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 ----------- - ----- ---- - 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 ,.;.