6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - February 10, 2003
State closes
out 'M' in
tight match
By Sharad Mattu
Daily Sports Writer
EAST LANSING - The Michigan
wrestling team's match against Michigan State
had just about everything a fan could hope to
see between the rivals. Numerous matches
went down to the wire, tempers flared during
the heavyweight match when Michigan's
coaches accused the Spartans' heavyweight of
trying to injure the Wolverines' already hob-
bled wrestler and the meet wasn't decided
until the very end.
But No. 16 Michigan State never relin-
quished its early lead, and pulled out a 16-15
win over No. 7 Michigan.
Rashad Evans gave Michigan State an early
lead with a 6-1 decision over R.J. Boudro at
174 pounds. Willie Breyer got the Wolverines
on the board with a 6-4 overtime decision over
Nate Mesyn at 184 pounds. Breyer was losing
4-2 late in third period, but got a reversal to
send the match to overtime.
Michigan's Kyle Smith, ranked 17th, lost to
No. 6 Nik Fekete 7-3, a wrestler Smith had
handled in previous matches.
"Kyle doesn't have a lot of confidence right
now," Michigan coach Joe McFarland said.
"This is his senior year, and he needs to make
the best of it. He just wasn't the aggressor out
there today. It's there - he just needs to
decide when to pull the trigger."
At heavyweight, the Spartans' Mike Keenan
upset Michigan's No. 9 Greg Wagner with a
11-3 major decision. Midway through the
third period, it appeared that Keenan had
found a way to pin Wagner. But Wagner had
hurt his ankle, and the referee changed the call
to an injury timeout. Wagner stayed in the
match, and Simmons went after Wagner's leg,
infuriating Michigan's coaches.
Keenan's actions set poor
example for sport's youth
REP
NICOLE TERWILLIGER/Daily
The Michigan wrestling team put up a tough effort yesterday at East Lansing, but fell just short
as the Spartans snagged a 16-15 win.
With the momentum to Michigan State, No.
5 A.J. Grant came through for Michigan at
125 pounds. Tied at two with eight seconds
left, Michigan State's No. 7 Nick Simmons
had a riding-time advantage which would have
given him the victory. But with three seconds
remaining, Grant scored a reversal to win 4-3.
"It was a tough match," Grant said. "All I
could do was hang on and wait for any
chances he gave me. He got a little greedy at
the end, and I just reached for that leg and held
on right at the end for the two."
Michigan's 133-pounder, Foley Dowd,
brought the Wolverines closer with a 13-7
decision over Shane Martin. Dowd took con-
trol with three takedowns in the first period.
With the Spartans' lead cut to 10-9, the
Wolverines hoped Clark Forward could give
them the lead at 141 pounds. But Forward lost
a tough match to Michigan State's Ryan
L'Amoreaux, 9-8. After an exciting first period
when both wrestlers scored a takedown, fol-
lowed by a two-point near fall, Forward found
himself behind in the second period and
couldn't catch up.
The best match of the meet was between
No. 5 Ryan Bertin of Michigan and No. 6
Gray Maynard of Michigan State. The match
was tied at four after the third period, and nei-
ther wrestler could get a takedown in the first
overtime. In the second overtime, Maynard
only needed an escape, whereas Bertin needed
to ride Maynard for the entire 30 seconds,
which is much tougher. Maynard got the
escape and gave the Spartans a 16-12 lead.
"Bertin wrestled a tough match," McFar-
land said. "Those are two of top guys in the
country at 157. It was a great match and came
down to a 30-second ride. Ryan's a competi-
tor, and he'll be back."
The final match of the day was between
Michigan's Pat Owen and the Spartans' Arsen
Aleksanyan. Owen, filling in for an injured
Mike Kulczycki, was coming off a huge upset
on Friday when he pinned No. 6 Jacob Volk-
mann of Minnesota. But he also was hobbled
with a bad ankle, and while he dominated the
match and won a 5-0 decision, he was unable
to get any near-fall points.
"It's unfortunate both my 165-pounders
right now are a little banged up," McFarland
said. "It was nice to see Pat get a win today. I
was real happy with how he wrestled consider-
ing how sore his ankle was. It would have
been nice to get a pin there at the end, but it
just wasn't in the cards today."
By Eric Chan
Daily Sports Writer
EAST LANSING - "Go after that messed up
knee!"
"Break his fucking leg offt"
Scornful comments like that could be heard
from the Michigan State wrestling fans during one
of the most memorable matches of the season in
East Lansing.
"No class. These guys got no class. I reffed
wrestling for 26 years, and I've never seen anything
like this," said another man.
The latter comment may have been referring to
the fans, but it was likely
directed at Michigan State W
backup heavyweight Nick WRESTLING
Keenan. With starting heavy- Commentary
weight John Lechter out of
commision for the Spartans, Keenan stepped in.
Keenan would square off against Michigan redshirt
freshman Greg Wagner (ranked ninth in the coun-
try). Wagner walked on the mat favoring a right leg
that was completely wrapped in gauze.
Keenan was aggressive early on, attacking the
weak right leg of Wagner with a high crotch. After
going out of bounds, Wagner limped slowly back
to the middle of the mat, grimacing in pain.
Wagner was able to keep the match close, and
with a minute left in the final period, the score was
4-3 in favor of Keenan. After hitting a double leg
takedown, Wagner lifted Keenan into the air, and
then fell suddenly to the back. Keenan quickly took
advantage of the situation and jumped on top of
Wagner. The referee slapped the mat, calling the
pin, and the fans went crazy.
