The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monday, March 12, 2007 - 5B

CRASHING THE BOARDS

NOTABLE QUOTABLE
"I have confidence in our univer-
sity and our officials. I love work-
ing at Michigan, and I respect any
decision that they may make."
- Michigan coach Tommy Amaker on his uncer-
tain job status following Friday's loss to Ohio State.

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Lester Abram
FORWARD
Abram led the Wolverines in scoring
with 13 points and was 3-of-4 from
3-point range. His performance was a
welcome sight after he shot a ghastly 1-
of-10 from the field in Thursday's open-
ing-round win over Minnesota.

FRIDAY'S GAME
MiCHIGAN 62

Friday's game
OHIO STATE 72 - MICHIGAN 62

Player

MN GAM.j, O T I AI

F

PTS

Petway 32 3-5 2-2 3-12 0
Coleman 10 0-2 0-0 1-1 0 C
Abram 37 4-7 2-3 0-4 4
ims, C. 22 2-9 3-5 5-7 1 t
Harris 37 1-13 6-6 0-4 6
Smith 30 4-10 2-2 3-4 3
Udoh 17 1-5 2-2 2-5 0
Shepherd 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 1
Sims, D. 8 2-2 2-4 2-3 0
Baker 4 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 t
TEAM TOTALS 200 18-55 19-24 22-47 15 2
FG%: 32.7 FT%:79.2 3-pointFG: 7-19,368 (Harris1-6, Cc
0-3,Abram 3-4, Smith 2-5, Baker1-2) Blocks: 1 (Sims. C.)
(Harris, Udoh.).Tumovers:16(Harris 5, Smith 5, Petway 3
Shepherd)

2 8
0 0
4 13
5 7
2 9
3 12
2 4

Loss of leadership
Seniors shrink under tournament pressure

By H. JOSE BOSCH
Daily Sports Editor

Ohio State 72
Player MIN

REB
MAIM-A O-T A

Harris 13 2-4 0-0 0-1 1
Oden 28 8-12 6-10 2-8 0
Conley Jr. 33 5-9 2-2 0-2 6
Lewis 31 5-8 4-4 0-1 1
Butler 30 1-4 0-0 0-3 2
Lighty 9 0-1 0-0 0-3 2
Cook 17 3-7 2-4 2-4 0
Terwilliger 12 0-0 2-2 0-1 1
Hunter 27 2-7 0-0 1-3 0
TEAM 1-1
TEAM TOTALS 200 26-52 16-22 6-25 12
FG%: 50.0 FT%: 72.7 3-point FG: 4-13, .308 (Lewis
Conley Jr. 1-2, Cook 1-2, Harris 0-1, Butler 0-2, Hunt
Blocks: 7 (Oden 4. Hunter 2, Termilliger). Steals: 70
Jr. 3, Lewis 2, Cook 2). Turnovers: 5 (Conley Jr. 3, Oc
ler). Technical fouls: Thad Matta
Ohio State. 34 38 - 72 At: United C
Michigan....... 29 33 - 62 Attendance:.

1 0 CHICAGO - Seniors Dion Harris
1 6 and Courtney Sims wanted to make
0 3 - some noise in this year's Big Ten Con-
ference Tournament.
0 62 Unfortunately, it was a thud.
oleman In what turned out to be their final
Steals:2 conference tournament game, Harris
Sims C., and Sims came out flat and contribut-
ed little in Michi-
gan's 72-62 loss to NOTEBOOK
No. 1 Ohio State.
The two players combined to shoot
3-for-22 and scored just 16 points
F PTS despite being the Wolverines' top two
scorers all year.
1 4 "I think I probably didn't get the
3 22 comfortable, open shots today that
1 13 I've gotten against (Ohio State)," Har-
0 16 ris said. "And then I missed some.
They did a great job defensively and
4 2 plugging into the driving lanes, espe-
4 2 cially with me."
2 9 Harris's struggles were long and
painful over the course of the game,
4 2 but Sims's bad day was made worse
3 4 early in the second half.
With Michigan trailing 36-31, Sims
had a chance to pull his team closer
18 72 _ with an easy layup. But on back-to-
back attempts, Buckeye center Greg
Oden embarrassingly blocked Sims
2-4, from behind, arousing a roar from the
er 0-2). United Center crowd.
Conley Ohio State's Mike Conley, Jr. picked
up the loose ball and turned those
blocks into two points on the other
enter end of the floor.
22,081 "Yeah, (Oden's) a load down there,"
senior Brent Petway said. "He's a
great player. He has his size and he
knows how to use it. ... You've just got
A to give him credit. He knows how to
play the game and use his size."
3.78 Actually showing up: During Fri-
.51
2.18
.96 ---
1.18 BIG TENS
3.42 From page lB
.75
But his presence wasn't felt in just
.35 the scoring column. The freshman had
.44 eight rebounds and four blocks, and
55 disrupted countless Michigan endeav-
ors to the paint.
.16 From the moment Ohio State came
.14 out of the locker room for the second
.5 half, it was clear that Oden had decid-
ed enough was enough. He hit a jump
0.0 hook on the Buckeyes' opening posses-
sion. He followed that a minute later
by stuffing Michigan senior Courtney
Sims twice in a row on point-blank
S, layup attempts.
Michigan had some success defend-

