The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - February 5, 2001- 7B

Boilermaker crowd frustrates 'M' cagers

By David Horn
Daily Sports Writer

WEST LAFAYETTE - "Run her into the post!"
yelled a rabid Boilermaker fan following a foul on
Michigan guard Alayne Ingram.
That, and many other taunts and teases from a hos-
tile Mackey Arena crowd added up to the most skilled
sixth-man that the women's basketball team has yet to
face.
A crowd of 8,216 was on hand to support No. 6
Purdue, which remained undefeated at home, and
undefeated in the Big Ten following a 73-64 defeat of
the Wolverines yesterday.
"I really enjoy coming down here to play," Michigan
coach Sue Guevara said. "This crowd gets into it. I
think that they appreciate a good basketball game."
Michigan kept the score close throughout the game,
not allowing Purdue to gain more than a five-point lead
until the waning moments of the second half. The 33-
31 halftime lead that the Wolverines enjoyed was the
culmination of eight first-half lead changes.
The score was close early, as Michigan, led by 10
first-half points and five assists from Ingram, battled
not only the Boilermakers but also the fans - whose
volume rose as their team fell behind.
"I think we like to play on the road, in front of big

crowds,"junior Heather Oesterle said. "It was actually
kind of fun, when we were going on those runs and the
crowd was getting into it."
For Purdue this was business as usual. The average
attendance at Mackey Arena this season is nearly 7,000.
That is more than four times the usual scene at Crisler
Arena, where the average attendance this year has been
a paltry 1,541.
"I would like this to be in Crisler Arena," Guevara
said of the intensity yesterday.
Guevara and her team knew to expect this sort of
environment. The Wolverines escaped a visit to
Mackey last season, but their 1999 trip yielded a crowd
of 12,932 - the fourth largest in Boilermaker history.
"We knew it was coming;" sophomore center
LeeAnn Bies said. "Score to silence them - that's how
you play a big crowd."
For most of the first half, that strategy worked. Back-
to-back jumpers from Oesterle and freshman Stephanie
Gandy kept Michigan close at the 12:36 mark as
Purdue began to mount a run.
An Infini Robinson steal followed by a 3-pointer
from Ingram at 7:15 cut the Purdue lead to two as the
Wolverines began their own run.
But the second half was another story.
"I don't know who that first half team was," Purdue
All-America candidate Camille Cooper said of her team.

Michigan lost its lead with nine minutes to play in.
the second half. At that point, the crowd began to show,
its effect. Sloppy passes from Ingram, who was running
the point for the injured Anne Thorius, and multiple
shot clock violations made it difficult for. the
Wolverines to come back.
"It's just frustrating because you can't play - I can't
play the way I like," Bies said. "On offense a few times
we weren't aware that the shot clock was running down:
A few times we had to force up some bad shots because
we just didn't know, and that was definitely due to the
crowd."
On one crucial possession, the shot clock dwindled
and expired as Ingram attempted a pass around the
perimeter, rather than attempting a shot.
"We can't hear the shot clock;" Oesterle said. "A eou-
ple of times the shot clock went down and we had no
idea - our bench is yelling but we can't hear."
Guevara doesn't necessarily attribute her team's
shortcoming yesterday to the crowd.
"The crowd doesn't make you not box out;' she said.
But she did concede that dealing with an adverse
environment was something that her team needed to
work on.
"Down the stretch we made some mistakes that
Purdue took advantage of," Guevara said. "They',
undefeated for a reason, and we just saw why."

. .
MARJORIE MARSHALL/Daily
Despite Raina Goodlow's best efforts, the women's basketball team could not get
past No. 6 Purdue yesterday in West Lafayette.

s
sn s

JPurdue
too much
for women
BOILERS
Continued from Page 1B
Purdue's Wright was a major reason
for preventing the upset. She answered
an 8-0 Michigan run that gave the
Wolverines a 33-28 lead late in the first
half with a 3-pointer to send Purdue into
the break with some positive energy.
"It kept us in there" Wright said of
her big shot. "We knew we had them.
Going into the lockerroom, (we
thought) 'this is our game."'
Purdue's zone defense provided some
fits for Michigan, hurting its ability to
dominate the inside. Michigan could not
combat the defense with perimeter
shooting either as it went 2-of-7 from
behind the arc.
"The zone can either make you look
really smart or really dumb," Purdue
coach Kristy Curry said. "Obviously, it
made us look smart."
For as often as Purdue's defense sti-
fled Michigan, there was a rebound,
turnover or missed free throw \vaiting
for the Wolverines on the other end to
keep them hovering within striking dis-
tance.
Despite the close score, the excite-
ment and intensity of both the
Boilermakers and the crowd gave a feel-
ing of Purdue being in control.
At 9:26, Cooper posted up to give
Purdue a 51-50 lead that it never relin-
*quished.
"I thought we played well pretty
much the whole game, we just couldn't
hold on," Ingram said. "It was just up
and down. There has to be a point where
we can get the lead and maintain it, and
we didn't do that today."
Michigan was as close as 64-61 at the
1:27 mark in the second half, but could
not come up with a defensive stand in
the closing minutes as Cooper and
Wright combined to score 13 of the
final 14 points for Purdue.
- --B

YESTERDAY'S GAME

1

4

Michigan (64)

Goodlow
Gandy
Bies
Oestede
Ingram
Schumacher
Robinson
}Smith
Totals

MIN
24
35
24
37
40
4
10
26
200

FG
M-A
2-7
6-12
5-9
2-12
6-16
0-0
0-2
3-5
24-63

FT
M-A
3-5
0-0
3-4
0-0
5-5
0-0
0-0
2-2
13-16

REB
O-T A F
37 1 3
3-6 2 2
2-4 0 5
3-8 8 3
0-3 9 3
0-0 0 0
0-1 0 1
1-7 0 0
12-37 20 17

PTS
7
12
13
4
20
0
0
8
64

FG%: .381. FT%: .813. 3-point FG: 3-16, .188 (Ingram 3-10,
Oestede 0-4, Robinson 0-2). Blocks: 3 (Goodlow 2, Oesterle).
Steals: 7 (Bies 3, Gandy 2, Oesterle, Robinson). Turnovers: 9
(Ingram 3, Goodlow 2, Gandy, Bies, Robinson). Technical Fouls:
none.

PURDUE (73)

Hums
Wight
Cooper
Komara
Valek
Parks
Crawford
'Totals

MIN
39
38
30
35
32
15
11
200

FG
M-A
3-5
10-16
10-13
5-14
0-4
0-1
2-4
30-57

FT
M-A
1-2
4-8
4-5
1-2
1-2
0-0
0-2
11-21

REB
O-T A F PTS
2-7 3 0 7
2-8 3 1 25
4.9 0 4 24
0-1 3 0 12
1-4 4 3 1
0-5 2 0 0
0-0 0 2 4
10-36 15 10 73

FG%: .526. FT%: .524. 3-point FG: 2-10, .200 (Wright 1-4,
Komara I-5, Valek 0-1). Blocks: 4 (Hums 4) Steals: 5 (Komara
3, Hums, Valek). Tumovers: 11 (Wright 2, Komara 2, Valek 2,
Parks 2, Hums, Cooper, Crawford). Technical Fouls: none.
Michigan........33 31 - 64
Purdue.. ..... ...31 42 - 73
At: Mackey Arena, West Lafayette
Attendance: 8,126
BIG TEN STANDINGS

Conference

Overall

Team
Purdue
Penn State
Wisconsin

w
11
8
8

L
0
3
3

W
21
16
14

L
3
6
7




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