The Spartans' backup heavyweight had just
upset one of the nation's top heavyweights in Wag-
ner - or so they thought. Wagner lay on the mat,
writhing in agony and grabbing at his right ankle.
Michigan coach Joe McFarland quickly ran to the
referee to argue his case that the pin shouldn't have
been called because Wagner was injured.
The referee agreed, and to the dismay of the
Michigan State wrestling fans, the match contin-
ued, with Keenan receiving the takedown and near
fall points to bring the score to 10-3. Wagner
appeared to be in a great deal of pain, but decided
to finish the match.
The no-pin call was already enough excitement
for one match, but the controversy was just begin-
ning. When the match started up again, Keenan
immediately dropped his knee - and most of his
weight - on Wagner's right ankle. With the match
in hand, Keenan was clearly only trying to inflict
pain on the Wolverines' heavyweight. The referee
called it "potentially dangerous" (meaning it
appeared as though an injury could occur), and as
the heavyweights walked back to the center of the
mat, Michigan assistant coach Tony Robie could be
seen on the side of the mat screaming at Michigan
State's coaching staff.
"All I can say is that I'd be really disappointed if
one of our guys did a thing like that," Robie said.
"You hate to see a thing like that in our sport."
When the match continued, Keenan continued
attacking the right ankle of Wagner. -Keenan
grabbed the ankle and started twisting it and
pulling at it, as Wagner tried to flee the mat and
defend himself.
"It was pretty obvious that he was going after
that ankle," McFarland said. "That's a reflection on
that kid. I don't teach my kids that stuff, and I don't
think (Michigan State coach Tom Minkel) does
either. He actually had the ankle and was lifting up
on it. That's not a move in.the sport of wrestling.
The only thing you are trying to do there is injure
an ankle that's already injured."
Michigan State managed to pull off the 16-15
upset against Michigan, but to what end? To the
hordes of high school wrestlers in attendance at
Jenison Field House, the cheering of the fans made
Keenan's attack on Wagner's ankle seem accept-
able. The sport of wrestling has been one of honor
and integritysince the days of ancient Rome, but
the next generation of wrestlers will have "no
class" unless the type of inappropriate behavior
demonstrated by Keenan is reprimanded.
.
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Jordan's circus shot not enough to beat West
ATLANTA (AP) - On a night for
Michael Jordan, all he was missing was
the game-winning shot.
Jordan said goodbye to the All-Star
game with his eyes teary and his game
a bit blemished as the West beat the
East 155-145 in double overtime yes-
terday night.
A last-minute starter after Vince
Carter relinquished his spot, Jordan
had a poor start, a bad finish and then a
good one. After clanging the potential
winning shot off the iron at the end of
regulation, Jordan made a high-arching
15-footer with 4.8 seconds left in over-
time to give the East a two-point lead.
215 W. Cross Street'
Ypsilanti, M!
I
Kobe Bryant tied it, however, by
making two foul shots with I second
left, and Jordan's final shot of the first
overtime was blocked just before the
buzzer.
MVP Kevin Garnett scored nine of
his 37 points in the second overtime as
Jordan watched the final five minutes
from the bench. It was the first double-
overtime game in All-Star history.
Although Jordan missed his first
seven shots, had four others rejected
and blew a dunk, he did score 20 points
to move past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for
most total points in All-Star history.
But he needed to take 27 shots from
the field - making only nine - in
order to do it.
His most memorable moment came
late in the first overtime, while the
most poignant one came at halftime.
Jordan joined singer Mariah Carey at
center court, took the microphone.after
an extended ovation and bid a public
farewell as Yao Ming, Kobe Bryant and
basketball's future stood and watched.
"I leave the game in good hands,"
Jordan said. "So many great stars rising
and playing the game. I have passed on
the things that Dr. J and some of the
great players - Magic Johnson, Larry
Bird - have passed on to me, I pass on
to these All-Stars here, as well as to the
rest of the players in the NBA.
"I want to thank you all for your sup-
port. Now I can go home and feel at
peace with the game of basketball."
The entire evening played out as
though it was a Jordan tribute.
Allen Iverson arrived at the arena
wearing a retro Bulls No.-23 jersey, Yao
donned a pair of powder blue low-tops,
a tribute to Jordan's alma mater, North
Michael Jordan almost sealed the deal for the East with an impossible fadeaway
shot at the end of the first overtime, but the West was able to pull it out.
ilano
Carolina, which clashed garishly with
his bright red Western Conference uni-
form.
"I'm somewhat embarrassed
because I got a feeling it's going to turn
into the Michael Jordan show, which I
don't want it to be," he said before the
game.
In the end, of course, it was.
Jordan's go-ahead shot late in the
first overtime was a thing of beauty, a
perfectly rotating, high-floating jumper
that looked true from the moment it left
his fingertips.
After hitting the shot, he drifted into
a row of photographers and pumped
his fist, getting a chest bump from
Iverson as he went to the bench.
Things weren't over, though.
Referee Ted Bernhardt called Jer-
maine O'Neal for a foul when he
blocked Bryant out of bounds as
Bryant threw up a 3-point attempt from
in front of the West's bench.
"Leave it to the refs to ruin it," East
coach Isiah Thomas said in disgust.
Bryant made the first, missed the
second and then had Jordan come over
and say something to him. He buried
the final shot to tie the game, 138-138.
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