The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - January 23, 2006 - 5B
FASTBREAK
Men's Basketball
Saturday's Game
MICHIGAN 71-- MINNESOTA 55
Grier stifled by swarnung Michigan defense
By Matt Singer
and Kevin Wright
Daily Sports Writers
MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota's Vincent Grier
slid behind the Michigan defense and waited under
the basket.
That's where Minnesota guard Maurice Hargrow
found him on a no-look pass from
the free throw line. Grier took the
pass and finished the lay-up.
Little did Grier and the Williams
Arena crowd know that the senior's
basket with 8:30 left in the first half
would be his only successful field-
., oz
o°
goal attempt of the game.
Grier ended the night with four points. He shot
1-for-8 from the floor, including 0-for-2 from
behind the arc.
Coming into the game, Grier led the Gophers in
scoring, averaging 16 points per game. The Wolver-
ines looked to stop Grier from doing what he does
best: drive.
"He's a very good player," Michigan coach
Tommy Amaker said. "We had different players
on him. There was an awareness for No. 15. He's
so good at knifing and slashing. I thought that
(playing) some zone allowed us to pack it in a little
bit. It didn't allow him some angles and penetra-
tion that he's so very good at."
Throughout the game, Michigan switched between
a zone and a man-to-man defense. In the zone, the
Wolverines limited Grier's driving ability by collaps-
ing down on him.
When Michigan played man-to-man, junior Les-
ter Abram received the bulk of the responsibility of
shadowing the senior to limit his contribution to the
Gopher offense.
"Lester was huge for us," junior Dion Harris said.
"He was checking Grier, and he was the reason why
Grier struggled offensively."
FLY LIKE AN EAGLE: Michigan fans have seen
it before.
It's one of the Wolverines' favorite plays
coming out of a timeout.
The alley-oop to junior Brent Petway.
Saturday night, Michigan ran it to perfection. Fol-
lowing the first media timeout, Harris received the
inbounds pass and dribbled to the right side of the
court. Petway came around the backside of the Min-
nesota defense and Harris lobbed the ball toward the
basket. Petway snatched it out of the air and thunder-
ously dunked it home.
"Coach always gives me that play, so I have to give
a lot of (credit) to my coach and my teammates," Pet-
way said. "They always throw it up there for me when
they see that it's open. When they throw it up there
for me, I'm going to do my best not to let it go out-
of-bounds. I'm just blessed with a God-given ability
to jump high."
THE WINDOW WASHERS: All season long, Michigan
has kept its opponents off the glass. Coming into
Saturday night's game, the Wolverines allowed oppo-
nents an average of just 28 boards per game - best
in the Big Ten.
But against Minnesota, Michigan struggled on the
boards - especially when it came to grabbing defen-
sive rebounds. The Wolverines frequently failed to
box out, and the Golden Gophers grabbed 16 offen-
sive boards and scored 14 second-chance points as a
result.
Michigan's Graham Brown led the Wolverines with
just five boards, but Minnesota forward J'son Stamper
gave the Wolverines fits. Stamper finished with 11
rebounds, including five on the offensive glass.
"We did struggle, but you give them credit," Amak-
er said. "That's one of the things we were so very
much concerned with coming here tonight. They've
been very aggressive and athletic on the backboard,
and you can see why we were concerned as coaches,
because that's one of the things they do very well. We
were fortunate to do other things to be able to negate
that effort."
NOTES: The son of Detroit Pistons coach Flip
Saunders, Ryan Saunders, is a sophomore guard
for the Golden Gophers. He played one minute and
did not amass any statistics ... Michigan's win put
it in a four-way tie for fourth place in the Big Ten.
Michigan State, Illinois and Iowa are all 3-2 in the
conference.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Daniel Horton
Michigan
Horton netted a career-high 32
points thanks in part to six treys.
He put together two halves of at
least 15 points and also grabbed
four steals against the Gophers.
J'son Stamper
Minnesota
Stamper posted a double-double
against the Wolverines. The
forward collected 11 rebounds,
five of which were offensive, to
go along with his 12 points.
WHAT DID YOU SAY?
"It's all part of the game, and we realize
that. (But) when you see a guy go
through that much, you have to feel for
him."
- Senior guard Daniel Horton on the hardships his
teammate Lester Abram has been through.
KEY STAT
4 Vincent Grier's point total for Saturday's
game, 12 below his season average.
SATURDAY'S GAME
MINNESOTA 55
Player
MIN
FG
M-A
FT
M-A
REB
O-T
A
F
PTS
RYAN WEINER/Daily
Junior forward Brent Petway scored six points off the bench for Michigan.
