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SPORTS
THE SAINT |WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2012
Easy does it Women’s basketball team hunts for a good seed following a pair of blowout wins
DALE DOMER / THE SAINT
Shooting from the charity stripe: Junior center Shelby Carter attempts a free throw against Lourdes. The Saints will need to be consistent on the free throw line in order to beat Cornerstone this Saturday. By Dan Meloy Sports Editor A pair of blowout wins last week has the Aquinas College women’s basketball team at 13-8 and a 6-4 conference record. The Saints crushed Madonna University and Lourdes College last week to put them in a tie for third in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference. On Jan. 18, the Saints traveled to Livonia and defeated Madonna 76-56. Aquinas built up a seven point lead at the half and then ran away with the game, outscoring the Crusaders 44-31 in the second half in route to the victory. Freshman guard Allison Heberlein scored 14 points and seven rebounds. Junior guard Taelor Sanders scored 11 points and had seven rebounds. Last Saturday, the Saints crushed Lourdes 73-55. Aquinas was in control from the start shooting 40 percent from the field and constantly harassing the Grey Wolves with a full-court press. Junior center Shelby Carter points out that the Saints can only press when the team works together. “The key is communication,” said Carter. “Our biggest thing is to close the trap on our 1-2-2 press once we close it up then we have to communi-
cate where the ball is going, where people are and hustle back if we get beat.” The Saints used the press well against Lourdes, forcing 28 turnovers. Sanders led the Saints with 15 points and seven rebounds. Carter scored 13 points in the game and freshman guard Chelsea Matley had 12 points. Despite the easy win, women’s basketball Head Coach Lina Nash still found areas for the team to improve upon if they are to go far in the tournament. “We missed a lot of easy shots, I felt our decision making at times wasn’t good,” said Nash. “But it is live and learn. We have a big road game on Wednesday and then we come back.” The Saints travel to Lima, Ohio to face the University of Northwestern Ohio tonight and will return home to play city-rival Cornerstone University at the Sturrus Sports and Fitness Center at 1 p.m. “We need to come out this week in practice and practice hard; this past week we have not had any tough practices and we were kind of goofing off a bit,” said Sanders. “We know it is a big week for us and a big week in conference and we just have to be ready.”
Giants and Patriots set to square off in Super Bowl
From alternative to mainstream The Detroit Mechanix are Michigan’s new professional Ultimate team By George Van Den Driessche The Saint Reporter Ultimate steals the main stage in Michigan as Detroit will be home of one of eight teams that will form a new Ultimate league. The Detroit Mechanix will take part in the inaugural season of the American Ultimate Disc League a professional ultimate league. The sport, also known as Ultimate Disc or Ultimate Frisbee, has come a long way in a very short period of time. It was founded in 1968. In the past 43 years, Ultimate has been on an odyssey, starting as a backyard game to the formation of a professional league. The first college match was played in 1972 between Princeton and Rutgers universities. Rutgers has claim to the first victory by a two point differential. This transition to a professional sport is terrific news for fans of Ultimate. “I think it’s great. It really shows that Ultimate should be taken seriously and acknowledged,” said junior Mitch Spelde, captain of Aquinasauraus, the Aquinas College ultimate club team. “It’s as exciting as football or basketball can be.” Some changes will be made to the game. These changes are meant to speed up the pace of the game and provide a more entertaining aspect for viewers. The two biggest changes are a time limit of four 20-minute quarters and the stall count being seven seconds as opposed to the traditional 10 seconds. For official rules go to usaultimate.org or theaudl.com.
