Wisconsin Dominates Michigan Thanks to Lights-Out Shooting
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Leave a CommentJust like when Wisconsin came to Crisler Arena last season, the Badgers shot the ball unbelievably well on Saturday en route to a double-digit win. It seemed like Michigan didn’t even bother showing up, resulting in its lowest scoring output of the entire season. Wisconsin’s offense wasn’t explosive or out of this world great, but it was definitely consistent, especially in the first half. On most possessions the Badgers ate up the shot clock, took a three-pointer as time was running out, and made it much to the disgust of the fans. It was tough to watch, because every time there was a little glimmer of hope, Wisconsin would make another ridiculous shot to extend its lead. In the end, the Badgers won by a score of 62-44 in what was one of Michigan’s worst games of the season.
This game was close for the first nine or so minutes, with Michigan only trailing 15-14 at the 11-minute mark. Wisconsin completely shut Michigan down for the next eight minutes, though. The Badgers went on a 14-0 run to take a 29-14 lead and held Michigan scoreless for more than eight minutes. Michigan finally ended its scoring drought with 2:50 left in the half and scored on three straight possessions, hoping to tighten things up a bit (2 of the scores were threes). Of course, just as Michigan hit a three to end its scoring drought, Wisconsin went down the floor and hit another one of its own. Then, just as Michigan scored 5 straight points, Wisconsin did the same thing, hitting a three and a two. Finally, to end the half, Wisconsin quickly answered a DeShawn Sims putback with another ridiculous three-pointer at the buzzer. This three came from Jason Bohannon, who shot it almost from half court right on the sideline by Michigan’s bench. For some reason the clock briefly stopped after Sims’ basket, giving Bohannon just enough time to get the shot off. There was no review or anything, meaning Wisconsin led 40-26 at halftime.
Michigan didn’t even bother putting up a fight in the second half. Wisconsin’s hot shooting cooled off (the Badgers went 9-13 from three-point land in the first half), but Michigan was unable to get its offense going to make a good defensive performance in the second half worthwhile. As a result, Wisconsin continued to maintain its big lead and was up by as many as 20 points in the second half. The final lead turned out to be 18 points, giving Michigan its biggest loss of the season.
DeShawn Sims led Michigan in scoring with 18 points, but he was pretty much nonexistent in the second half. Manny Harris was next in line with 11 points, followed by Darius Morris, who had 8 points. Laval Lucas-Perry was replaced by Morris in the starting lineup and scored 4 points off the bench. The only other player to score was Zack Novak, who had 3 points (all from the free throw line). As a team, Michigan shot 43.6% from the field and a dismal 18.2% from behind the arc (2-11). Wisconsin, on the other hand, went 53.7% from the field and 52.4% from three-point land (11-21).
Michigan only has one game this week, a Thursday night contest at Minnesota. The Wolverines will then get the weekend off (games-wise, probably not practice-wise) and return to action at Iowa a week from Tuesday. Thursday’s game can be seen on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET.
(Side note from Saturday’s game: I have to give the sound guy a pat on the back for working the song “O Let’s Do It” (as made famous by Demar Dorsey) into the pregame playlist. Right before it played I was joking with my friends about how funny it would be to hear it, and then boom, there it is. Job well done, sound guy.)