Stamper 29 6-10 0-0 5-11 0 2 12
Grier 36 1-8 2-2 1-4 3 3 4
Williams 13 1-3 0-2 3-3 1 0 2
Hargrow 37 5-12 4-7 2-5 2 3 16
Boone 31 0-5 1-2 0-4 5 4 1
Tollackson 17 5-8 3-4 1-1 1 2 13
Coleman 19 3-5 0-0 0-0 1 2 7
Abushamala 6 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Puchtel 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Saunders 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Tucker 10 0-2 0-0 2-2 1 0 0
TEAM TOTALS 200 21-55 10-17 14-30 14 16 55
FG%: 38.2 FT%: 58.8 3-point FG: 3-18, .167 (Hargrow 2-7,
Coleman 1-3, Boone 0-4, Grier 0-2, Tucker 0-1, Abushamala
0-1). Blocks: 4 (Williams 3, Boone 1). Steals: 6 (Stamper 2,
Hargrow, Grier, Puchtel, Tollackson). Turnovers: 19 (Tucker 5,
Grier 4, Hargrow 3, Tollackson 2, Stamper 2, Puchtel, Abusha-
mala, Coleman). Technical fouls: None.
MICHIGAN 71
Horton's hot hand propels Wright
to first place in both categories
Scoriig system:
(Last game's points, overall points, single-game wins)
Kevin Wright
(D. Horton, J. Shepherd,
B. Petway, T. Sanchez,
P. DeVries)
(38, 316, 6)
RYAN WEINER/Daily
Michigan could be without the stingy defense of Lester Abram, who suffered a high ankle sprain on Saturday against Minnesota.
SINGER
Continued from page 1B
Without Abram, the Wolverines
simply weren't the same. Michi-
gan nearly knocked off Indiana
at Assembly Hall, but couldn't
come up with the big bucket or
key stop down the stretch. Then,
the Wolverines struggled mightily
against a horrendous Purdue team,
squeaking by with a 68-65 victory
at home.
The sad fact is that consistent
effort doesn't translate into guaran-
teed health. Abram's injuries can't
be attributed to a lack of condition-
ing, physical strength or toughness.
Instead, they were three random,
unrelated ailments that have con-
spired to keep one of Michigan's
best players off the court for too
much of the past two seasons.
Of course, no one ever said
sports were fair.
"It's all part of the game, and we
realize that," Horton said. "(But)
when you see a guy go through that
much, you have to feel for him."
Although the Wolverines should
empathize with Abram, they must
avoid feeling sorry for themselves.
On Saturday, at least, Michigan
passed that test with flying colors.
After Abram went down, the team
didn't miss a beat, rattling off an
11-4 run and extending its lead to
17 points.
Abram's backcourt mates, espe-
cially, were up to the challenge.
Horton was on his way to a career
night before Abram's injury, and
continued his torrid offensive spree
afterward. Junior Dion Harris also
picked up the slack, netting 13 of
his 16 points in the second half.
The Wolverine guards also
stepped up on the defensive end.
Abram shut down Minnesota's star
small forward Vincent Grier for
much of the first half, holding him
to just two points. When Abram
went down, Michigan didn't miss a
beat. Using a combination of zone
and man-to-man defenses, the Wol-
verine guards continued to hound
Grier. The Gopher failed to find
a rhythm and settled for just four
points on the night.
Even though Michigan's other
guards performed admirably for
the last 17 minutes of Saturday's
game, in the long term, there is no
replacing Lester Abram. Now, all
the team can do is hope that, in the
near future, Abram will return to
health - without any harassment
from the injury bug.
- Matt Singer can be reached
at mattsing@umich.edu
Jack Herman
(L. Abram, R. Coleman,
J. Smith, K. Price)
(9, 276, 4)
Daniel Horton once again showed
me why I took a chance and picked
him with the No. I pick. t
This past week, he came off a
low-scoring game against North-
western to torch Minnesota for a
career-high 32 points.
Whenever Michigan needs
someone to step up, Horton
always answers.
On another high note, Brent
Petway brings the energy off the
bench that always seems to spark
the Wolverines.
Once again, Lester Abram is
hurt, and, once again, my fantasy
hopes hinge on his status. After he
missed the first two Big Ten games
with a toe injury, I was thrilled
to see Abram back in the lineup
against the Illini. I was even more
excited when he put up 20 points
against Northwestern in his first Big
Ten start. Now, I can only hope he
returns to action soon.
