The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - April 19, 2004 - 7B Golf struggles in Columbus With Big Tens on the horizon, performance has Sapp concerned By Stephanie Wright Daily Sports Writer After steady improvement over the past two tournaments - includ- ing its best finish in nearly three seasons on March 28 and a strong performance against Big Ten com- petition at the Boilermaker Invita- tional over the weekend - the Michigan men's golf team took a step back last weekend at the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate in Columbus. The Wolverines finished the 54- hole tournament with a total team score of 922, placing 14th of 18 teams. With scores of 308 and 311, respectively, in the first and second rounds, the Wolverines carded their highest single-round scores since early March. The Wolverines have struggled to bounce back after bad early scores all season. "I think often times we get down on ourselves early and then just struggle to try to get back," Michi- gan coach Andrew Sapp said. "When you're struggling to try to get shots back, you might make a few risks you probably shouldn't. And they're called risks for a reason. Sometimes you make another double because of it, trying to get another birdie or try- ing to fight back." Unlike previous tournaments, Michigan responded to poor first- day play by carding a solid 303 total in the third round, moving up two places in the final standings. But much of this improvement can be attributed to senior Rob Tighe's season-best 71, rather than to the team's overall performance. "Rob kind of bailed us out; he had a great score," Sapp said. "That's what made a huge differ- ence in the final round. We had the same type of play from everyone else, but Rob's play today helped us keep our score low. "Still, we had to count a pair of 79s, which kept us from having one of our best rounds of the season and really moving up in the standings," Sapp said. Xavier won the team title with an 886 total after leading the field throughout the tournament. Host Ohio State finished in a tie for third place, carding a three-round score of 895. After defeating three of seven Big Ten teams two weeks ago, Michigan beat just one of the nine other Big Ten teams competing in Columbus MNOTE Tennis splits weekend away from Ann Arbor Facing the possibility of a 0-2 week- end, the Michigan women's tennis team showed resolve in its 4-3 win at Purdue yesterday. After losing the doubles point, the Wolverines managed to win the neces- sary four singles matches, but it didn't come easily. Four singles matches went three sets, with Michigan winning three. Junior Michelle DaCosta clinched the victory for the Wolverines, rallying from a first-set loss to pull out a 3-6, 6- 4, 7-5 win over Purdue's Hala Sufi Kavitha Tipirneni and Debra Streifler also pulled out three-set wins, while Leanne Rutherford was on the losing end of a third set thriller. On Saturday No. 27 Michigan (5-3 Big Ten, 14-4 overall) lost at No. 17 Illi- nois 5-2. Need an EASY and HIGH PAYING summerJOB? THIS IS THE PERFECT OPPORTUNI1Y! Invest in fundraisers for schools and organizations by selling prepaid phone cards. Global card; great for traveling overseas. For more information, please contact George at 810-629-6397 or call Ken McCurd at 1-704-455-4929. Fuel your BODY; CAR and WALLET Jobs!!! Spring/Summer Term Apply now at the Law Library *non-law Students last weekend - Wisconsin. Sapp was disappointed with his team's showing against the Big Ten, partic- ularly with the conference champi- onships just three weeks away. "When you're counting scores in the low 80s, you're not going to be able to score low as a team," Sapp said. "This weekend, part of it was due to the difficulty of the golf course. Part of it was not hitting well. There was also a lot of poor putting among the guys who scored in the low 80s." Michigan's best - and most con- sistent - play came from freshman Kevin Dore, who led the Wolver- ines with a 225 total score. By plac- ing in a tie for 17th overall, Dore carded his best finish of the spring season and finished in the top 20 for the third time. In order to regain momentum from the two tournaments before last weekend, Sapp is counting on the continued strong play and lead- ership of Dore and sophomore Christian Vozza. "(Dore and Vozza) are obviously handling it well because they're doing it week-in and week-out," Sapp said. "It's one of those things where apparently they're getting comfortable doing it. Fortunately for us, they've been able to do it the last three tournaments." AP PHOTO Ben Wallace, who scored 17 points to go along with 14 rebounds, was part of a defense that forced the Bucks into 25 turnovers. Suffocating Pistons 'D' leads to easy win in opener AUBURN HILLS (AP) - Detroit's defense completely shut down the Mil- waukee Bucks. Richard Hamilton scored 21 points and the Pistons set a team playoff record with 14 steals in a 108-82 victo- ry over the Bucks yesterday in Game 1 of their first-round series. One of the best defenses in NBA his- tory stopped the highest scoring team in the Eastern Conference. Detroit gave up just 84.3 points a game this year, the third-lowest scoring average since the NBA began using a shot clock during the 1954-55 season. It set