The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - December 2, 2002 - 5B Talkin' the talk "You have to win it or lose it at the free-throw line." - Western Michigan coach Robert McCollum after the Broncos held on, thanks to Michigan's 12-for-21 mark at the free-throw line, including 2-for-8 in the second half. SATURDAY'S GAME ' Western Michigan 56 M iMichigan 52 Players of the game LaVell Blanchard (Michigan) Blanchard was Michigan's most effective player, leading the Wolver- ines with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Robby Collum (Western Michigan) Collum led the Broncos with 17 points, and was 6-for-6 down the stretch at the free-throw line to seal the win. Queen dismissed for violating team rules Ingerson still sidelined with Achilles, knee injuries By Chris Burke Daily Sports Writer Last Wednesday, Michigan coach Tommy Amaker announced that junior point guard Avery Queen had been dis-_ missed from the team for an BASKETBALL unspecified rules violation. Notebook "We appreciate Avery's efforts here at the Universi- ty and wish him and his family well," Amaker said. "There will be no further comment on this matter." The announcement came just a day after the Wolverines had returned from their season- opening tournament, the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands. Queen came off the bench in all three Michigan games in the tournament, averaging * 11.3 minutes, but did not score. The junior shared starting point guard duties with Mike Gotfredson last season, aver- aging 26.3 minutes and just over four points per game. In the wake of Queen's dismissal, the Wolverines were left with the task of deter- mining who would back up their starting point guard, freshman Daniel Horton. As of Saturday's game against Western Michigan, those duties belong to freshman walk-on- Sherrod Harrell. But the make up of the Wolverines roster will still force Michigan into giving Horton signifi- cant minutes at the point guard position. With the dismissal of Queen and the graduation of Gotfredson after last year, the Wolverines are lacking a point guard with experience. "We need Daniel as our point guard," Amaker said. "We're not going to have the luxury of experimenting with (Horton at the shooting guard position)." DOM BOMBED: The Wolverines' offensive struggles so far this season have left them desperate for someone to consistently knock down outside jumpers. Sophomore Dommanic Ingerson is capable of doing just that. But the guard has yet to play this year and was in street clothes during the loss to Western Michigan. "He's been injured - we're trying to deter- mine the severity of it," Amaker said. "He hasn't felt well enough to get out there in practice. His knee and Achilles tendon have been bothering him." Ingerson played sparingly in the Wolver- ines' exhibition victories over Wayne State and the Nike Elite. He played in all 29 of Michigan's games a year ago, averaging 8.1 points a game in 16.2 minutes. MAC TRUCK: Michigan's loss to the Bron- cos dropped the Wolverines to a meager 1-3 against the Mid-American Conference in the last two years. Saturday's loss was the second straight to Western Michigan. The Broncos knocked off Michigan 79-73 last year. The Wolverines then fell to Bowling Green five days later. Michigan salvaged the year against the MAC with an 88-58 romp over Eastern Michi- gan on Dec. 12, 2001. The Wolverines still have Bowling Green, as well as fellow MAC teams Central Michi- gan and Eastern Michigan remaining on this year's schedule. SATURDAYSSGAME Western Michigan (56) FG FT REB MIN M-A M-A 0-T A F PTS Williams 34 5-10 0-2 1-1 2 2 10 Berry 18 0-2 0-0 0-2 2 2 0 Kann 29 6-10 0-0 1-9 1 4 12 Collum 33 5-15 6-6 1-5 1 2 17 Reed 27 2-8 2-5 2-5 1 2 8 Slater 16 0-2 2-2 0-1 0 1 2 Snider 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 0 Willis 8 1-2 0-0 0.0 1 0 3 Evola 8 1-3 2-2 4-4 0 1 4 Madison 11 0-2 0-0 1-2 0 2 0 Bronson 9 0-1 0-0 01 0 3 0 Totals 200 20.56 12-17 13.36 10 23 56 FG%:,.357. FT%: .706.3-point FG:4-16,.250 (Reed 2-4, Willis 1-1', Collum 1-8, Slater 0-1, Berry 0-2). Blocks: 4 (Williams, Reed, SBater, Madison). Steals: 9 (Collum 4, Kann 2, Slater 2, Bronson). Turnovers: 16 (Collum 4, Kann4, Williams 3, Reed 2, Evola 1). Technical fouls: none MICHIGAN (52) FG FT REB MIN M-A M-A 0-T A F PTS Robinson 33 3-11 4-5 2-6 3 4 10 Blanchard> 36 5-10 34.4 12 1 3 14 Hunter 21 0-1 3-4 1-2 0 0 3 Abram 31 2-7 1-2 0-2 0 5 5 Horton 31 