COURTESY DETROIT MECHANIX
Gearing up: The Detroit Mechanix will compete in the newly established American Ultimate Disc League this year at the Silverdome. Another significant change is the creation of an overtime period in the event of a tie at the end of the game. The first overtime session will be a five minute period. If the match is still tied, a second overtime period will occur with the first team scoring winning the game. Traditionally, overtime was not needed in Ultimate since a game would be decided by a team being the first to score a specific amount of goals. There are officially eight teams broken into two conferences. The Western Conference consists of the Columbus Cranes, Detroit Mechanix, Indianapolis Alley Cats and the Bluegrass Revolution (Kentucky). The Eastern Conference consists of the Buffalo Hunters, Philadelphia Spinners, Rhode Island Rampage and the Connecticut Constitution. The Mechanix had their first combine on January 7. Detroit hosted the combine at the Detroit Silverdome in Pontiac, the proposed home field for
the Mechanix. AUDL will officially kick off the season on April 14 with Detroit’s first game being against the Revolution. The Mechanix’s mascot, Rusty the Wrench, will then cheer the team to victory in their first home game against the Rhode Island Rampage. Tickets can be purchased at the Mechanix website, detmechanix.com. Anyone interested in trying out in future combines can contact the team via e-mail at Info@detmechanix.com. What does this mean for Aquinas Ultimate? “As far as what it means to Aquinas ultimate, I’d hope that people see this and take interest in our sport, whether it’s joining the team or just coming to support us and watch,” said Spelde. “I just don’t think enough people know about the sport and I’m hoping that this professional team shows people that ultimate frisbee is just as much of a sport as any other sport.”
Buckeyes, Wolverines and Spartans all tied atop the Big Ten standings By Brian Kalchik The Saint Reporter This Big Ten basketball season is shaping up to go down to the wire with lots of teams contending for the Big Ten regular season title. There is a three-way tie for first between sixth ranked Ohio State, 20th ranked Michigan and ninth ranked Michigan State all with 5-2 Big Ten records. Wisconsin and Illinois are creeping closer in the standings with Wisconsin being 5-3 and Illinois at 4-3. Some players to watch as far as these teams are concerned are Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger, Aaron Craft and William Buford. Meanwhile, Michigan boasts the likes of Trey Burke, Zack Novak, Tim Hardaway Jr., with Draymond Green and Keith Appling as the go to players for the Spartans. Jordan Taylor and Ryan Evans are
the leading scores for the Wisconsin Badgers who have made a late surge in the league standings. Brandon Paul and Myers Leonard are the players to look out for the Illinois Fighting Illini. Twenty games into season and eight of the Big Ten’s 12 teams have legitimate shots at earning a bid to the NCAA National Tournament. Some of the coaches to watch for the remainder of the Big Ten season are Ohio State’s Thad Matta, Michigan’s John Beilein, Michigan St.’s Tom Izzo, Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan, Illinois’s Bruce Weber and two dark horses in Minnesota’s Tubby Smith and Indiana’s Tom Crean. Some games to look forward to for the rest of the regular season are Indiana at Wisconsin on January 26, Michigan at Ohio St. on January 29, Michigan at Michigan St. on February 5 and on the final day of the regular season Ohio
St. at Michigan St. on March 4. With how the Big Ten has been so far, no one can predict who will end up being the conference champion. There could be some surprise team that comes out of nowhere and starts getting hot at the right time. Some candidates to make a surprise are Purdue and Northwestern. Purdue has the luxury of having veteran coach Matt Painter and are led by experienced leader Robbie Hummel. Northwestern plays an unorthodox system compared to the other Big Ten teams and is looking for the school’s first bid to the National Tournament. With more than half of the Big Ten season remaining, a lot can still happen with the league standings. Look for surprises, look for upsets and expect the unexpected as teams compete for a Big Ten championship and a chance to earn a bid to the big dance come March.
