Michigan Tries to Keep It Close But Loses to Ohio State 66-55

By Sean · Sunday, February 28, 2010 · 2:17 AM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

Saturday’s game at Ohio State included a great 10-minute stretch that was bookended by some awful basketball by Michigan.  The Wolverines managed to take a lead into halftime after finishing the first half strong, and in the first five or so minutes of the second half Michigan was able to keep Ohio State from pulling away.  The Buckeyes eventually did manage to pull away, however, and went on to win the game by a score of 66-55.  OSU gave Michigan plenty of chances to make a run, but like the beginning of the game, Michigan didn’t seem too interested in playing good basketball.

The start of this game went about as poorly as possible.  Ohio State jumped out to a 9-0 lead and Michigan looked just like it did against Illinois earlier this week and Penn State before that.  Shots weren’t falling at all, and in general the offense was completely lost.  Even as Michigan started to play a bit better the lead stayed around 9 points until around 7 minutes were left in the half.  That is when Michigan seemed to wake up and went on a 12-2 run to take the lead.  OSU looked shocked at what was happening, and though the Buckeyes quickly took the lead back, Michigan answered and led 33-32 at halftime.

The second half opened with OSU taking the lead and Michigan keeping things very close.  That all changed around 5 minutes in, however.  Michigan completely fell apart for a 3-minute stretch and allowed OSU to go on a 10-0 run.  The Wolverines managed to stop the bleeding and limit the damage before they actually started to chip away at the lead later on in the half, but unfortunately it was all just too late.  At one point Michigan did only trail by 7 and had Manny Harris at the line for a 1-and-1, but Harris missed the front end and Ohio State followed the mistake up with a basket by Evan Turner.  That was pretty much all she wrote, as Ohio State eventually extended the lead to 13 points and ultimately ended up winning 66-55.

Usually balanced scoring is a good thing in basketball, but in this case it was the difference between a respectable loss and a potential upset.  Michigan’s starting five all scored either 11 or 10 points, but the fact that neither Manny Harris nor DeShawn Sims played to their usual level and put up big numbers was really why Michigan lost.  Unlike the first meeting with OSU where Harris and Sims combined for 52 points, in this game they only managed 10 and 11 points, respectively.  Harris’ 10 points came mainly from free throws, as he shot a dismal 1-8 from the field.  Sims struggled as well, going 4-12 from the field.

As for the rest of the starting lineup, scoring-wise it was much better than usual.  Zack Novak scored 11 points, as did Darius Morris.  Stu Douglass played a solid game and scored 10 points on 4-6 shooting (2-4 from three-point land).  That was essentially it, though.  Zack Gibson was the only other player to score for Michigan, and he only had one basket at that.  Laval Lucas-Perry got 14 minutes of playing time, went 0-3 from the field, and didn’t get to the free throw line.  Matt Vogrich played 5 minutes and didn’t do anything, and the same goes for Anthony Wright, who came in at the very end of the game and played for only a minute or so.

The main cause for Michigan’s offensive woes was once again cold shooting.  Part of it stemmed from good defense by Ohio State, which over and over forced Michigan into bad looks with the shot clock running down.  At the same time, Michigan’s offense was just inept in general.  Shots weren’t falling during extended stretches of the game, and even in the end when Michigan tried to make a comeback most of its points came from the free throw line.  For the game Michigan shot 36.2% from the field and 29.4% from behind the arc (5-17).  At one point I believe Michigan was 5-11 from three-point land before everything went downhill and the ultra-cool shooting returned.

Michigan has two games left in the regular season.  Minnesota comes to Crisler Arena on Tuesday and Michigan heads to East Lansing on Sunday.  Tuesday’s game is a 7 p.m. start on the Big Ten Network and is the second meeting between the Wolverines and Golden Gophers.  The first meeting was at Minnesota a little more than two weeks ago and was one of Michigan’s best games all season.  Michigan won 71-63 and looked great from start to finish.  Hopefully we will see a similar effort on Tuesday, but if how Michigan has played at home lately is any indication, it could be an ugly send off for the seniors.