a league record by holding s1 opponents - including five straight ebunder 70 points, and 36 in a row to less than 100. an'I'm real pleased with the way we played," Pistons coach Larry Brown said after leading his NBA-record sev- enth team into the playoffs. "We Srebounded teball, weshared teball and we forced them to turn the ball over, which gives us a chance for some easy baskets. We had a lot of guys play- ing great basketball." The Bucks, who averaged 98 points a game, also ranked fourth in the league in scoring. They played four close regular-season games against Detroit, losing three of them. But they didn't play Detroit with FILE PHOTO Rasheed Wallace, who has made the Michigan senior Rob Tighe and the rest of the Wolverines saved their best Pistons' stingy defense suffocating performances yesterday. Tighe carded a season-best 71, and Michigan shot a 303 since being acquired Feb. 19 in a total In yesterday's third round of play, salvaging a poor start. three-team trade. The Pistons won 20 of 24 games before the playoffs. Detroit forced 25 turnovers - turn- ing them into 28 points - and had eight blocks. The constant defensive pressure had the Bucks scrambling just to get their shots off. When the Pistons led 68-51 midway through the third, they had more points off turnovers (10) than Milwaukee had points (eight) in the quarter. "The game was all about our turnovers and the points we gave them off turnovers," Milwaukee coach Terry Porter said. Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Wednesday in Detroit. Desmond Mason led the Bucks with 16 points. Their leading scorer, Michael Redd, scored just 1i points - nearly 11 below his average - and went more than 18 minutes without scoring in the second and third quarters. Joe Smith set a career playoff high with 11 rebounds, and scored six points. "We were rushing things, trying to get the lead down, and they took advantage by doing a lot of trapping," Redd said. "We didn't handle it and we've got to find an adjustment for the next game." Detroit didn't excel on defense alone. Rasheed Wallace had 17 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks, Ben Wal- lace had 17 points, 14 rebounds, and Tayshaun Prince added 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. "When you have three guys with double-doubles, and two of them are Ben and Rasheed, who can cover the paint like that, you know you have a chance to dictate the game," Prince said. The last time the Pistons had three players with double-doubles in a play- off game was against Boston in 1991, when Isiah Thomas, Dennis Rodman and Bill Laimbeer did it. Detroit's Chauncey Billups had 12 points, and reserve Corliss Williamson added 12. The game was such a blowout that "We want Darko!" chants were heard early in the fourth quarter. Darko Milicic, the second pick over- all in the draft, played just 34 games this season. He scored one point in three minutes. The Bucks missed their standout rookie point guard T.J. Ford, who is out for the season with a bruised spinal cord. Ford's backups, Damon Jones and Brevin Knight, played well latein the regular season, but got in foul trouble trying to defend Detroit's guards and running the offense. "We can't worry about who we don't have:' Porter said Detroit's in-your-face, full-court press - led by reserve guards Mike James and Lindsey Hunter - gave the Bucks problems early in the sec- ond quarter. The Pistons forced two turnovers in 18 seconds, leading to two baskets, including Ben Wal- lace's' alley-oop dunk that gave them a 35-25 lead. 125th ums season - 1 .. "'- $10 Rush Tickets on sale 9 am- 5 pm the day of the performance or the Friday before a weekend event at the UMS Ticket Office, located in the Michigan League. 50% Rush Tickets on sale beginning 90 minutes before the event at the performance hall Ticket Office. ..{. :# ". : =:; > ; . v.: Karita Mattila soprano Martin Katz piano Thu 4/22 8 pm Hill Auditorium Finnish soprano Karita Mattila is a "Phenomenon!...Her voice is a complete instrument, a thing of beauty and power." (New Yorker) Also praised for her extraordinary acting ability, Ms. Mattila has performed many key operatic roles in the world's most distinguished opera houses and now makes her long-awaited UMS debut with U-M professor Martin Katz. Her program includes works by Duparc, Dvordk, Rachmaninoff and Sibelius. Cassandra Wilson and Peter Cincotti Fri 4/23 8 pm Hill Auditorium It's jazz for a new generation! Chart-topping jazz artist Cassandra Wilson has earned countless media accolades, including a Grammy Award and the title of America's Best Singer of 2001 by Time magazine, which lauded, "There is no more purely and uncontrived female force in our national music today." Peter Cincotti, no stranger to popular and critical acclaim himself, was the youngest headliner ever at the famed Algonquin Hotel's Oak Room in 2002. Cincotti's debut album, Peter Cincotti, reached *1 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz chart, and the New York Times praised him as "Hugely talented...Going on Legend." Wilson and Cincotti will perform seperate sets in this shared performance of exciting new jazz! Rossetti String Quartet Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano Sat 4/24 8 pm Rackham Auditorium i I