CRUISING TO FIRSTS Josh Churella and Craig Gilleson earn their first career wins at Cliff Keen for the wres- tling team in a thrashing of Cleveland State. PAGE 7B FRESH FROM THE PROM Meet the women's basketball team's seven-member freshman class by taking a look at the yearbook. PAGE 8B GENNARO FILICE The Heisman Trophy no longer goes to the nation's best player. PAGE 3B The SportsMonday Column SPORTS DAY December 13, 2004 1B Bowling into irst MICHIGAN 8, Michigan 5 , Jeers emerge on top after tense finish By Ian Herbert Daily Sports Writer BOWLING GREEN - It was startling news to anyone who wasn't extremely close to the Bowling Green hockey team. On Saturday, the Falcons' star goalie, Jordan Sigalet, announced to the public that he was suffering from multiple sclerosis. The night that started with this somber announcement ended with one of the most exciting finishes of the season. No. 4 Michigan hockey team was leading Bowling Green 5-4 with 1:33 left in the game when a stoppage of play forced a faceoff in the right circle of the Michigan zone. Bowling Green won the draw and controlled the puck at the top of the circle. The slapshot went far side and careened off the pipe. Minutes later, the game ended, and Michigan came away with its second consecutive weekend sweep. "We were lucky," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "The puck hit the crossbar or the post, so you have to say you were lucky. ButI thought we did a lot of good things." The win at Bowling Green came one day after Michigan's 8-3 victory at Yost Ice Arena, which propelled the Wolverines past Ohio State and into first place in the CCHA. On both nights, the Wolverines (11-1-0 CCHA, 13-4-1 overall) fell behind early. On Friday, Michigan trailed the Falcons (5-5-2, 8-6-2) 3-0 after the first period despite leading in shots, 14-9. It was just two minutes into Saturday's game when Bowl- ing Green struck for the first time. Junior forward Mike Falk gathered the puck in the left circle and skated into the slot. With the Michigan defense all around him, Falk spun and fired at Montoya, sliding the puck along the ice between Mon- toya's legs. After giving up eight straight goals to lose on Friday even with their star netminder behind them, the Falcons knew that a one-goal lead wouldn't be enough. But they probably didn't guess that defenseman Jason Dest - who had yet to score a goal this season - would be the Wolverine to tie it up. With just one minute remaining in the first period, senior captain Eric Nystrom skated through the right circle with the puck. Dest trailed in the slot, slapping his stick violently against the ice while yelling for the puck. He one-timed the pass from his captain and buried the shot. The goal was the second of Dest's career. "I get excited," Dest said. "I don't score too many goals. So when I get a chance ... I saw the opening, so I just started banging my stick. And I wasn't even thinking. I just wanted the puck." Michigan added its second goal of the night just five sec- onds later. Skating in the left circle, Tambellini faked a shot before throwing a pass behind his bade across the crease. Senior David Moss waited in the right slot and forced the puck under the left pad of Falcons goalie Jon Horrell, who See FALCONS, page 4B M'better than Bulls' hot Leather By Eric Ambinder Daily Sports Writer With just over two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the second half, Michigan guard Dion Harris stepped around a Chris Hunter pick and drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give the Wolverines a late 66-54 lead. "'M r " 'LOR'DA , But South Florida's Terrence Leath- er was still on the floor. On the ensuing play, Leather committed a charge -- his fifth and final foul. When the senior took a seat on the bench, the game was over. The only thing that could wear Leather out in Crisler Arena on Saturday seemed to be foul trouble. With the Bulls forward out of the game for stretches late in the second half, Michigan was able to overcome several South Florida runs en route to a 71-62 victory. "We had no answers for Terrence Leather," Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said. "I thought he was just a ter- rific player." Leather was almost unstoppable in the paint, notching a career-high 28 points on ll-of-15 shooting in just 25 min- utes. He had scored more than half of his team's points - 28 of 54 - when he fouled out with 2:06 remaining in the second half. "Once he got a rhythm and his shots were falling, it seemed like everything he threw up was going in," Hunter said. Even though Hunter had difficulty guarding Leather on defense, he was able to pick up the slack on offense. The forward was perfect from the free throw line in the second half, converting all eight attempts. The Wolverines (6-3) were able to control South Florida (5-3) and its remaining players, who combined for just 34 points and shot 36 per- cent from the field. "The key was containing the other guys," Hunter said. "(Leather) got his points, but I thought we did a good job on the other guys and did not let them get involved." Michigan, though, was able to rely on its depth to over- come the Bulls' inside scoring - 19 of their 26 field goals came in the paint. Guard Sherrod Harrell scored a career- high seven points in nine first-half minutes, while fresh- man Ron Coleman and sophomore Brent Petway added 10 points each. "If we continue to gets those kinds of efforts from those See BULLS, page 5B Michigan defenseman Matt Hunwick (6) celebrates with senior Brandon Rogers after one of Hunwlck's three goals on Fdday. FIRST THINGS FIRST Matt Hunwick said after Friday's game that his hat trick may have been his first ever -at any level. This weekend marked a handful of different firsts for the Michigan hockey team. Here's a looks " Sophomore Jason Dest scored his first goal of the season. The