The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday, February 18, 2002 - 3B P84 Michigan 73 THE DOWN-LOW GUEVA-RANT: "Sooner or later I'm going to get K someone to listen to (the coaches) and (learn) how to play some defense." KEY STAT: Michigan recorded 13 turnovers in the second half, after turning the ball over just seven times before halftime. TURNING POINT: Purdue's Kelly Komara stripped Alayne Ingram of the ball at half- court and walked in for an easy layup. The score was part of a 20-6 Boilermaker run that the Wolverines never recovered from. YOU KNEW IT WAS OVER WHEN: Shereka Wright hit a 3-pointer to put Purdue up by eight points with a little more than three minutes remaining. Michigan never got any closer. THE DAILY'S MVP: Wright dropped a career-high 40 points on Sunday and also set a school record for points in a game. She missed just six of 21 shots and scored 35 of her points in the paint. Box SCORE Wright exploits Blue's defense Purdue forward posts career-high while Bies injures hand in loss RAPHAEL GOODSTEIN By Charles Paradis Daily Sports Writer Defense has been a concern for the Michigan women's basketball team all season, and it was never exposed more than in yesterday's BASKETBALL game against Purdue. The Boilermak- ers put up 84 points on host Michigan, oteoo including 46 in the second half alone. The highlight of Purdue's offense was sophomore sensa- tion Shereka Wright. The Boilermakers' small forward deci- mated Michigan's defense to the tune of a career-high 40 points, almost quadruple her nearest teammate, Kelly Komara, who added 11 points of her own. Wright was a one-woman wrecking crew, as she foiled all of Michigan's attempts to guard her. "We tried three different people on Shereka Wright," Michigan coach Sue Guevara said. "Sooner or later I'm going to get somebody to listen to (the coaches) and (learn) how to play some defense, because I think that's where the breakdown was." Guevara knew what needed to be done to guard Wright - play off of her. Guevara wanted to force Wright to take jump shots. Out of Wright's 15 baskets on the night, 13 were in the paint. Despite her small size, the 5-foot-10 sophomore managed to dominate in amongst Michigan's taller post players. A lot of Wright's ability to get down on the block resulted from a switch the Boilermakers made when Michi- gan tried to play off of Wright. "(Guevara) told us to play off and it was simple, but (Pur- due) started setting screens and getting her open," Stephanie Gandy said. One of the reasons Wright was able to get to the basket so easily was the lack of help-side defense from the Wolver- ines. Michigan has stressed that all year, but against Purdue's multiple screens, the help-side defense was all but non-exis- tent. "I don't think it was the best defense we could have played," Gandy said. "The first 20 minutes was good, and the second 20 minutes was not very good at all. We had no help-side, and we work on that day in and day out. I don't know where the help-side was." Ultimately, Michigan's own defense defeated itself. The Wolverines could not come up with the stop they needed when the Boilermakers went on a run late in the game. Despite three Michigan players scoring in double digits, there was no chance of beating Purdue when the Wolverines could not make a key stop. "At some point we just have to get that defensive stop," Alayne Ingram said. "If you can't stop anybody, then there is no way you can win." BIEs BANGED up: With 7:56 left in the second half, junior center LeeAnn Bies deflected a Purdue pass along the base- line out of bounds. Bies reached out enough to break up the pass, but in doing so, Bies dislocated her left pinky and had to leave the game. She went to the lockerroom and never returned. Guevara is not sure if Bies will be able to play Thursday against Northwestern. Bies had been playing well until her injury. She recorded 14 points and five rebounds before she left the game. Bies' 6-foot-3 presence was sorely missed by the Wolverines, who were unable to come up with a substitute for the injured cen- ter. "We needed somebody to step up for her inside on both ends of the floor, and we didn't get that tonight," Guevara said. BEYOND THE BUBBLE: With its win over Michigan, Purdue was able to clinch at least a share of the Big Ten title and will probably earn an NCAA Tournament berth. But the Wolver- ines are unsure where they will end their year. With an RPI ranking of 36 and a winning record, Michigan has a good chance of making the Women's National Invitational Tour- nament. But as far as making the NCAA Tournament, the Wolverines would have to win out or to win the Big Ten Tournament at the end of the month. "We're an air pocket in the pool, we're not even on the bubble," Guevara said. "We're going to have to do some major, major work to get into