But, on the bright side, things
could be worse. I could have Court-
ney Sims on my team.
Sherrod Harrell: nice guy, good
leader and great dresser. But let's be
honest: He should never outscore
Courntey Sims. Ever.
Especially if Harrell has just two
points.
Sims outdid himself again this
weekend, going 0-for-6, not reaching
the free throw line and committing
four turnovers. He was also blocked
numerous times by a freshman.
If we want any shot at beating
Sparty on Wednesday, something
needs to click with Sims, and fast.
For the first 30 minutes or so of Sat-
urday's game, Dion arris was content
to sit around and watch Daniel Horton
scorch the nets at Williams Arena.
But after Minnesota made a small
run, cutting the lead to seven, Harris
finally got involved. He scored 13 sec-
ond-half points, including two treys.
I doubt Harris will score consis-
tently enough to allow me to compete
for the overall-points title. But if he
can get hot for a few games, I think
Team Singer can move up in the sin-
gle-game standings.
Player
Brown 27 3-6 0-0 2-5 3 3 6
Sims 14 0-6 0-0 1-4 2 2 0
Smith 21 0-2 0-0 0-2 3 3 0
Horton 36 8-16 10-10 1-3 1 3 32
Harris 26 6-9 1-1 1-4 4 4 16
Grooms 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Petway 26 3-5 0-0 0-4 1 0 6
Coleman 16 1-1 1-1 0-1 2 1 3
Hunter 11 0-2 0-0 1-1 0 2 0
Abram 19 3-5 0-0 1-4 1 0 6
Ba 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Harrell 1 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 2
Shepherd 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
TEAM TOTALS 200 25-53 12-12 7-29 18 18 71
FG%: 47.2 FT%: 100.0 3-point FG: 9-21, .429 (Horton
6-10, Harris 3-5, Abram 0-2, Smith 0-2, Hunter 0-1, Pet-
way 0-1). Blocks: 5 (Petway 2, Brown, Harris, Horton).
Steals: 10 (Horton 4, Petway 2, Abram, Brown, Harris,
Hunter). Turnovers: 15 (Horton 6, Sims 4, Hunter 3,
Harrell, Harris). Technical fouls: None.
Michigan.......28 43 - 71 At: Williams Arena
Illinois.............. 22 33 - 55 Attendance: 13,112
'M' STATS
MIN
FG
M-A
FT
M-A
REB
OT
A
F I PTS
Player
GP
Mtn
Pts
R
A
Horton 16 34.1 16.3 2.6 5.5
Sims 16 25.4 13.1 6.6 0.7
Abram 14 29.4 12.1 3.1 1.4
Harris 16 30.4 10.8 3.5 3.0
Petway 5 15.4 5.8 3.4 0.4
Hunter 16 15.9 5.5 3.3 0.4
Brown 16 24.4 5.1 7.4 1.3
coleman 16 13.8 4.1 2.3 0.5
Smith 14 16 2.9 1.1 2.3
Shepherd 14 9.5 1.9 1.1 0.5
Grooms 9 2.4 0.6 0.1 0.3
Harrell 8 1.4 0.5 0.5 0.1
Ba 9 1.9 0.3 0.2 0
BIG TEN STANDINGS
Scott Bell
(C. Sims, G. Brown,
S. Harrell, A. Brzozowicz)
(8, 296, 3)
Team
Big Ten Overall
DO YOU LIKE FREE PIZZA?
HOW ABOUT LOTS OF BEER?
UNFORTUNATELY, OUR MASS MEETING WILL HAVE NEITHER
OF THOSE TWO, BUT YOU SHOULD COME ANYWAY.
JOIN DAILY SPORTS.
Indiana 4-1 12-3
Wisconsin 4-1 14-4
Ohio State 4-2 14-2
Michigan 3-2 13-3
Mich. State 3-2 15-4
Iowa 3-2 14-5
Illinois 3-2 17-2
Penn State 2-3 10-6
Northwestern 2-4 9-8
Purdue 1-5 7-10
Matt Singer
(D. Harris, C. Hunter,
A. Ba, H. Grooms)
(16, 269, 3)
SATURDAY'S RESULTS:
North Dakota State 62,
WISCoNSIN 55;
MICHIGAN STATE 85, Iowa
55;
Ohio State 75, PENN STATE
64;
INDIANA 62, Purdue 49;
Illinois 58, NORTHWESTERN
47;
Michigan 71, MINNESOTA 55
Indiana at Iowa, 9 p.m.
Minnesota
0-5
9-7
TUESDAY'S
GAME
y r " . t c t