CLASSIC MICHIGAN
The Michigan women's gymnas-
tics team finishes first in the
State of Michigan Classic.

URBANCHEK-IN' OUT
After 22 years as a Michigan's swimming coach, Jon Urbanchek's
final home meet results in a victory over Michigan State.

PAGE 7B

PAGE 8B
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February 9, 2004

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MICHIGAN 64, Purdue 63

In the end, getting a
win mattered most

DAN ROSEN
Days of Thunder
After Michigan's 64-63
escape against Purdue on
Saturday, Michigan coach
Tommy Amaker didn't want to
focus on the team's 10-minute scor-
ing drought in the second half.
"I'm proud of our guys for win-
ning this game," Amaker said. "I
think that if we'd have said we were
going to win by one before the
game started, we wouldn't care how
we got there."
And why should he dwell on the
dry spell?
The must for the Wolverines on
Saturday was getting a win, not
necessarily scoring consistently.
True, Michigan probably can't
expect to get too far toward any of its
goals for the season if it goes through
periods of ineptitude every night. In
half of its conference games, the
team has gone at least five minutes
without more than a couple of points.
Once the Wolverines got up by 16,
you would have hoped that would
have been lights out for Purdue. But
the Wolverines definitely can't reach
their goals if they let those stretches
be their demise.
That didn't happen yesterday.
Instead, Michigan got a big win.
One they had to have.
Forget the final margin. The
Wolverines needed to defend their
home floor. Even if they do take a
game on the road from Minnesota
on Wednesday, it'd be hard to make
the NCAA tournament without
beating a few of the good teams in

the conference.
Wins against Penn State and
Northwestern were necessary. But
they wouldn't be considered quality
victories, even with the Wildcats'
win over Wisconsin Saturday. Iowa
has been solid, with a 5-4 record in
the conference. But one decent win
over the Hawkeyes doesn't make for
a strong resume.
Purdue is a tournament-caliber
team. Granted, it was missing Ken-
neth Lowe, its leading scorer. But
the Boilermakers are still hard-
nosed and smart. Their 15-point
win at Penn State without their sen-
ior earlier this week is proof
enough of that. They haven't won
15 games with Lowe alone.
The Boilermakers played well to
get themselves back in the game
Saturday. They stole the momentum
with some of the slap-the-floor
pressure defense that they're known
for. The zone that they mixed in
seemed to catch the Wolverines off-
guard.
"I thought you saw their experi-
ence and their toughness, just fight-
ing back one possession at a time,
putting us on our heels," Amaker
said.
But Purdue didn't do the little
things when it counted.
"For us to be a team that's going
to win these type of games, (we've)
got to be able to get loose balls and
get rebounds," Purdue coach Gene
Keady said.
The Wolverines, meanwhile, did
do those things.
They truly crashed the offensive
glass - 16 times for those keeping
score at home. Clearly, none bigger
than Courtney Sims' two follows at
the end.
They ripped 15 turnovers from
Purdue, which hadn't given it up
more than 10 times in any of its last
See ROSEN, page 5B

Michigan freshman Courtney Sims attempts to tip in a Daniel Horton miss in the final seconds on Saturday. Sims missed the first shot but tipped in the second attempt
to give Michigan the win.

Sims saves the day as

4'%

Down the stretch they come ... and come again
SCORE: SCORE: SCORE: SCORE: SCORE:
62-61, Michigan 63-62, Purdue 63-62, Purdue 6463, Michigan 64-63, Michigan
TIME: 0:18 TIME: 0:07 TIME: 0:03 T(ME: 0.CT TIME: 0:01.4

cagers survive ruruue

By Chris Burke
Daily Sports Editor
It's hard for someone 6-foot-I1 to
hide anywhere without being noticed,
but that's exactly what Michigan fresh-
man Courtney Sims was able to do dur-
ing the closing seconds against Purdue
on Saturday.
After a Brandon McKnight fade-
away jumper capped a 16-point Purdue
comeback to give the Boilermakers the
63-62 lead with just under eight seconds
remaining in the game, Michigan point
guard Daniel Horton took the inbounds
and raced the length of the court.
His floater in the lane came up short
of the rim. Waiting for the miss, though,
was Sims, who had snuck behind the