either of the two tournaments." No 'miracles onice 'should be expected with professionals Purdue (84) Meadows Wright Noon Komara Valek Heikes Hicks Totats MIN 25 38 20 36 38 23 8 12 200 FG FT M-A M-A 3-7 0-1 15-21 9-11 4-8 0-0 3-10 4-4 0-4 2-2 5-9 0-0 0-2 0-0 2-3 0-0 REB 0-T 1-4 3-6 1-4 0-3 1-4 5-8 0-0 1-1 A 4 0 0 4 4 0 0 1 F PTS 4 7 1 40 4 8 2 11 1 2 2 10 0 0 0 6 32-6417-2112-34 13 14 84 FG%: .500 FT%: .810 3-point FG: 3-11, .273 (Mead- ows 1-2, Wright 1-2, Komara 1-5, Valek 0-1, Jones 0- 1). Blocks: 1(Wright) Steals: 11 (Meadows, Wright, Komara 6, Valek 2, Jones). Turnovers: 14 (Meadows 3, Noon, Komara 3, Valek 4, Jones, Hicks 2). Techni- cal Fouls: none. MICHIGAN (73) FG FT REB MIN M-A M-A 0-T A F PTS Gandy 38 5-10 3-4 1-5 3 3 15 Smith 28 3-8 2-4 4-9 3 3 8 Bies 29 5-11 4-4 3-5 2 1 14 Jara 18 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 5 0 Ingram 40 10-151-3 0-2 3 3 24 Pool 26 4-10 0-0 1-6 2 2 9 Oesterle 21 1-3 1-1 0-4 1 1 3 Totals 200 28-5711-1610-34 16 18 73 FG%: .491 FT%: .688 3-point FG: 6-13, .462 (Gandy 2-4, Ingram 3-5, Pool 1-2, Oesterle 0-2). Blocks: 3 (Bies 2, Ingram) Steals: 8 (Smith, Bies, Ingram 4, Pool, Oesterle). Turnovers: 20 (Smith 4, Bies 2, Jara, Ingram 4, Pool 5, Oesterle 2). Technical Fouls: none. BOILERS Continued from Page 1B After Purdue jumped out to an early four-point lead, Ingram hit a 3-pointer from well beyond the arc to put Michi- gan ahead, 17-15, with 12 minutes left in the half. Michigan did not relinquish the lead the rest of the half and led Pur- due by as many as eight points. "I thought we did pretty good for (the first) 25 minutes," Michigan coach Sue Guevara said. "We came out of the lockerroom (in the second half) and scored, got an' (eight-point) lead, and then Purdue picked up their defense." A speech by coach Kristy Curry helped spark Purdue's intensity. "I'm usually their number No. 1, but. I told them I was embarrassed and I think that got to their hearts a little bit," Curry said. She gave the players credit for the comeback, calling it "self-imposed" pressure. a1 Michigan finished the game with 20 turnovers, a week after turning the ball over 25 timesagainst similar defensive pressure from Ohio State. Iow does Guevara plan to change that? "(I will) probably run their tails off." e last few days of the Olympics have Tbeen pretty entertaining. First, the Canadian pair skaters won the silver medal only to find out that there were crooked judges who weren't good at keep- ing secrets, so now the pair will get to trade up to a gold medal. Then there was the unbelievable 1,000- meter short track competition, in which Seattle's Apolo Anton Ohno was leading and about to win the race when China's Li JiaJun slipped and collided with South Korea's Ahn Hyu-Soo, who brought Ohno with him. With the rest of the competition out of the way, Australia's Steven Bradbury -who must have been thinking, "This was unexpected"- made his move, gliding to a gold medal, though Ohno almost crawled to the finish line first. ' Then, finally, there was the United States- Russia hockey game. Sure it was cool. The United States versus Russia in anything is cool. But Saturday night/Sunday morning's (we'll say that the game was played yester- day) game will never be immortalized the way the Miracle on Ice is. While watching the game at a local watering hole, I noticed that the there was a general feeling of "It'd be nice to see Ameri- ca win - and (Detroit Red Wing) Sergei Federov score a goal." Needless to say, there was never a time when Americans were say- ing, "It'd be nice to see America win the Cold War - but it'd also be nice to see communism spread to a few countries." There are a number of reasons why yes- terday's-game wasn't as cool as the game 22 years ago was: Sequels are never as good as the original - with the possible exception ofYoung Guns II. The fact is that the Cold War's over, so Americans have a "Go Amer- ica" feeling mixed with a "Go (insert favorite player from another country)" feel- ing. We tied the Commies, so nobody both- ered to drape himself in an American flag. But most importantly, this game wasn't as cool because the game lacked what Ameri- ca's hockey team had 22 years ago - ama- teurs. You know, the athletes who once represented the Red, White and Blue in the Olympics. Unfortunately, it's now impossi- ble for another Miracle on Ice to ever hap- pen in America because the game has become America's NHL All Stars versus another country's NHL All Stars. I saw this game two weeks ago in the All Star game. Now, it's true that until 1992, America was the only country that did not send it's professional players to the Olympics. And it's also true that it's nice to think that win- ning a gold medal won't require a miracle. But, it's unfortunate that the purity of the Olympics has been diminished. Many of the same Americans that