Wolverines

For the first time this season, the sixth-ranked Maryland women's basketball team was not able to relax and empty its bench late in the second half. The Terrapins instead were facing potentially their first loss Wednesday night after pesky Michigan got within a point in the final six minutes of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Making matters worse was having leading scorer Alyssa Thomas on the bench nursing a cramp down the stretch, but Maryland never wilted, getting a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Laurin Mincy to trigger a decisive run of nine consecutive points on the way to a 74-65 victory before an announced 4,013 at Comcast Center.

Western Tech dominated on the inside and outside early and then held on for a 54-51 victory over Fort Hill in the Class 1A state semifinals Friday night at UMBC's RAC Arena. The win propels the Wolverines to Saturday's 6 p.m. state championship game against Dunbar at the same venue. Senior Ateh Ade scored 15 points and grabbed 24 of the Wolverines' 44 rebounds, including 11 in the third quarter. She had 13 boards off the offensive glass. "It was just all out hustle," said Ade, who added four blocked shots.

The difficult task was completed with a passing grade, but Western Tech junior pitcher Julianne Roper was still shaking a few minutes after the Wolverines came away with a 2-0 win at defending Baltimore County champion Catonsville yesterday. It was understandable, considering the No. 14 Comets had loaded the bases with three straight singles in the bottom of the seventh inning. Roper and the Wolverines' drawn-in infield got the job done. First came a come-backer from Ashley Dupski, which Roper threw to catcher Katie Blackston to force the lead runner.

Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer has coached enough games to experience varying degrees of pain on a football field, but nothing may compare to the ghastly horrors his team endured Tuesday night in a 23-20 overtime loss to Michigan. If he could magically negate any one or two of at least 10 scenarios that didn't go his team's way, the No. 17 Hokies (11-3) might be enjoying their first 12-win season and talking about how it justified being the Atlantic Coast Conference's first at-large bid in the Bowl Championship Series.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Though its fabled freshman class has played a large part in Michigan's success this season, an overlooked group of upperclassmen has played as big a part in the Wolverines' march to the Final Four.At last week's Southeast Regional in Lexington, Ky., senior center Eric Riley saved Michigan in its semifinal victory over Oklahoma State. Last night at the Metrodome, junior James Voskuil helped put the Wolverines into the NCAA championship game. But not before giving them an anxious moment.

Western Tech's most potent weapon -- its speed -- was on full display at Lansdowne last night.The Wolverines converted on several deep passes, and got a 77-yard touchdown reception from tight end Zack Oleszczuk, to blaze to a 28-20 win over the Vikings before an overflow crowd."

PASADENA, Calif. -- The top-ranked Michigan Wolverines are one victory away from their first national championship in 50 years, but coach Lloyd Carr has spent the past week trying to keep his team's eyes off the prize.The 84th Rose Bowl may be for all the marbles, but the focus has been set firmly on finding a way to stop the high-powered offensive attack of No. 8 Washington State in the premier New Year's Day bowl matchup."I think there is a constant reminder," Carr said. "What I try to tell our players and coaches, that [the national title]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan and Duke had staged a number of down-to-the-wire battles over the past decade, both during the regular season and in the NCAA tournament, both here at Crisler Arena and at Cameron Indoor Stadium.Yesterday wasn't supposed to be one of those matchups because the Wolverines were supposed to be overmatched by the top-ranked Blue Devils. But something stirred Michigan early in the second half. It might have been the thought of getting embarrassed on national television.

Western Tech dominated on the inside and outside early and then held on for a 54-51 victory over Fort Hill in the Class 1A state semifinals Friday night at UMBC's RAC Arena. The win propels the Wolverines to Saturday's 6 p.m. state championship game against Dunbar at the same venue. Senior Ateh Ade scored 15 points and grabbed 24 of the Wolverines' 44 rebounds, including 11 in the third quarter. She had 13 boards off the offensive glass. "It was just all out hustle," said Ade, who added four blocked shots.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson held a long-stemmed rose under his nose, inhaled and said, "Can you all smell that? Yeah, I think you can."Woodson and the top-ranked Wolverines can smell a national title, too, after completing their first unbeaten regular season since 1971 yesterday with a 20-14 victory over No. 4 Ohio State before a record 106,982 at Michigan Stadium.The Wolverines' first Big Ten title since 1992 sends them to the Rose Bowl to face Pacific-10 champion Washington State on New Year's Day with a clear path to their first national championship since 1948.

