4

12A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 12, 2004

GOPHERS
Continued from Page 8A
At that point, Michigan held a 57-50 lead,
but the Gophers turned up the defensive pres-
sure and hit 3-pointers on their next four pos-
sessions. The final one, from guard Adam
Boone, put Minnesota ahead, 62-61. After
sophomore Daniel Horton knocked down a
hanging jump shot, the Gophers answered with
two free throws by Stan Gaines, and would
never relinquish the lead again.
"When people are putting some pressure on
the ball, they speed you up a.little bit," said
Amaker of his team's 19 turnovers and shot selec-
tion problems. "We seem to be very uncomfort-
able with that unless we're at home, and that's
perplexing to me."
The Wolverines tried to stage a desperate rally
late. They were down 76-66 when Lester Abram
sunk two free throws, and Courtney Sims fol-
lowed with a three-point play.
Two minutes later, a jumper by Horton and a
free throw by Sims pulled Michigan to within
78-76, but the Wolverines would get no closer.
Michigan had one last chance to knot the game
back up after Boone bricked two free throws
with under eight seconds left, but guard Dion
Harris came up short on a desperation 3-point-
er at the buzzer.
"We were playing as hard as we could the
whole game, Michigan forward Graham Brown
said. "I don't really know what to say about it
right now - it's just a big letdown for us."
Brown and Sims were the reluctant targets of
the Minnesota offensive attack that started inside
with center Jeff Hagen and likely Big Ten Fresh-
man of the Year Kris Humphries. Both players
grabbed 10 rebounds, while scoring 16 and 20

points, respectively.
And just when the Wolverines clamped down
in the blocks, the Gophers began heating up from
outside, led by guard Aaron Robinson's 20 points.
"Humphries is one of the best players in the
Big Ten," Brown said. "He's a great player and
he's going to get some points. And Hagen had
a great game. He had a great game against us
last year."
The first half was a sloppy, back-and-forth seg-
ment, with the two teams combining for 25
turnovers (13 by Michigan). Michigan, though,
was able to avoid the quick start Minnesota had
demonstrated in grabbing big early leads against
Michigan State and Illinois, as the Wolverines
managed a 45-34 halftime cushion.
With just over five minutes left in the half,
guard Dion Harris hit a floater in the lane that
pulled the Wolverines into a 26-26 tie.
That tough bucket set off a 14-0 run for Michi-
gan, highlighted by yet another impressive dunk
by forward Brent Petway. After a long rebound
off a 3-point miss by Minnesota forward Michael
Bauer, the Wolverines hustled into transition.
Robinson was unable to connect on a driving
layup, but Petway followed with a thunderous
two-handed putback.
Robinson also began to assert himself during
the 14-point Michigan run, scoring eight of the
points in that stretch, and capping the run with a
swooping layup that also earned him a trip to the
line for the three-point play. He finished with 14
points and six rebounds.
Horton and guard Lester Abram led Michigan
with 15 points each. Harris and Sims added 11
and 12 points, respectively.
Michigan will attempt to get back in the
win column when it travels to Iowa on Satur-
day afternoon.

BURKE
Continued from Page 8A
aggressive because we were turn-
ing the ball over," Michigan guard
Daniel Horton said. "Our shot
selection was questionable at times
and turnovers killed us."
Now the Wolverines, battered
and bruised after yet another round
was lost on the road, have to decide
if they want to pull a Rocky-style
comeback or throw in the towel.
"We're going to have to pick it
back up," Brown said. "We have to
get right back to it."
As with every tough loss Michi-
gan has endured this year, the
Wolverines were preaching that
they're not done.
Saturday, the bell will signal
Michigan back into the ring - this
time with a scrappy Iowa team that
nearly knocked off the Wolverines
in Crisler.
With the season quickly coming
to a close and Selection Sunday
about a month away, another dev-
astating blow on the road might
finally keep Michigan down for the
count.

Michigan (78)

Robinson
Mathis
Sims
Abram
Horton
Andrews
Harrell
Petway
Brown
Hunter
Harris
TEAM
Totals

MIN
27
13
16
27
36
0+
0+
27
21
4
29

FG
M-A
6-11
1-2
4-7
4-6
5-14
0-0
0-0
1-6
2-4.
0-0
2-11

FT
M-A
2-3
0-0
4-5
4-5
3-6
0-0
0-0
0-0
3-4
0-0
6-6

REB
0-T
1-6
0-0
2-3
1-5
0-3
0-0
0-1
1-7
4-7
0-0
1-3
3-4

A
2
0
1
1
5
0
1
0
1
0
2

F PTS
5 14
3 2
4 12
3 15
5 15
1 0
0 0
1 2
1 7
2 0
3 11

4

200 25-6122-2913-3913 28 78

FG%: .409. FT%: .759. 3-point FG: 6-17, .353
(Abram 3-4, Horton 2-7, Harris 1-6). Blocks:
3 (Robinson, Petway, Brown). Steals: 9 (Hor-
ton 3, Brown 3, Robinson 2, Harris 1).
Turnovers: 19 (Harris 4, Horton 4, Robinson
4, Abram 3, Brown 2, Hunter, Sims). Techni-
cal fouls: none.

