Boilers halt Blue in BTT

By Raphael Goodstein

Daily Sports Writer

INDIANAPOLIS - It pleaded for the attention for months. But when the fans cheered, the television cameras rolled, and the NCAA Tournament committee paid attention, the No. 22 Michigan women's basketball team cracked.

After receiving their first national ranking in school history, the second-seeded Wolverines went to the Big Ten Tournament talking about a revenge game with fifth-ranked and top-seeded Penn State in the finals. But Michigan seemingly forgot about its semifinal game with No. 18 Purdue, last year's national champion, falling 74-59 on Saturday.

The loss exposed the Wolverines as an inexperienced team that lacks tournament stamina while snapping their nine-game winning streak.

"We were a little excited to be there," junior point guard Anne Thorius said.

Thorius was one of two Michigan starters to finish with double-digits scoring. Senior forward Stacey Thomas was the other, but Thomas finished the game just 3-12 from the field and 3-7 from the free-throw line for her 10 points.

Thomas' offensive failures caused Michigan coach Sue Guevara to play backup forward Heather Oesterle for 14 second-half minutes - the sophomore averages only 12 minutes per game. Thomas played a mere eight minutes in the second half.

Thomas's second-half absence allowed Purdue's Katie Douglas, the co-Big Ten Player of the Year, to

score 16 points in the half. Thomas's absence was puzzling because she was the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year, having earned the honor this past week.

"Hindsight is 20-20," lamented Guevara, the media's Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Douglas repeatedly hit clutch shots for the Boilermakers with the slower Oesterle guarding her.

"I think Stacey has a presence on the court," Douglas said.

Douglas hit the game's most important shot when she nailed an 18-foot jumper - and Michigan's coffin - as the shot clock expired with less than four minutes left in the game. The shot pushed Purdue's lead to 14.

The win puts the Boilermakers in a position to nab a top-four seed for the pending NCAA Tournament. A top-four seed can be important because the top-four seeds can host the first two rounds.

Though the loss might damn the Wolverines' hopes for a similar seeding, they will not host regardless. Michigan decided not to bid to be a host site because it did not think it could draw the 5,000 fans the tournament requires to host.

Michigan was seventh in the Big Ten in attendance this year while Purdue led the Big Ten in attendance.

Many Boilermakers fans made the trek from West Lafayette to root for Purdue, so even though Michigan was wearing its home jerseys, most of Conseco Fieldhouse was against it.

Michigan cited Conseco as a reason for the loss.

"I want to go back to the RCA Dome. I like their rims better," Guevara said.

Michigan shot a pitiful 38 percent from the field and an equally pathetic 50 percent from the free-throw stripe.

"I felt that we had some players that were tight," Guevara said.

Michigan had a horrible 7-13 assist-to-turnover ratio in the loss.

The Wolverines hoped that their second-round 72-39 victory over Northwestern relieved their nervousness.

Because the Wolverines had a first-round bye, their game with the Wildcats was their first game in five days - a longer stretch of inactivity than Michigan is used to.

The rust showed - Michigan had 18 only assists while committing 14 turnovers, nine in the first half.

"We came out a little tight but defensively we stepped up," Guevara said. "Hopefully tomorrow we won't be nervous, but ready to play."

When tomorrow came, hopefulness turned to heartbreak.

AP PHOTO

Purdue smothered the Wolverines to send them home early.