FAMLY TIES
With her brother in attendance, senior
Elise Ray won the all-around title to lead
the Michigan women's gymnastics team.
PAGE 6B
BACK TO BACK
The wrestling team defeated Purdue and
Michigan State to clinch a share of its
second straight Big Ten title.
PAGE 7B
GENNARO FILICE
Words of wisdom
from a fantasy
baseball veteran
PAGE 3B
The SportsMonday Column
SPORTSMONDAY
February 21, 2005
lB
I IN
ab; i"-un Bad
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Top
0'
the
CCHA
Michigan 9, NOT- E L NEL
Blue rolls to
finish season
sweep of Irish
By Gabe Edelson
Daily Sports Writer
MICHIGAN 6, tre Dame
3
TREVOR CAMPBELL/Daily
Freshman Ron Coleman scored 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting from
beyond the arc In the Wolverines' 70-63 loss to Indiana on Sunday.
Balanced effort
not enouh to
beat Hoosiers
By Megan Kolodgy
Daily Sports Editor
It looked as if the Michigan men's basketball team might
have a shot at its first win in 10 games. As the seconds wound
down, freshman Ron Coleman shot up an airball, and the
crowd let out a collective sigh. But then, junior Graham Brown
heaved himself over the rest of the players, snatched the ball
out of the air and nailed a quick lay up. With
14 seconds to go, Michigan was down by
just three to Indiana.
Redemption was in sight.
But within the final 14 seconds, Hoosiers' guards Marshall
Strickland and Bracey Wright hit all four of their free throws,
putting the nail in the coffin with a final score of 70-63.
Michigan (3-10 Big Ten, 12-15 overall) kept up with Indiana
(7-5, 12-11) primarily through its balanced scoring, which had
been missing from its repertoire in recent weeks.
"Guys are always ready to jump into the role whenever it
happens," Brown said. "It's something we all work on, and it's
something that we're ready for. It just takes the situation that
we need to be in."
Coleman and sophomore Courtney Sims each put up 12
points, while sophomore Dion Harris contributed 15. Each
surpassed his season scoring average.
Despite significant production from several players, the
Wolverines could not top Indiana's hot shooting from outside
the arc. The Hoosiers shot a remarkable 64.3 percent from 3-
point land, and, by the end of the first half, 27 of the Hoosiers'
30 points were a result of accurate shots from downtown. By
the end of the game, Indiana had hit 14 triples.
"Their ability to shoot the 3-point shot was key," Michigan
coach Tommy Amaker said. "It is the reason, I believe, that
they were able to win the ballgame. We couldn't keep them
from knocking those shots down."
One of Indiana's sharpest long shooters was Errek Suhr.
Suhr shot 3-for-4 from outside, a career high for the guard.
These were his only points on the afternoon.
"Nothing against (Suhr), but we certainly had other players
ahead of him in terms of the scouting report," A maker said.
Michigan led by one at halftime and hit the ground running
at the beginning of the second frame. The Wolverines got a
quick seven points - culminating in a 3-pointer from Cole-
man - in the first 5:16 minutes, which put them up by seven,
their largest lead of the game.
Indiana fought back with balanced scoring of its own -
See HOOSIERS, page 5B
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - During No. 6 Michigan's 9-2 victory
over Notre Dame at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum on
Friday, the Wolverines and the Fighting Irish seemed to be two
teams playing in different leagues. Notre Dame failed to gener-
ate any semblance of offensive flow, and Michigan boasted seven
different goal-scorers. The win pushed the three-game scoring
total for the season series to 23-3 in the Wolverines' favor and
had fans expecting yet another embarrassing blowout at Yost Ice
Arena on Saturday. But Michigan coach Red Berenson's wisdom
dictated otherwise.
"We knew it would be a different game (than it was on
Friday)," Berenson said after Notre Dame's far more com-
petitive - yet ultimately futile - effort in a 6-3 loss on
Saturday. "You can't beat a team, 9-2, and expect them to
lay down. Notre Dame is a proud team, they're a good team,
(and) they're a hard-working team."
Despite the fact that the Irish (3-18-5 CCHA, 5-23-6 over-
all) came out inspired and trailed by just one entering the third
period, Michigan (21-3-2, 24-7-3) used a career-high four-point
performance from junior Jeff Tambellini and a tide-turning 5-
on-3 penalty kill in the final frame to pull out the win. The Wol-
verines extended their lead over No. 7 Ohio State for first place
in the CCHA regular season standings to three with the weekend
sweep. The Buckeyes - who entered the weekend just a single
point behind - fell to Michigan State on Friday but recovered
for the win on Saturday.
The first period of play held to the previous night's form, with
Michigan heading to the locker room up 2-0 after 20 minutes of
play. Just 4:55 after the opening faceoff, freshman Kevin Porter
took a pass from sophomore T.J. Hensick and beat Notre Dame
sophomore goalie David Brown on a wrister from the slot. Seven
minutes later, Tambellini scored his first goal of the night on the
Wolverines' first power play. The alternate captain scooped up a
rebound from an Eric Werner shot and beat Brown through the
five-hole from the left circle to capitalize on the man advantage.