4

MINNESOTA (81)

Gaines
Humphries
Hagen
Johnson
Robinson
Boone
Lawson
Bauer
Team
Totals

FG FT REB
MIN M-A M-A 0-T A F PTS
25 0-1 3-4 1-1 3 5 3
37 7-15 5-12 0-10 1 2 20
28 7-11 2-4 3-10 2 4 16
33 7-13 3-4 0-3 3 0 20
23 1-3 2-2 1-4 4 4 5
26 3-5 2-4 0-5 5 4 11
11 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 3 2
17 1-5 2-2 1-3 1 2 4
2-2
200 27-55 19-32838 2024 81

Chris Burke has been waiting to go
A P PHOTO to the NCAA Tournament for four
Minnesota forward Kris Humphries, right, dunks in front of Michigan year and will be crushed ifMichigan
forward Lester Abram during the second half of Minnesota's win. doesn't make it. He can be reached
Humphries finished with 20 points. at chrisbur@umich.edu


FG%: .491. FT%: .594 3-point FG: 8-18, .444
(Boone 3-5, Johnson 3-5, Humphries 1-2,
Robinson 1-2, Bauer 02, Lawson 0-1, Gaines
0-1). Blocks: 5(Hagen 2, Bauer 2, Boone).
Steals: 7 (Gaines 3, Robinson 2, Boone,
Hagen). Turnovers: 18 (Robinson 6,
Humphries 3 Bauer 3, Boone 2, Johnson 2,
Gaines, Hagen). Technical fouls: none.
Michigan.....................45 33 - 78
Minnesota....................34 47 - 81
At: Williams Arena, Minneapolis
Attendance: 12,404
Tankers
ready for
Nationals
By Krystin Kasak
Daily Sports Writer
It's 80 degrees and sunny for Michigan
men's swimming coach John Urbanchek.
Urbanchek, along with sophomore
swimmer Jorge Carral, has made his
way down to Orlando, Fla., for some
brighter days in the U.S. Nationals.
A five-day event that will continue
through Saturday, the U.S. Nationals
gives swimmers around the country an
opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.
Carral, a distance swimmer on Michi-
gan's swimming and diving team, is
hoping to accomplish this very feat.
"Carral is trying to make his Olympic
time standards for Mexico," assistant
coach Eric Namesnik said. "Since he's
from Mexico, he'll be trying to represent
his country this summer. It's an opportu-
nity for him to meet those standards that
his country has set."
High standards seem to be abundant
for the Wolverines this month as the rest
of the team stays local and prepares for
the biggest challenge of the season. It
might not be 80-degree weather, but the
team is warming up to the idea of anoth-
er Big Ten Championship.
"The Big Tens is the best meet of the
year," junior Mike Galindo said.
"There's just an aura of excitement that's
around it. No one is there to swim slow,
everyone is there to swim fast."
With the meet still three weeks away,
and no other dual-meet matches until
then, Michigan is busy fine-tuning its
skills. Switching from long courses to
short courses will pose a challenge for
the team, but with the extra work the
players are putting into turns, starts and
finishes, the aspirations are high.
Michigan has already captured 11
NCAA championships, and the team is
working hard to make this year number
12. The Big Ten Championships later
this month are a key element in the road
to a national victory.
"It's really important to prepare both
mentally and physically," said Galindo.
"As a team, we're taking these next three
weeks to concentrate on the races in the
pool and our academics and activities
outside of the pool. We're letting things
calm down for a while and working on
just swimming - and blocking every-
thing out for Big Tens."
The stakes at the Big Ten Champi-
onships are high but the competition
level is even higher. Eleven teams, three
days and one champion.
With the mounting pressure and
excitement of such an important event,
mental preparation is just as important
as physical conditioning.
"To our advantage, we've had proba-
bly the toughest schedule in the coun-
try," Namesnik said. "We swam against
the top five teams from last year's
NCAAs already in dual meets. Not to
take anything away from the Big Ten

teams - there's several good swim-
mers - but we're fairly battle tested, so
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