Purdue defenders as they scrambled to
stop Horton's penetration.
Sims's first tip-in attempt fell out, but
the center managed to knock home the
second chance, giving Michigan a 64-
63 win.
"I knew (Horton) was going to take
the shot - I just wanted to get into
position;' Sims said. "When he missed
it, it just happened to fall into my hands.
I tried to tip it in but missed, and I just
stayed with it until it fell."
The Michigan big man was able to
get into position for the game-winner
thanks, in no small part, to Purdue's
absence of timeouts. Instead of stopping
the clock and setting up their defense,
the Boilermakers' were forced to try
See BOILERS, page 5B

SCENE: After
being fouled by
Purdue's David
Teauge, Michi-
gan guard Daniel
Horton gets the
chance to push
the Wolverine
lead to two or u,

SCENE: P
Brandon
Knight g
Boilermc
lead, hit
baseline
over Mi(
Lester A

?urdue's SCENE: Horton is
Mc- again given heA
;ives the opportunity to
akers the put his team
ting a ahead. He races
jumper down the court
chigan's and takes a shot
bram. from the lane,
but comes
up short.
DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily
Sims celebrates after
hitting the game winner.

SCENE: Freshman
Courtney Sims
catches Horton's
miss and yuts up
a shot,.wh h
doesn't go down.
Sims attempts to
tip in his own
miss, and it falls
to put Michigan
ahead. 4Amassive
celebratin
-ensues, but is
halted when the
referees go to the
monitors.

SCENE: After a
short delay, the
officials deter-
mine Sims' shot
was good, but
they put 1.4 sec-
onds back on the
clock. Daniel
Horton knocks
Purdue's
inbounds pass
away, ending the
game again.

SCORE:
64-63, Michigan
TIME: 0:00
SCENE:Michigan
enjoys its second
post-game cele-
bration. Now
relieved, the
Wolverines opt
to run around
the court in a
frenzy instead of
piling on top of
each other ike
they did the first
time.

three, but
misses the front
end of a one-
and-one.

4A

I

Wolverines rout
Badgers behind
Pool's big game
By Eric Ambinder
Daily Sports Writer

'M' splits Alaskan escapade,
remains second in CCHA

By Brian Schick
Daily Sports Writer
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - The city of Fair-
banks was established as a gold-mining com-
munity of prospectors hoping to strike it rich
and return home with SATUAY
large amounts of wealth.
The Michigan hockey L G
team was also hoping
Fairbanks could offer a
prized nugget that has '
eluded it all season long
- a sween of an onnonent

chance to close the door on Alaska-Fairbanks
(12-11-1, 13-14-3), but allowed the Nanooks
to hang around by giving them quality scor-
ing chances. Down 2-1 in the middle of the
second period, the Wolverines scored two
even-strength goals just 46 seconds apart to
recapture the lead. With Michigan seemingly
in control of the game at that point, winger
Eric Nystrom was called for interference.
Alaska-Fairbanks forward Jason Grinevitch
lit the lamp on the powerplay to swing the
momentum back to the Nanooks.
"We just had a couple breakdowns,"
defenseman Andy Burnes said. "We obvious-

They conquered giants - Wisconsin's and their own.
In its most solid all-around effort of the season, the Michi-
gan women's basketball team defeated Wisconsin 75-55 at
Crisler Arena on Sunday. The Badgers boasted a front-court
that included the sister act of 6-foot-7
Lello and 6-foot-3 Ebba Gebisa, as well
..o ~ ~ ~ ~ MiHG 75n__ enn ;[A hairlfaa