to make something
good happen."
A late 9-0 run, spurred by seven
points by Blanchard, brought the
Wolverines back within one by halftime.
Blanchard picked things up again in a
seven-minute stretch in which he added
a bit of everything to his stat sheet.
"I just didn't know when it was going
to happen,' said Dickerson on LaVell's
run. "If we could have controlled them
in that spurt in the second half, it could
have been different at the end."
Chattanooga never recovered from the
17-point deficit as it opened the inside
lane to the Wolverines, allowing
Michigan to find its big men for easy
layups. It was also the first time this sea-
son Michigan has outscored its opponent
in the second half.
The Mocs, on the other hand, were
able to shut down freshman sharpshoot-
er Gavin Groninger, who spurred
Michigan's victory over Georgia Tech
with six 3-pointers.
"That's one guy that they have,"
Dickerson said. If the game is close, he
can knock three or four down in a row
and next thing you know, you're down
12 points and he hasn't even broke a
sweat. When we trapped we didn't leave
him. We made sure he didn't get open
looks. But you turn around, and
Blanchard knocks him down."
Blanchard finished the game four-of-
six from long range. But, while he and
Gaines combined for 16-of-21 shooting,
the other Wolverines shot just 35 percent.
As for the Wolverines improving to 5-
0 and the possibility of going undefeated
in the nonconference season, Ellerbe
looks the other way.
"1 think it's insignificant," Ellerbe
said. "We have an awful lot of basketball
to learn. We're more concerned about
how we play. There are no gimmees in
college basketball, we're not to the point
where we can look over anyone."
Wednesday
KentnatMkdhgan, Crider
Arny, 7-30 pm.
This one is no gimme. The Golden
Flashes made last year's NCAA
Tournament and are favored to win the
Mid-American Conference this season.
Facing Kent just before Duke is a danger-
ous situation for~the Wolverines.
Saturday
Duke at Michigan, Crisler Arena, 4 p.m
Most likely, counting the number of total
freshmen that start this contest will require
two hands. Both squads are young and suf-
fered huge roster losses from last season,.
but that doesn't change the meaning of
The Game. The few players on Duke's ros-
ter that can remember the 1997 meeting
know that the Wolverines stormed back
from a 52-35 deficit to win. Revenge?
Look forospedal Fmlky Focus on the
McAgan-Duke matdxup i tis
Fxidck'Doly
tate blows out
eekend foes
EAST LANSING (AP) - Andre Hutson, selected MVP of
urnament, scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half as No. 8
ichigan State opened a 21-point lead and cruised to a 74-57
ctory over Eastern Michigan on Saturday night in the final of
e Spartan Classic.
Morris Peterson added 16 points for the Spartans (6-1), who
ranned un a three-victory week. Corey Tarrant scored 14
UNTIL DUKE.
f'
Duke 'banks' on freshman
to top Deftul in overtime
Freshman Nick Horvath might not
have called 'glass', but it didn't
matter for No.' 15 Duke as they
topped No. 20 DePaul in overtime'
at Cameron Indoor Stadium, 84-
83. Horvath banked a 3-pointer to
give Duke the victory on the Blue
Devils' last offensive play. All-
Team
f. Cincinnati
2. North Carolina
3. Stanford
4. Arizona
5. Auburn
6. Kansas
7. Michigan State
8. Connecticut
9. Temple
10 Flrida
Rec
5-0
5-1
5-0
6-0
3-1
5-0
6-1
5-2
2-2
5-1
This weekend's results
Beat Gonzaga 75-68
Beat UNLV 102-78
idle
Beat Texas 88-81
Beat Florida St. 55-54
Beat Mid. Tenn. St. 97-77
Beat Eastern Mich. 74-57
Beat UNC-Asheville 98-68
Lost to Wake Forest 77-72
Beat Florida A&M 96-44
Conferen e Overal
Team
Michigan
Minnesota
Penn State
Indiana
Michigan State
Wisconsin
Ohio State
Illinois
Purdue
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