5-16 0-2 0-5 2 3 11 Harrell 9 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 0 Groninger 16 1-2 1-2 0-2 0 2 3 Brown 18 2-4 0-2 1-5 0 1 4 Bailey 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2 Totals 200 22-45 17.20 5-31 10 19 64 FG%: .365. FT%: .571 3-poInt FG: 2-13, .154 (Blan- chard 1-2, Jones 1-1, Horton 1-7, Abram 0-1, Groninger 0-iRobinson 0-3). Blocks: 6 (Brown 2, Robinson, Hunter, Horton, Harrell). Steals: 5 (Abram 3, Robinson, Blanchard). Turnovers: 21 (Robinson 5, Blanchard 5, Horton 4, Hunter 3, ,Abram 2, Harrell Brown). Technical fouls: none. Western Michigan.......25 31 - 56 Michigan...............24 28 - 52 At: Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor Attendance: 9,781 BIG TEN Team Indiana Wisconsin Iowa Illinois Minnesota Purdue Northwestern Michigan State Ohio State Penn State Michigan STANDINGS Conference Overall W L W L 0 0 4 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 3 0. 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 4 DAINNY MOIOSHK/Daily The Michigan basketball team is hoping that guard Dommanic Ingerson will be launching 3-pointers again soon. Ingerson has yet to play in the regular season due to lingering injuries. Blanchard unable to save bumbling Blue BRONCOS Continued from Page 11B "We actually did a good job run- ning that last play, because we ran a play that we did last year that we haven't really this year," Groninger said. "I came off a double screen from the baseline.- "That's the first look for me to get a shot from the corner. They did a good job switching out, so I knew LaVell would be on the other side so I tried to drag it across the floor and kick it to him." Western Michigan coach Robert McCullum was disappointed with his team's last-second defense, but nonetheless relieved that Blan- chard's final shot fell out. "(Michigan) got some middle penetration and whoever was guard- ing LaVell started watching the ball," McCullum said. "I thought our player did a good job hustling back to try and contest the shot - in those situations you want-to make someone else beats you other than LaVell Blanchard or Bernard Robinson Jr." Neither team was able to establish a comfortable lead in the game. Western Michigan led 25-24 at half- time, and thanks to six points each from center Anthony Kann and for- ward Mike Williams, the Broncos stretched the lead to 46-39 with 8:47 left. "I think we need to improve (our interior defense)," Amaker said. "I think when you look at some break- downs we had you we can see that a lot of they key areas came as a result of youth and inexperience with Graham Brown and Chris Hunter and the fouls." Michigan responded, pulling within 46-45, and accumulating four fouls on both Kann (who fin- ished with 12 points) and Collum (17 points). But with a chance to take the lead, freshman Lester Abram was called for a charging foul with 4:33 to go in the second half, and the Wolverines never pulled any closer than two points the rest of the way. "We talk a lot about deserving things and I felt (Western Michigan) certainly deserved the victory," Amaker said. 'We played with des- peration to get back into it and give ourselves an opportunity to win it, but I think we all agree that they deserved to win the way they played the entire 40 minutes." That's not to say that the Western Michigan offense looked like a jug- gernaut either - the Broncos had just as much trouble finding the bas- ket as Michigan, shooting 35.7 per- cent from the floor and committing 16 turnovers. "We didn't do the things we want- ed to well, but I thought that we kept our composure and that's why we came out with a victory," Collum said. "We didn't shoot as well as we wanted to; credit Michigan, they played good defense." For the first time this season, the Wolverines outrebounded an oppo- nent, grabbing 41 boards compared to the Broncos' 36. Blanchard paced the charge with 12 rebounds (eight offensive) to go along with his team-high 14 points. The Wolverines will have little time to make any major improve- ments, as Central Michigan comes to Ann Arbor on Tuesday, the last game before Michigan travels to Duke next Saturday. The 0-4 start for the Wolverines is only the sec- ond time in the history of the pro- gram that that mark has been reached - the 1933-34 Michigan team also began the year 0-4. "We have to reevaluate a lot of things, whether that means personnel or what we're doing on the floor," Amaker said. Blanchard