The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com November 24, 2008 (CHT TA TR4 2_ TMICHIGAN '7 Junior wide receiver Greg Mathews tries to make a catch in the Wolverines' 42-7 loss to Ohio State on Saturday. Mathews didn't have a reception in the game. MAT LA6TiTHE END Ohio State dominates rivalry on and off field Same mistakes again spell doom for Blue By DAN FELDMAN Daily Sports Editor COLUMBUS - The Michigan football team used to be selfish. In 2004, the Wolverines lost to Ohio State but still earned a bitter- sweet Rose Bowl Berth. "I don't think it will ease (the loss) at all," then-senior captain David Baas said at the time. "It's Michigan-Ohio State." Five years later, things have changed. A Buckeyes'victory in their final regular-season game has become so commonplace that there wasn't even rioting in Columbus this weekend. The Ohio State students seemed to rush the field after the game out of obligation rather than excitement. The Buckeyes have won five straight over the Wolverines, Ohio State's longest winning streak in the rivalry. o Of other major rivalries, just Auburn over Alabama, Navy over Army and Southern Cal over Notre Dame have been more lopsided. Each stands at six straight victo- ries. Saturday's loss means Michi- gan's senior class becomes just the seventh to never beat the Buck- eyes. "Just looking atthe other seniors and looking at how tough it was on them," Michigan senior nose tackle Terrance Taylor said, "knowing the things we've been through these four years and knowing the sacri- fices we've put in and the struggles we've gone (through), and the hard work we've put in, sometimes it feels like some of it has gone down the drain. Taylor said he tried to preach a sense of desperation to the Wolver- ines' freshmen, several of whom were starters. "Hopefully we got through to them," Taylor said. "I guess not in time." On the other hand, the Buckeyes' seniors will collect their fourth (or fifth, if they redshirted) pair of gold pants, the charms awarded to Ohio State teams that beat Michigan. "We're blessed to be in a posi- tion where we don't have to say See DOMINANCE, Page 4B By IAN ROBINSON Daily Sports Editor COLUMBUS - The Michigan- Ohio State game doesn't exist in a vacuum. You can't throw the records out the window. Not every- thing changes once the two teams square off. The Wolverines have been out- matched all year, and perhaps no more than in Saturday's 42-7loss to the Buckeyes. Michigan lost its fifth straight for the first time in the rivalry, and it was the series' largest margin of victory since the Buckeyes' 50-14 win in 1968 - the last game before Bo Schembechler became head coach in Ann Arbor. The same problems that caused his team to struggle throughout Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez's first season led to the Wolverines' demise at Ohio Stadium. It developed slowly at first, then picked up, hurtling toward the end of one of the worst years in Michi- gan football's 129 seasons. The Wolverines held Ohio State scoreless on its first four posses- sions, and junior running back Brandon Minor's one-yard touch- down run in the second quarter made it a one-touchdown game at the half. But the second half was a lot more of the same. What allowed Ohio State (7-1 Big Ten, 10-2 overall) to pull away from the Wolverines was no different than what has allowed other teams to separate themselves from Michi- gan - big plays. The Buckeyes scored three touchdowns on plays of more than 40 yards. That makes 11 of those long-distance scores given up by the Wolverines all season. "If you watch their films, the teams they play did not run four yards, five yards, four yards, five yards," Ohio State coach Jim Tres- sel said of Michigan's defense. "They either ran minus-one or hit big ones." The problem snowballed for Michigan as, once again, it couldn't respond. The Buckeyes finished the See BUCKEYES, Page 4B Junior running back Brandon Minor had 67 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries against Ohio State on Saturday. WOMEN'S BASKETBALL 'M' starts off slow but pulls out upset Wolverines stumble inkey series By JOE STAPLETON Daily StaffReporter Unlucky 13 was up to its old tricks yesterday afternoon, when the Michigan women's basketball team took on visiting Vanderbilt at Crisler Arena. The Commodores entered the contest ranked 13th in the country. By beatingthemSo-42 Michigan made sure they left a little lower in the polls. Picked to win the Southeastern Conference, Vanderbilt was accus- tomed tofaster, more athletic teams who push the ball up the court and score on the fast break. The Wol- verines are just the opposite - they like to slow the game down, pound the ball inside and get rebounds. It was a matchup of two very dif- ferent styles of play, and Michigan came out on top. "To you, it may look like agony," Michigan coach Kevin Borseth said. "But to us, it was exactly what we wanted to do." Saying the Wolverines got off to a slow start offensively would be an understatement. They were score- less for the first five minutes and 26 seconds of the game before senior Carly Benson mercifully cashed the first bucket. The Commodores led 7-2, but it wouldn't last long. Michigan went on a 7-2 run of its own after that first basket, and never looked back. The Wolverines went into half- time with a 21-15 lead. The 15-point output was the lowest Vanderbilt had scored in a half since January. See COMMODORES, Page 2B By NICOLE AUERBACH Daily Staff Reporter OXFORD - Scrambling to recover the puck after a lost face- off. Scrambling back to the defen- sive zone to try to stop a RedHawk breakaway. Scrambling to score, down one goal, in Saturday's final period. The chaotic, all-over-the-place jumbled play defined the Michi- gan hockey team's weekend series against Miami (Ohio). And after a weekend of con- stant, frantic struggles, the Wol- verines had nothing to show for it. No wins, no ties, no points. With its 2-1 loss on Saturday, Michigan has already surpassed the total losses it had last regular season - six. The ninth-ranked Wolverines (5-5-0 CCHA, 8-6-0 overall) mus- tered just one goal through six periods on the weekend, which included Friday's 2-0 loss. "(It was) a little bit of puck luck, a little bit of not going to the net or not hav- ing con- MICHIGAN 0 fidence," MIAMI (OHIO) 2 Michigan coach Red MICHIGAN 1 Beren- MIAMI (OHIO) 2 son said. "I know some of our guys haven't scored in over a month. You're not going to go very far with just one or two guys scoring." Junior defenseman Chris Sum- mers scored Michigan's only goal of the weekend on a beautiful slap shot from the left point into the top right corner of the Miami net with five minutes left in Saturday's sec- ond period. Summers' tally broke a four-frame scoreless streak for the Wolverines. But at that point, the RedHawks still had a one-goal advantage, and they didn't plan on losing a lead for See REDHAWKS, Page 6B SAID ALSAL AH/Daily Sophomore forward Louie Caporusso had two shots hit the post in the final minutes of Michigan's 2-1 loss to Miami Saturday.