goal was the second of his career. " Forward Brandon Kaleniecki scored goals in back. to-backgames for the first time this season. Last season, he led the team in goals. " Sophomore Mike Brown notched points in both games. It marked the first time that Brown has had points on back-to-back nights. Brown also tallied his first assist of the season on Friday night at Yost. " On Saturday, the Falcons became the first team to score on the Michigan penalty kill in the last 24 attempts against the unit. Hunwick nets hat trick at Yost By Jake Rosenwasser Daily Sports Writer The Yost Ice Arena crowd is incredibly creative. Fans berate opposing goalies by dubbing them "sieves" and taunt CCHA referees' outdated facial hair with chants of "porno mustache." About the only tradi- tional ritual that the Yost crowd partakes in is the act of throwing hats on the ice after a Wolverine scores three goals. With a little more than two minutes remaining in Friday night's 8-3 win over Bowling Green, and Michigan skating with a man advantage, Wolverine defense- man Matt Hunwick took a pass from his defensive partner, Brandon Rogers. Hun- wick wound up and slapped a shot over the stick of Falcons goalie Jordan Sigalet for his third goal of the game. The fans at Yost cel- ebrated the hat trick like any veteran group of hockey fans would - they chucked their caps over the glass and onto the ice. "I was just trying to put a shot on net," Hunwick said. "We had a couple of guys in front, so I was just trying to get it through." Three of Hunwick's teammates skated to him to congratulate the sophomore on what he said may have been his first hat trick at any level of competition, but senior forward Milan Gajic went in another direction. He swooped into the net, and grabbed the puck for Hunwick to keep. "He probably would have forgotten about it. That kid doesn't know whether he's com- ing or going," Gajic said jokingly. "As soon as I saw itgo in the net, I didn't even put my hands up - Ijust grabbed it." Hunwick's first goal of the night - like his third - came on the power play. In the second period, with Michigan trailing 3-1, junior forward Jeff Tambellini - positioned just to the left of the net - put two quick shots on the Bowling Green goal. Freshman Chad Kolarik then gained possession of the puck briefly before it squirted out to Hun- wick near the left circle. The defenseman shot to Sigalet's glove side and scored. "I was looking at his power play pro- duction (before the game), and it hadn't See HUNWICK, page 4B Defense I By Jack Herman Daily Sports Writer With 5:35 left in the second half, IUPUI Senior Eboni Jamssens threw a lob pass to the post. Her team- mate, freshman Krima Davies, barely got a hand on it to save it from going out of bounds before controlling it and putting it in for two points. Six min- utes earlier, the Jaguars were looking at a 21-point deficit. With the basket, they were down just eight points. But those would be the last points IUPUI (1-7) would score, as Michigan (4-4) clamped down on defense and went on to win Satur- day night's game 68-48 at Crisler Arena. The play marked a turning point for Mich- igan, which started the second half ahead 41- 19 but was struggling to seal the win. "We got a little lackadaisical on defense," Michigan freshman Becky Flippin said. "We were trying to live off of our points that we had in the first half." After Davies's basket, the Wolverines woke up on both ends of the court. In addition to allowing no points on defense, Michigan Leps Blue scored 12 points in those final five minutes almost as many as they had scored in the firs 15 minutes of the second half. Michigan and IUPUI traded baskets t( begin the half, but the Jaguars got no close than 18. With 12:34 left, IUPUI went on as 8-0 run to get within 12, thanks in large par to junior Anne-Marie Tupper - who score five of her team-leading 14 points in tha stretch. Tupper's 3-pointer with 11:36 lef forced Michigan to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, IUPUI senior Jessica James added two more points before Flippii hit a long 3-pointer, ending the run and add ing to her career-high 12 points. Even after Flippin's three-ball, the Jag oars did not quit and slowly whittled the lea( down to eight before Michigan stopped then in their tracks. "I really thought we did a good job o trying to regather," Michigan coach Chery Burnett said. "That took us about three pos sessions and a timeout to re-remind us of th( things we needed to do." The game was a huge turnaround for th( Wolverines, who just days earlier had a dis appointing loss to cross-town rivals Easterr Michigan. pull away IUPUI started the game in a 2-3 zone t - a defense that plagued Michigan in its previous game against the Eagles. But the o Wolverines came out ready and had much r more success breaking the defense versus n the Jaguars. I Michigan scored 30 points in the paint, d a great improvement from the 16 it scored t on Eastern Michigan. Freshman Katie Dier- I dorf once again played a large part in getting inside to disrupt the zone, scoring all 10 of a her points from around the basket. n "(Dierdorf) really posts up well when we - reverse the basketball," Burnett said. "We can really find her in the post, and it gives us - a lot more flexibility." d The Wolverines started the game running, thanks to a fast start by Flippin. After hitting a 3-pointer to begin the game, she stole the f ball two possessions later and took it coast- 1 to-coast for two points. From there, Michi- - gan would not look back, holding on to the e lead for the entire game. The Wolverines first big run came with e 8:51 left in the first half. Dierdorf received a - pass down low from freshman Janelle Coo- per and quickly layed it in for two. On the See IUPUI, page 6B Tabitha Pool, going up for a layup, scored 16 points in Michigan's victory this Saturday. 1