The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com I November 23,2009 . + _4 ° ' 1 six M- %h.- ,,t s. r CLIF REEDER/Daily SAID ALSALAH/Dail Defensive end Brandon Graham had four tackles for loss in his final collegiate game. Ohio State safety Kurt Coleman intercepts a Tate Forcier pass to halt a Michigan drive in the fourth quarter. Forcier threw four interceptions in his first game against the Buckeyes. Forcier's struggles doom olverines: Blue 'D' shines, ByCOURTNEYRATKOWIAK "had to get the seniors to a bowl Daily Sports Editor game," but after throwing three straight interceptions in the fourth Wif-'k qu2r-trone -naic-0igan,- o--oes put With 33 seconds left in another miserable Michigan football sea- son, the freshman quarterback who was hailed as Michigan's savior just two months ago stood red-eyed on the sideline. Running back Mike Shaw had something to say about that. He marched up to Tate Forcier, gripped the sides of the freshman's helmet with both hands and forced him to listen. Keep your head up, Shaw told Forcier. You're young, and you have a lot of work to do. Work hard. The game ended, but neither moved. Shaw gave his quarterback a few last words and a hug before leaving to face the postgame locker room scene. "I told him, he's a freshman. This is his team," Shaw said. "Rebuild- ing is over. Michigan is gonna be back." The freshman who led his team to two early-season, last-minute comebacks ended . his team's chances forpne when it needed it most - in Saturday's 21-10 loss to Ohio State. Forcier's mantra this week was that he quarter, the Michigan coaches put Denard Robinson behind center as the 5-7 season wound down. Offensive coordinator Calvin Magee's postgame talk with Forcier sounded similar to Shaw's. "These exact words: It's - tough. You gonna hurt. ' . But you got to learn from it," Magee said. "Now he has With a little more than 13 min- time to sit back, see it, study more, utes left in the game, Forcier get his coverages"imore and learn loked ready to lead another come- from those mistakes." . , , , from-behind effort. He started the The freshman finished the game drive by throwing the ball to red- 23-of-38 for 226 yas, and looked.shirt freshman wide receiver Roy much more effective on paper than Roundtree, who made an excellent Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor (9-of-17, play by finding a hole for a 43-yard 67 yards). But after factoring in five gain. But two plays later, at the Forcier turnovers - four intercep- Ohio State 35-yard line on third tions and a fumble that gave Ohio down, Forcier overthrew a pass to State its first touchdown - the the 10-yard line. Buckeye defensive Michigan offense disappointed. back Kurt Coleman intercepted the It was a sharp departure from ball with a leaping catch to endthe last week against Wisconsin, when Michigan drive. Forcier had one of his better games The Michigan defense then of the year, finishing 20-of-26 with forced the Buckeyes to go three- 188 yards, two touchdowns and and-out, and down two scores with one interception. But the 10 minutes left, the Wolverines got missed red zone oppor- the ball back at midfield and drove tunities were again a it to the Ohio State 6-yard line. But problem - Michigan con- with the maize-and-Mue faithful in verted on just one of its the Big House ready to celebrate, three chances Saturday. Forcier faked and then threw the The Wolverines converted on ball to Ohio State cornerback Devon a d'ismal 66 percent of their red Torrence. That drive proved to be zone chances this season, good Michigan's last real chance for seal- for dead last in the Big Ten. ing bowl eligibility, and Forcier left, "We had to settle for field the field visibly rattled. goals and we turned the ball "You can't be excited on one play over," redshirt junior offensive when he scrambles and finds a guy lineman Steve Schilling said. "It for a touchdown, and then he does hurts when you're so close. It's a it again and throws a pick," Magee rough one." See FORCIER, Page 3B ~offense falter s . y MIC AEL EISENSTEIN Daily Sports Editor Fourteen points. Michigan's defense - statisti- cally worse than 81 others in the country - held No. 10 Ohio State to just a pair of touchdowns Sat- urday. After the unit gave up 26, 30, 25, 38, 38 and 45 points in its six other Big Ten losses, the defense played its best in its big- gest game of the season. But the Wolverine offense sur- rendered another score on a fum- ble in the end zone, and freshman quarterback Tate Forcier's four interceptions ended any hopes Michigan had at winning a bowl- clinching sixth game. "When you hold a team- like Ohio State to 14 