Women's hoops stomp Wildcats

Blue stomp Iowa for road victory

EVANSTON - A week ago, victory seemed like a distant memory. But just a short time later, that sweet sensation has returned to the Michigan women's basketball team.

After yesterday's 64-54 victory over Northwestern, Michigan coach Sue Guevara said adversity builds character.

If anyone would know, it would be Guevara. So far this season, her Wolverines have experienced the high of a nine-game winning streak and the frustration of a five-game losing streak.

Instead of accepting defeat, in the last six days the Wolverines have nearly climbed all the way out of the deep pit they had dug for themselves doing the previous two weeks.

DANA LINNANE/Daily Michigan's Ruth Kipping has emerged lately, helping the Wolverines to two road victories this weekend.

One week ago, Michigan was in last place in the Big Ten. After Friday night's 86-67 victory over Iowa, it had rocketed out of the cellar and into fifth place in the conference.

During the three-game winning streak, the character of the team has finally shone through displaying a squad that has finally jelled and began playing together.

The most glaring example of that is the recent distribution of offense. No longer is junior guard Stacey Thomas forced to carry the weight of the team on her shoulders alone. Instead, players such as freshmen Ruth Kipping and Alayne Ingram, as well as sophomore Anne Thorius, have put up impressive figures on the scoreboard.

"I have a team of warriors," Guevara said. "We've had gutty performances from several people and had contributions from the bench the last three games."

The contributions of her teammates have allowed Thomas to play her game. In doing so, Thomas has once again become the dominating player she was at the start of the season.

Yesterday's game was another record-setting performance for Thomas, who led all scorers with 15 points and nabbed 10 rebounds. She recorded a career high four blocks and with her six steals surpassed Diane Dietz for second on the Michigan career steals list with 233 in three years. She trails only Lori Gnatkowski, who leads all Wolverines with 266.

But last night's performance in Evanston could not be called "The Stacey Thomas Show." It was perhaps one of the most complete performances the Wolverines have had all season with four players scoring in double figures.

The most telling statistic was Michigan's 68-percent field-goal shooting percentage in the first half and 50.9-percent shooting for the game.

In contrast, during their slump, the Wolverines were averaging 30-percent shooting from the field.

But that wasn't the whole story. Michigan was firing on all cylinders and dictating the pace of the game especially in the waning minutes of the second half.

The game was closely contested from the opening tip until the Wolverines pulled away late in the second. Northwestern dominated early posting a 30-22 lead with seven minutes left in the first half. The Wolverines fought back and went on a 9-0 run to go up 31-30. They headed to the lockerroom with a 37-36 lead.

The second half was an entirely different story. Michigan's defense forced Northwestern to go 5-for-20 from the field after the break. In several critical situations, time ran out for the Wildcats and they were forced to take off-balance shots as the shot clock ran down.

"We didn't try to run down the clock," Northwestern's Carissa Flores said. "They made us run down the clock. It seemed like with four or five seconds left we were struggling to get a shot."

In Friday night's victory over Iowa, the Wolverines also played a solid all-around game. In that outing, they shot 53.3-percent from the field and grabbed 38 rebounds.

Kipping and Thorius both scored 19 points in the win. Senior Ann Lemire also had an impressive performance scoring 17 points in her first game back from a suspension and an illness.

01-25-99