tied Russia yesterday, played in the Nagano Winter Olympics four years ago, and complained that they wish they hadn't done so. One of the reasons they were there is because America decided, if Canada's send- ing its best players, then we are too. Since when has America followed Canada's lead? After finishing in sixth place in Nagano, the team made it a point to get some ink with the press - so it destroyed the hotel that it was staying at as if it was The Who. This group of millionaires didn't bring the pride and joy that the 1980 team did, to say the least. The trend of us sending our best players for hockey stems from the 1988 summer Olympics when David Robinson and 11 mediocre college basketball players finished with a bronze medal and the American bas- ketball community was a tad embarrassed. After all, it looks bad for everyone, the NBA included, when America finishes in third place of an international basketball tournament. Because of this, the Dream Team was formed. The best 11 basketball players in the world, along with Christian Laettner, went to the 1992 Barcelona games to show everyone who's boss. And from the opening tipoff to the final buzzer, everyone knew.You almost got the impression that opponents didn't mind los- ing to the Dream Team, they were just happy to say, "I got dunked on by Michael Jordan;' or "I got elbowed in the mouth by Charles Barkley." For those of you who are too young to remember these games, imag- ine Duke playing Michigan in basketball. Unfortunately, America continued to send its best players to the Olympics after the '92 summer games. But don't feel bad for for- eign countries, they were happy to see America send its best. It provided these countries with the opportunity to have their' own Miracle on Ice. And two years ago, Lithuania almost had such a miracle, when it played American to within two points, and actually had a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win. The sense of pride in American basket- ball and hockey dissipated during these games because it's nice to win a gold medal, but it's not a big deal. Not with our profes- sionals. It'd be a big deal if we didn't win the gold medal. And now that there is so much more to lose than to win, it's hard to find reason to believe that another miracle is possible.. Raphael Goodstein can be reached at raphaelg@umich.edu. Purdue...............................38 46 Michigan........................42 31 At: Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor Attendance: 2,031 84 73 DAVID ROCHKIND/C Jennifer Smith and the Wolverines were overpowered by Purdue yesterday. Player Bies Ingram Smith Gandy Pool Oesterle Mason Jara Hauser-Pric McPhilamy Goodlow 'M' STATS Through Feb. 17 G Min A 25 31.6 1.9E 24 37.9 4.4< 25 29.8 1.6 24 30.5 1.8 24 24.0 1.7 22 21.0 1.2 22 8.5 0.2 22 15.2 1.5 ce 15 10.3 0.5{ y 9 3.1 0.0t 5 26.0 2.4 Reb 8.4 3.2 7.8 4.6 4.3 4.1 2.5 1.5 0.8 0.8 5.6 Pts. 16.4 15.1 13.3 12.0 7.6 4.0 3.0 1.7 1.1 0.0 8.8 Shereka! The 40 points Shereka Wright scored were the most points scored against Michigan this season. Here is a look at the other players who have put up big numbers against the Wolverines during the 2001-02 campaign. M--U Name Ayana Walker Lindsay Whalen Tamara Moore Sarah Kawanski Iveta Marcausaite Jennie Lillis Loree Paine Kelly Mazzante Didi Reynolds Tameka Brown Courtney Coleman School Louisiana Tech Minnesota Wisconsin Northwestern Illinois Iowa Washington Penn State Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State Date Nov. 16, 2001 Jan. 17, 2002 Jan. 6, 2002 Feb. 3, 2002 Dec. 28, 2001 Feb. 14, 2002 Dec. 9, 2001 Jan. 13, 2002 Jan. 10, 2002 Feb. 10, 2002 Feb. 10, 2002 Points 32 27 26 24 24 23 23 22 22 21 21 D J 0 II ji Field-goal percentage leader Bies 139-263 .529 Free-throw percentage leader Gandy 73-89 .820 3-point percentage leader Ingram 48-116 .414 BIG TEN STANDINGS Team Purdue Minnesota Penn State Wisconsin Iowa Illinois Ohio State Indiana Michigan Michigan State Northwestern Conference Overall W L W L 12 3 21 4 10 4 20 5 10 4 18 9 8 6 17 8 8 6 15 9 7 7 14 10 7 8 12 14 6 8 12 13 5 9 15 10 5 9 15 10 0 14 4 21 _ -' --. -- "- Please call 734.763.7302 for your Michigan Classics Information Packet \ i i 41 .4 . 11 '14 Yesterday's Results: Purdue 84, MICHIGAN 73 INDIANA 73, Minnesota 63 Ohio State 87, NORTHWESTERN 69 PENN STATE 83, Illinois 78 TEXAS TECH 78, Wisconsin 62 Wenesday's Game: Iowa at Michigan State 7 p.m. Thursday's Games: Indiana at Illinois 8 p.m. Wisconsin at Minnesota 8 p.m. Michigan at Northwestern 8 p.m. Penn State at Purdue 7 p.m. UP NEXT: Time: 7 p.m. Thursday NORTHln"WESTERNm An LARGEST SELECTION AO - All teams welcome: Men, Women and two levels of Co-Rec $525 - 10 games plus playoffs $1050 - doubleheader - 20 games plus playoffs NO PLAYER FEES! All games are played at Mitchell Fields located on Fuller Road. C -..