But the Irish made it interesting at the start of the second peri-
od. A mere 33 seconds after the puck was dropped, sophomore
T.J. Jindra skated into the Michigan zone and faked goalie Al
Montoya, beating him stick side by faking right and placing the
puck neatly inside the left post. After senior David Moss got the
Michigan lead back to two on a backhand rebound shot from the
crease that sailed above Brown's glove, Irish freshman Victor
Oreskovich narrowed the gap once again. Oreskovich beat Mon-
toya high stick side on a shot from above the left circle with just
19 seconds before the horn to ensure a meaningful third period.
"Last night we kind of blew it open right away," Tambellini
said of the difference between Notre Dame's play on Friday and
Saturday "With these teams, what I find is that if you get on
them, get up a couple really early in the game, they'll kind of
fold the tents. But if you let them in the game for two periods
- even one-and-a-half - they're going to start pushing. Once
they get a chance and they get a sniff of the victory, they really
pour it on."
The situation became more dire for Michigan a minute into
the final frame. Porter, who had scored the opening goals in both
games over the weekend, was slapped with a questionable five-
minute major for checking from behind and received a game
misconduct, ending his night prematurely. Berenson made his
feelings on the referee's decision clear afterwards.
"I can't comment on the officiating, but I'm making a strong
comment on it by not commenting," Berenson said.
Sophomore Tim Cook's subsequent penalty 3:05 after Porter's
ejection forced the Wolverines to play with two men in the box for
nearly two minutes. Nevertheless, the five-minute stretch of penalty
See IRISH, page 4B
RYAN WEINER/Daily
Junior Jeff Tambellini celebrates with his teammates during Michigan's 6-3 win over Notre Dame on Saturday.
Berenson % discipline is
whyIcers are winning
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - This team has dis-
cipline. It's not the father-with-a-belt type
of discipline, but
there's no denying that
Michigan is a well coached
hockey team.
Actually, both of the
teams on the ice this week-
end were well coached.
Michigan coach Red
Berenson and Notre Dame
coach Dave Poulin both IAN HERBERT
spent over a dozen years Caught up in the Game
playing in the NHL. They
both had illustrious careers
with a handful of different NHL teams. While play-
ing 12 years for the Flyers, Bruins and Capitals, Pou-
lin compiled more than 500 points. Berenson played
for even longer and put up well over 600 points in his
eighteen pro seasons. Both coaches helped to lead
their teams to the Stanley Cup finals multiple times,
and they each left their mark on the NHL record
books. Poulin scored goals on each of his first two
shots in the league, and Berenson once scored six
goals in a game and four in a single period.
So when each of them came back to coach their
alma maters after their pro careers were over, they
were more than qualified to be college coaches.
Poulin is a great coach. Even though this season
has been less than stellar for the Irish (3-18-5 CCHA,
5-23-6 overall), Poulin was a finalist for CCHA
Coach of the Year just last season. But the standard in
CCHA coaching is right here in Ann Arbor.
This weekend, Berenson picked up his 556th and
557th collegiate wins. He is now the eighth-win-
ningest collegiate coach of all time, and all of his
wins have come at Michigan. Eighteen years ago,
See HERBERT, page 4B
M' unable to ride
emotion to victory
E WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING
Spirited tankers finish in
fourth place at Big Tens
By Jack Herman
Daily Sports Writer
On senior night, Michigan seniors
Tabitha Pool and BreAnne McPhilamy
ended their careers at Crisler Arena on
personal high notes. But the rest of the
team still has a lot
to learn about fin- IowA 78
ishing strong.
Despite a com-
bined 31 point effort from the two outgo-
ing players, Iowa managed to put together
a 24-4 run to end the game and defeat
Xunin ',R-SQ
tide turned. Freshman Krista VandeVenter
received a pass from junior guard Crystal
Smith and scored. The Hawkeyes' next
two times down the court culminated in
3-pointers, as junior Johanna Solverson
dished the ball to Smith for a triple before
coming down and hitting her own trey to
take a 60-55 lead. Michigan coach Cheryl
Burnett called a time out to try to get her
team back together, but Iowa could not be
stopped on its way to victory.
"When they needed scores, they really
executed to the players that needed to
get those scores," Burnett said. "They're
(i-nnnii t heir nhi i o (n throe thinae
By Dan Ketchel
Daily Sports Writer
BLOOMINGTON - The electricity
around the pool deck of the Counsilman-Bill-
ingsley Aquatic Center was suffocating Friday
night. The women's swimming and diving Big
Ten Championships were in full swing. With
athletes from all over the conference lined up
across the pool, the two brightest colors in the
water were sparkling yellow swim caps and
striking blue swimsuits.
The Michigan bench was bathed in enthu-
up against the rest of the competition and blew
everyone else in the Big Ten away. Smith set
the pool, Big Ten and Michigan records with
her swim and automatically qualified for the
NCAA tournament.
Both swimmers' tremendous efforts and
individual successes highlighted a barrage of
Wolverines standing atop the first-place podi-
um, looking down on the rest of their confer-
ence opposition. But the Wolverines could do
nothing more than meet the expectations of
their young roster. They placed fourth as a team
in the Big Ten. With 474 points in the 21 events.
I41 ,.;.