day's second-round loss, Michigan
fans witnessed flashes of the past and
the future.
In his final Big Ten game, fifth-
year senior Lester Abram briefly
showed the brilliance he displayed in
his three years of eligibility as a Wol-
verine.
Making the shots that failed to fall
most of the season, Abram scored 13
points (nine from beyond the arc) and
added four rebounds and four assists
against zero turnovers.
"I was just taking more time on my
shot, not rushing it," Abram said. "I
was already used to the court from
playing on it (on Thursday), so that
helped a little bit. I was getting open
shots and knocking them down. It
wasn't anything special."
Abram had been criticized for the
drop in the quality of his play this
year. Prior to the season, the Pontiac
native had averaged 10.6, 13.1 and 10.1
points per game in three previous
seasons. This year he averaged 8.9.
But Abram wasn't the only player to
avengehis critics.FreshmanDeShawn
Sims also had a good performance
despite a season of mediocrity.
Sims scored six points and grabbed
three rebounds in eight minutes of
play. Along with his eight points and
seven rebounds in 14 minutes against
Minnesota on Thursday, Sims had the
best two-game stretch of his young
college career.
"I stopped pressing so much, try-
ing to let the game come to me," Sims
said. "I tried to get myself going by
doing the little things like rebound-
ing, playing defense and that gave me
a boost in confidence."
At least they won something: The
Wolverines may not have won the
war, but they dominated the battle of
the boards against Ohio State.
ing Oden early on, limiting him to just
three field-goal attempts in the first
half. But Sims picked up his fourth foul
with more than eight minutes remain-
ing in the game.
When Sims went to the bench, Oden
scored seven consecutive points for
the Buckeyes, consistently manhan-
dling smaller defenders like freshman
Ekpe Udoh and senior Brent Petway.
"It just happened that he didn't get
in foul trouble, so he was in the game
longer," Sims said. "I got calls, but
unfortunately they weren't on him.
It just works out that way sometimes.
He's a good shot blocker, so when he
blocks shots, the refs expect him not to
foul. He's got a good reputation, so he's
going to get calls like that."

Player

GP

Min Pts R

Harris 33 32.7 13.5 2.4
Sims, C. 33 24.5 11.7 6.2
Abram 33 28.4 8.9 3.6
Petway 33 23.1 6.9 5.9
Coleman 33 23.8 5.9 3.1
Smith 31 23.7 5.4 2.8
Udoh 33 20.5 5.0 4.0
Sims, D. 31 9.2 3.1 2.2
Oaker 27 8.6 2.6 .5
Shepherd 27 8.6 1.9 1.6
Price 6 3.2 1.5 1.0
Morris 7 5.3 1.0 .3
Merritt 2 2.0 0.0 0.0
E nries 1 3.0 0.0 1.0
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Senior Courtney Sims finished his Big Ten career ona poor note, scoring just seven points.
Michigan outrebounded the Buck- around the crowd, you could see a sea
eyes by 22 (47-25) and notched 22 of orange, green, red and black. The
offensive rebounds to Ohio State's colors that were noticeably missing
six. were maize and blue.
"When (the Wolverines are) shoot- The Michigan contingent was much
ing, those guys are just running and smaller than its Big Ten counterparts
jumping, and it is a little bit of desper- and most of the crowd appeared to
ation," Ohio State coach Thad Matta have an anti-Michigan bias,
said. "I've got to give Michigan some On the United Center scoreboard,
credit. They were relentless on the while fans were shown singing por-
boards." tions of their team's fight song, "The
No loves With a quick glance Victors" was soundly booed,
It didn't help Michigan that its top Michigan kept itself close because of
scorer, senior Dion Harris, was a hor- its aggressiveness on the glass. The
rendous 1-for-13 from the floor, netting Wolverines had 22 offensive rebounds
just nine points in his final Big Ten and outboarded the Buckeyes, 47-25.
Tournament appearance. But Michigan learned the hard way
And after the Buckeyes' 11-4 second- that sometimes a talented player like
half run, the Wolverines could not be Oden can negate any sort of effort and
careless with the ball. But Harris and hustle advantage a team may have.
point guard Jerret Smith committed And sometimes what you really
five turnovers apiece. Michigan had 16 want - an NCAA Tournament berth
turnovers as a team. - you just can't have.
"It wasn't anything they did, it was "In high school you watch college
just sometimes we were lackadaisical basketball and that's what you watch,
with the ball," Abram said. "We had the Tournament," Sims said. "Your
some turnovers in critical moments of dream is to make it, and to not make
the game, and if we had been able to it all four years you are here, that's a
get shots, you don't know where the huge disappointment. It's something
game could have gone." that I'm never going to be able to
Despite the poor play of its stars, accomplish."

I - - - iii

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