Guevara looks for positives in poor offensive showing

Ten minutes into the Michigan women's basketball game with Holy Cross, Michigan had made three shots, missed countless routine jumpers and had six points.

"Is there anybody who can hit a shot?" Michigan women's basketball coach Sue Guevara wondered.' But it was like, 'I can't panic. It's 6-2."

In favor of Michigan.

Half way through the first half.

"If you told me we were going to hold them to six points in the first 10 minutes, I'd figure we'd be up 14-6," Holy Cross coach Bill Gibbons said.

DANA LINNANE/Daily "Is there anyone who can hit a shot?" said Michigan coach Sue Guevara after the Wolverines shot 41 percent against the Crusaders. The Wolverines improved their record to 4-0 with a 71-55 victory.

Just how ugly was the first half? Consider:

n Holy Cross shot 26 percent from the field, topped by Michigan's 39 percent.

n The Crusaders and Wolverines both had 12 turnovers.

n On 3-point attempts, the two teams combined to make just four out of 16.

Both teams then caught fire, comparatively. The second part of the half, Michigan outscored Holy Cross 24-14 to take a 30-16 halftime lead.

"The key to the game was our lack of offense early," Gibbons said. "By missing shots early, that gave us a lack of confidence in our offense and dug a big hole for us."

Guevara: "I just asked my team, 'Where is the team that was in Colorado? Did we lose it in the mountains?'"

This hardly resembled the Wolverines that won on the road to open their season at Colorado State and Colorado

"You know they (the Wolverines) can shoot," Guevara said of her first-half thoughts. "It's like, 'We're gonna get going. It's just a matter of when.'"

In the second half, the Wolverines did get going, paced by freshman Infini Robinson's 10 second half points. Michigan outscored Holy Cross 41-39 in the second half and won 71-55.

"Infini Robinson came in, and God this kid needed that game, Guevara said. "She hit her first field goal of her short career. She ends up with 10 points, perfect from the floor (3-for-3, including two 3-pointers), perfect from the free-throw line (2-for-2). She needed this game for her confidence."

This was by far Robinson's best game in her four-game Michigan career. In her previous three games, she was 0-for-8 from the field.

Michigan must now regroup before hosting 1-3 Providence tomorrow night.

"We want to run, and you know when you run you are going to have a lot of turnovers," Guevara said. "But its the same type of turnovers that we keep making."

This weekend, the Wolverines will fly to Houston for the Gene Hackerman Rice Invitational. The three teams they will face are New Mexico, Rice and Massachusetts.

The Wolverines will not get away with "sloppy" play at the Invitational, all four teams there competed in last year's WNIT.

"I would rather look for positives in an ugly win, than in a loss," Guevara said after the Wolverines low scoring win. "I'm glad we're winning, but when I walked into the lockerroom after this game, there wasn't anybody in there jumping for joy or smiling or anything like that. This team is a smart team. They will watch the tape and make some adjustments."

11-29-99