For the first time this season, the sixth-ranked Maryland women's basketball team was not able to relax and empty its bench late in the second half. The Terrapins instead were facing potentially their first loss Wednesday night after pesky Michigan got within a point in the final six minutes of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Making matters worse was having leading scorer Alyssa Thomas on the bench nursing a cramp down the stretch, but Maryland never wilted, getting a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Laurin Mincy to trigger a decisive run of nine consecutive points on the way to a 74-65 victory before an announced 4,013 at Comcast Center.

Mount Hebron's Will Rice got halfway to the sideline and couldn't go any further. The Vikings senior, seconds after watching time expire on a 3-1 loss to Watkins Mill in the 3A state championship Thursday at UMBC Stadium, had the emotions of an entire season hit him all at once. A title game that No. 8 Mount Hebron once led 1-0 had somehow slipped away. “It just hits you, that was my shot ... and to think we had it for a second, the game was ours and we were up,” Rice said.

The Western Tech volleyball team's first visit to the state semifinals didn't last long, yet for coach Eric Jett and the Wolverines, the experience is something to savor. Just an hour after the opening introductions, the Wolverines were dispatched by three-time defending state champion Smithsburg of Washington County, 25-7, 25-13, 25-11, in a Class 1A matchup Tuesday night at the University of Maryland's Ritchie Coliseum. "They are the three-time defending state champion, and they played like it," Jett said.

Overlea and Western Tech showed early-game jitters in a football game that could have decided the champion in Baltimore County's Division 2A-1A as well as the top seed in the Class 1A North regional playoffs. Both teams fumbled away their initial plays from scrimmage, but Overlea settled down first and got a 28-point jump on the Wolverines en route to a 34-16 victory Saturday at Arbutus Middle School. The visiting Falcons improved to 7-0 overall and 4-0 in the division, and they extended the area's longest active winning streak to 11 games.

Western Tech's Juleon Killikelly-Lee is just a junior playing his first year at quarterback, but he is playing much older and wiser than that. Coach Alan Lagon said he chose Killikelly-Lee to play the position this season "because he's a fairly mature individual, a competitor and really fast. He has a good head on his shoulders. " Killikelly-Lee, who runs the 40 in 4.3 seconds, manages the Wolverines' triple-option offense with a calm skill that has helped his team to a 7-0 record, the best start in school history.

Denard Robinson, QB, Michigan Buzz: He became the first player in FBS history to pass for 200 yards and rush for 200 yards in a regular-season game twice in his career when he led the Wolverines on a game-winning drive Saturday against Indiana. Up next: No. 17 Michigan State, Saturday. Terrelle Pryor, QB, Ohio State Buzz: A strained left quadriceps derailed his performance Saturday against Illinois and showed why the Buckeyes need Pryor in the lineup.

KENT, Ohio - Maureen Tasch made 11 saves as Michigan defeated the Maryland Terrapins, 2-0, yesterday to win its first NCAA Division I field hockey championship, ending the East Coast's domination and earning the Wolverines their first national title in any women's sport. The Terrapins (20-4) outshot unseeded Michigan 10-1 in the final 35 minutes, but Tasch, who posted her eighth shutout of the season, turned away shot after shot with spectacular saves. "I thought at this level so late in the season I was done with those [shutouts]

Western Tech senior quarterback Dwight Tillman set the tone on the game's second play, duping the Sparrows Point defense with an option fake to running back Jeremy Williams before disappearing off tackle and up the field for a 57-yard touchdown. "I just faked it, saw the hole, took off," said Tillman, who rushed for 110 yards and three touchdowns and added a 31-yard scoring pass to Marcus Richardson with 11:14 left in the visiting Wolverines' 28-0 Baltimore County 2A-1A League rout yesterday.

College football's winningest program just took another hit off the field. The University of Michigan released embarrassing details of an internal audit Monday that discovered Rich Rodriguez's team failed to file forms tracking how much time players spent on football during the 2008 season and the following offseason. The NCAA and the school are investigating the program about similar issues. Rodriguez has said he and his coaches know and follow NCAA rules. The Detroit Free Press, citing anonymous football players, reported in August that Michigan was exceeding NCAA limits regarding practices and workouts.

Story lovers, beware: As far as plot goes, the title of X-Men Origins: Wolverine tells it all. How James Howlett became Logan, aka Wolverine, the brother of Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth, requires repeated bursts of exposition, and that's just the beginning. The whole movie keeps piling one creation myth on top of another, from the formation of a mutant black ops unit in the Vietnam era to the establishment of the X-Men as we know them. It's like an improbable six-stage rocket that keeps firing according to plan but never achieves lift-off.