Senior Anne Marie Shumaker is a natural leader both on and off the court
By Sam Swartout The Saint Reporter COURTESY NFL
Familiar Foes: It will be a case of Super Bowl deja vu as the New England Patriots line up against the New York Giants in a rematch of Super Bowl XLII. By Sam Swartout The Saint Reporter This Sunday, both the NFC and AFC Championships were played to determine who will compete for the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XLVI. In the AFC Championship, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots hosted Joe Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens. Brady had a lackluster performance, completing only 22 of 36 passes for 234 yards. Among those throws, two were intercepted and none were thrown for touchdowns. However, Flacco was off on his game. He too completed only 22 of 36 passes, throwing for 282 yards. Among his passes were two touchdown passes and one interception. With 1:44 left in the fourth quarter, Baltimore was down by three points and had the ball. Flacco got the team within field goal range with 11 seconds remaining on the clock. The ball was snapped and Baltimore kicker Billy Cundiff missed the 32-yard kick wide to the left. Brady took a knee and allowed for the clock to run out, deeming the New England Patriots the AFC Champion with a score of 23-20. On the opposite side of the country, Eli Manning and the New York Giants traveled to San Francisco to face the 49ers in the NFC Championship. In a back and forth game with four lead changes, the Giants pulled a win out in overtime. Both Giants quarterback Eli Man-
ning and 49ers quarterback Alex Smith had good games with two touchdown passes apiece. Manning completed 32 of 58 passes for 316 yards, while Smith threw for 196 yards. After both teams punted in the overtime period, the Giants were faced with a fourth and 13. The Giants punted to 49ers returner Kyle Williams, who fumbled the ball, and the Giants recovered on the San Francisco 24-yard line. After running a few plays, Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes converted a 31-yard field goal to send the Giants to the Super Bowl. This match-up is very well known. The last time these two teams met was Super Bowl XLII. Winning that game was Eli Manning and the New York Giants in a dramatic upset 17-14. Will Tom Brady and the New England Patriots be able to redeem themselves? Experts are saying yes. The halftime performer this year is Madonna. She will be singing songs for all ages, from her classics to her most recent hits. Madonna will bring a new style to the Super Bowl halftime performance as in recent years the show has been dominated by classic rock acts. Both the New England Patriots and the New York Giants will travel to Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI on February 5, 2012. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on NBC. Be sure to tune in to see who wins, as well as to see the newest and best super bowl commercials of 2012!
Sports Editor Dan Meloy
“Smart,” “hardworking” and “great team player” were all words used to describe Anne Marie Shumaker. Anne Marie is a senior at Aquinas. She plays guard and is a captain for the women’s basketball team. Her basketball career started in Grand Haven, Michigan, at the age of seven. “My mom just came home and told me she had signed me up to play basketball at the YMCA,” said Shumaker. “I’ve been playing year-around every year since.” Shumaker has had her fair share of ups and downs throughout her basketball career. “My senior year of high school we were ranked top ten in the state, we even made it to quarterfinals. It was a great year for us.” However, her high school dreams of winning a state championship were crushed when her team lost by one point in the quarterfinals. “I had an opportunity to shoot, and instead I passed the ball to the best girl on our team. We had set the play up for her. As she went to make her layup, she missed because three girls were holding her. There was no foul called, and we lost the game. I will always regret not shooting the ball.” After playing for four years at Grand Haven High School, Shumaker came to Aquinas to make a name for herself. “Each year Anne Marie has been with us, her role has increased. She has been very patient with our system and is a fantastic asset to our team,” said women’s basketball Head Coach Linda Nash. Being the only senior on the team
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COURTESY GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
Focused: Senior Anne Marie Shumaker has her mind set on improving herself and her teammates as a leader. this year puts some pressure on Shumaker to help guide the new players and to help be a leader on and off the court. “Both in and out of the locker room Anne Marie really help the team to bond and to stay focused,” said Nash. “When we need a calming influence, she is there. When we need to be steadied, we get the ball to her. She slows things down for us when we need it.” The team goal for the season is to get a bid to nationals. They hope to achieve this goal by winning the conference tournament. “I’d like to see us finish in the top four or five in the conference. Winning the tourney and getting a bid to nationals would be awesome,” said Shumaker. “As for my personal goals, I’d just like to continue to get better at defense and to grow as a leader of the team.” Roommates, coaches and teammates alike agree that Shumaker is a
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Website www.aquinas.edu/thesaint
one of a kind player. “She is just a great person. She is academically focused and keeps a good balance in her life,” said junior Kelli Day, one of Shumaker’s roommates. Shumaker learned her leadership and playing skills from her basketball heroes Michael Jordan and Diana Taurasi. “MJ is the greatest player of all time. From defense to scoring, he was just incredible. He played with heart and had fun with the game,” said Shumaker. “I also like Diana because she is the Michael Jordan of women’s basketball. She can shoot deep, deep three’s and I love that.” Shumaker hopes to continue to do something with her passion of basketball after she graduates from Aquinas. Whether it is coaching or teaching in clinics, she just hopes to remain a part of the basketball community.