agreed. "We are at a point in the season where we just need to find a way to win." Last Saturday's results: Western Michigan 56, Michigan 52 Indiana 70, Virginia 63 Wisconsin 69, Wisconsin-Green Bay 52 Iowa 84, Tennessee State 51 Illinois 96, Arkansas-Pine Bluff 43 Minnesota 72, Georgia 69 Purdue 86, Louisville 84 Northwestern 59, Kansas State 55 Alabama 54, Ohio State 48 Yale 84, Penn State 68 Yesterday's games: Indiana 84, North Texas St. 58 Illinois 85, Western Illinois 56 Tuesday's games: Central Michigan at Michigan 7 p.m. Ohio State vs. Duke 7 p.m. Purdue at Xavier 7:30 p.m. Penn State at Clemson 7:30 p.m. Maryland vs. Indiana 9:00 p.m. North Carolina at Illinois 9:30 p.m. Wednesday's games: Georgia Tech at Minnesota Northwestern at N.C. State Virginia at Michigan State Wake Forest at Wisconsin 7 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 9 p.m. 9:30 p.m. UP NEXT: TONY DING/Daily Daniel Horton will be seeing the majority of Michigan's playing time at point guard now that junior Avery Queen has been dismissed from the Wolverines for violating team rules. Freshmen running the show forM Whitney Robinson AP PHOTO CENTRAL MICHIGAN Central Michigan has a chance to hand Michigan its worst start in school history if it can come in to Ann Arbor and beat the Wolverines. POINT Continued from Page 1B obviously in the future." Of course the increased playing minutes are a wel- comed early Christmas present for Harrell. "I'm fine with it, if coach needs me to step in, I'll Harrell step in and do what I have to do to get a victory," Harrell said. While Harrell's offensive skills may not be like those possessed by Horton, that is not what the Michi- gan coaching staff has demanded from him. Harrell brings a solid defensive toughness to the game that Amaker and his staff expect from the walk- on freshman. "Coach asked me to be a defen- sive man, so that's what I focus on," Harrell said. "I know that defense brings offense so if you play excellent defense then offense will come." Unlike, Queen, who stood at 5- foot-7, both Harrell and Horton are 6-foot-3. The two are also very strong, and were able to challenge Western Michigan's Robby Collum in Satur- day's 56-52 loss. "They made me work for every- thing I got," Colluma said. "(Harrell) and Horton are big and strong, and they are pretty quick. You have got to adjust to how they are playing." NEXT WEEKEND: ~1 WEEKEND NOTES No. 24 Minnesota 73, No. 17 Geor- gia 69: With two seconds on the clock, Minnesota's Michael Bauer launched a 3-point shot that bounced around the rim and then fell in as time expired. The break was a welcome sight for the Gophers, who lost five games last sea- son after blowing a late lead and near- ly did the same against Georgia. The Bulldogs recovered from a six-point hole with under two minutes remaining to tie the game. The dclfat is all the more crushing for "We're still a work in progress," Lavin said. "We have a long way to go." North Carolina 74, Stanford 57: After winning the Preseason NIT, North Car- olina's 8-20 record last season is ancient history. Rashad McCants again paced the Tar Heels against Stanford -just as he did in North Carolina's upset of No. 2 Kansas two days earlier. McCants is one of three freshman, along with two sophomores, that start for the Tar Heels. Interestingly enough, one of the goals of this talented freshmen class is to beat every team that North Carolina lost to last season. "What happened last season got me pumped up and ready to play," McCants said. "I wanted to play for them last season, but obviously could- n't. Now we're here." HOW THE AP Team Record 1. Arizona 2-0 2. Kansas 2-2 3. Texas 4-0 4. Alabama 4-0 5. Pittsburgh 3-0 6. Duke 3-0 7. Florida 4-1 8. Oklahoma 3-1 9. Michigan State 2-3 10. Oregon 3-0 11. Maryland 3-0 12. Connecticut 2-0 TOP 25 FARED This weekend's results Beat Northern Arizona 101-66 Lost to No. 7 Florida 83-73 Beat Seton Hall 78-61 Beat Ohio State 54-48 Beat Arkansas Pine Bluff 89-49 Beat No. 14 UCLA 84-73 Beat No. 2 Kansas 83-73 Beat Prairie View 76-63 Lost to Oklahoma State 64-61 Beat Padfic 88-69 Beat Duquesne 89-39 At Vanderbilt, inc. DUKE Fresh off a win over UCLA in the Wooden Classic, the Blue Devils will face two Big Ten teams this week, Ohio State tomorrow and then Michigan on Saturday afternoon. 'M' STATS Player Blanchard Horton G 4 4 Min 32.8 31.5 A .5 2.3 Reb 8.0 2.8 Pts. 14.5 12.3 ri ll M * Oklahoma State 64. No. 9 Michigan I I