Despite Inconsistent Play, Michigan Beats Iowa 59-52

By Sean · Friday, March 12, 2010 · 3:01 AM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

Michigan’s game with Iowa yesterday was plagued with inconsistency, which is nothing new for this season’s team.  The Wolverines opened the game up with a nice showing, leading 24-8 at one point in the first half.  Michigan appeared to be well on its way to a blowout victory reminiscent of the first meeting of the season with Iowa.  That would have been too easy, though, so Michigan made it interesting like they usually do.

Over the course of the rest of the game, Michigan’s went from leading by 16, to only being up by 9 at halftime, to going on a six-minute scoring drought at the beginning of the second half, allowing Iowa to cut the lead down to 4.  Zack Novak ended the scoring drought with a three-pointer, and suddenly Michigan started to increase its lead again, eventually going up by 16 with four minutes to play.  Michigan finished the afternoon with another scoring drought, though, once again allowing Iowa to get back in the game.  Thankfully Iowa played like, well, Iowa, and missed 4 straight shots on one of their last possessions.  The Hawkeyes could have cut the lead down to 2 or 3 points, but Iowa missed every shot and eventually Manny Harris ended up with the ball and nailed a pair of free throws.  The scoring drought was over, and so were Iowa’s chances of a comeback.  Michigan managed to hang on for the 59-52 victory.

Despite playing well at times, Michigan’s stats weren’t impressive.  The Wolverines shot the ball 38% from the field (19-50) and 24% from three-point land (6-25), and both of those stats were actually just worse than what Iowa did on Thursday.  The difference in this game was at the free throw line, where Michigan went 15-18 and Iowa only went 3-4.  Looking at the shooting statistics, it’s amazing to think that Michigan was blowing out Iowa at various points during this game before the Hawkeyes made a comeback, but that difference at the free throw line was where Michigan was the big winner.

Manny Harris led Michigan in scoring with 22 points, and he added 9 rebounds to almost record a double-double.  DeShawn Sims scored 14 points, and that was essentially it for big scoring contributions.  Every other player scored in single digits or had 0 points, not that that was necessarily a bad thing since there was a healthy distribution of scoring that included bench players.  Zack Gibson, for example, played for 11 minutes off the bench and scored 7 points.  Laval Lucas-Perry played for 16 minutes and scored 5 points.  Finally, Anthony Wright was on the floor for 9 minutes and made a three-pointer.  As for the starting lineup outside of Manny and Peedi, Stu Douglass scored 5 points, Zack Novak scored 3 points, and Darius Morris missed the only shot and only free throw he attempted.

Michigan’s next opponent is Ohio State in a rematch of a game played nearly two weeks ago.  The Buckeyes were victorious in Columbus that day against Michigan en route to a Big Ten title and the top seed in the Big Ten tournament.  To say Michigan is an underdog today is an understatement.  Michigan did have its chances to make things interesting in Columbus, but as bad as OSU played at times, the Wolverines were just that much worse.  To put it bluntly, Michigan better bring its “A” game and hope Ohio State takes some time to shake off the rust.  Tip off is set for noon ET on ESPN.