points, you expect to have a little bit better result than you did today," red- shirt sophomore defensive tackle Ryan Van Bergen said. Tears flowed freely in the lock- er room afterward. The team's two senior defen- sive starters, defensjve end Brandon Graham and linebacker Stevie Brown, had nothing more left after 60 minutes of rousing football. They are the third straight class to graduate without beating Ohio State. "I feel really bad for them - even more so because they're my class," redshirt junior linebacker Jonas Mouton said. "They left here without ever beating Ohio State, which you know is a ter- rible thing." The 21-10 loss is the Wolver- ines' sixth in a row to the Buck- eyes. With eight defeats in the 2000s, the series is now the most lopsided since Fielding Yost's Michigan teams beat Ohio State nine times in the 1900s. "It's not so much disappoint- ment as - I don't want to say regret - but we just want another shot to keep going," fifth-year senior center David Moosman See DEFENSE, Page 3B MEN'S BASK ETBALL Sims' hot hand leads Michigan over Huskies 'M' ends five-game skid in series split By CHRIS MESZAROS Daily Sports Writer After struggling through much of Friday's opening half against Houston Baptist, the Michigan basketball team went to a likely source to find a cure - forward DeShawn Sims. But it wasn't from the senior forward's usual spot in the post. As 16th-ranked Wolverines pulled away from the Huskies in the second half en route to a 77-55 win, Sims's shooting from beyond the arc ignited the team. After the Wolverines missed 16 of their first 20 shots and allowed the Huskies (0-4) to gain a five- point lead, Sims finally got Michi- gan (2-0) going. He spotted up from the wing and nailed a three to start the rally. "I've been shooting the ball great lately," Sims said. "That zone really forced us to shoot some threes today andI'm glad I hit them." Just . 20 seconds later, the senior hit the same shot from the same spot. Aftfer it was clear that Sims had the hot hand, his teammates kept feeding him the ball, and Sims made two more threes to end the first half. He finished with five total in the game. The late first-half run helped Michigan take a 41-29 lead into the locker room. "When he's hitting from the outside, you have to look for him," freshman guard Darius Morris said of Sims. "Once he hit them back-to-back, you have to keep looking for him, even if he miss- es." Sims finished the game shoot- ing 7-of-18, including 5-of-8 from See HUSKIES, Page 2B By NICK SPAR Daily Sports Writer TOLEDO, Ohio - Going into this weekend's home-and-home series against Bowling Green, all four of Michigan's wins had one thing in common - three goals before the first intermission. And against the Falcons, the Wolverines desperately needed that type of quick start. No. 16 Michigan stood at 4-6 before the start of the series - its worst ten- game opening stretch in 23 years. The team was also trying to elude a five-game losing streak, which would have been its longest since 1988. The Wolverines extended that streak after losing in Friday's game, but they did garner their first win since Oct. 31 with a 4-1 victory Saturday. Another three-goal first period spurred Michigan's fifth win. "That was huge," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "I thought we had a quick start (on Friday), but it never amounted to enough. We got one goal and then we gave up a goal, but we had seven really good chances. But on Saturday, the Wolverines converted on those chances. Junior winger Carl Hagelin put the Wolverines (5-7-0) on the board just over two minutes into their first-ever game at Toledo's Lucas County Arena with a tip-in goal off of a Brandon Burlon shot. Freshman A.J. Treais and senior Brian Lebler also tallied goals in the first period, as Michigan held a 3-1 lead and a 16-4 shot advantage heading into the second period. Neither team scored in the middle stanza, but the Wolverines imposed their will in the defensive zone and held the Falcons to just three shots. And in the third period, with a dangerous power play looming for the Falcons, Michigan utilized their conference-best penalty kill to silence the Bowling Green threat and put the game away. "For once, we actually played all 60 minutes," Hagelin said. "In the See FALCONS, Page 2B ARIEL BOND/Daily Junior Carl Hagelin fights for a loose puck in Michigan's 4-2 home loss Friday. SENIOR SW R K 0. Veteran trio shines in final home match ' Wolverines' comeback effort falls short, as No. 14 Michigan volleyball team awaits handing women's basketball team its first NCAA Tournament bid. Page 2B. k loss of young season. Page 2B.