Michigan basketball worn down by Ohio State's second-half surge, 84-61

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Here's the good news: The final Michigan basketball road trip of the regular season is over.

The latest chapter in U-M's nightmare season happened Sunday afternoon against rival Ohio State, where the Buckeyes enjoyed their senior day spoils at Value City Arena and sent the Wolverines to another loss, 84-61.

OSU used an early 10-0 run in the second half to get out to a 15-point lead, and even though Juwan Howard's team would respond with a seven-point burst and later get back within six, it wasn't enough. Down by seven with 9:30 to play, Terrance Williams II committed one of U-M's 18 turnovers and everything flipped from there as OSU went on a 22-4 run to put the game away.

"It was the turnovers; that turnover and then from there it spiraled into more turnovers," coach Juwan Howard lamented postgame. "Then overall just the confidence got higher for the Ohio State players and then the crowd got into it, which just kept feeding life into that group on the floor."

OSU scored 22 fast break points on 18 U-M giveaways; U-M scored two fast break points on 16 OSU miscues.

It marks U-M’s seventh consecutive loss, the team's longest stretch since losing 10 in a row near the end of the 2004-05 season. U-M lost 12 of 13 games to end that season, the same stretch it is in right now.

Though there have been nine seasons in program history where U-M has won three league games or fewer, only four times has Michigan (8-22, 3-16 Big Ten) had a worse win percentage in league play than right now (.158).

In U-M's first year of basketball, 1917-18, it finished 0-10. In its final year under Bill Perigo in 1959-60, it went 1-13 (.071). In the first year under Dave Strack in 1960-61 (2-12, .143) and then against with Strack in 1966-67 (2-12, .143), which was also the last time the Wolverines finished at the bottom of the Big Ten.

Michigan's 16 Big Ten losses are its most in program history, while its 22 overall losses are tied for the most in a single season.

"I'll tell you one thing, my food doesn't taste the same," Howard said. "My pillow becomes a lot harder and rough. When you're winning, everything starts feeling great. My smile at my wife, don't have that growl on my face."

Dug McDaniel scored 19 points in his second road game back from suspension, while Williams added 13 points.

Slow out of the break

The Wolverines fought through an up-and-down opening 20 minutes to stay within five at the half but got punched in the mouth immediately when the game resumed.

Bruce Thorton made a pair of free throws and then the Buckeyes began to get into the paint at will. Roddy Gayle Jr. drove baseline for a layup, Evan Mahaffey added another point-blank bucket off an entry pass and then Felix Okpara converted a lob to force a Michigan timeout.

OSU won the battle of the bench, 40-10.

"Our depth has been a real strength for us," said OSU interim coach Jake Diebler. "You can say we have a lot of starting quality players on this team. ... guys are stepping up, playing with confidence."

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After Howard called timeout, U-M seemed to regain its composure. McDaniel knocked down a mid-range floater, Williams drilled a 3-pointer and Youssef Khayat added an offensive rebound and putback to cut the deficit nearly in half, 42-34, with 15:20 to play.

But there weren't nearly enough stops on defense.

After a pair of Devin Royal free throws, Jameson Battle buried a mid-range jumper, the Buckeyes' fifth consecutive made field goal as OSU's lead grew again to 10. The Wolverines got as close as six points when Nimari Burnett dunked all over a Buckeye in transition, 46-40, but it grew back to nine when Scotty Middleton canned a three.

Gayle put OSU back up 12 with a bucket and the foul, then things got chippy with 10:57 to play when Jace Howard broke up an intended lob for Zed Key. The senior took exception and stepped to Jace Howard and earned himself a technical foul; McDaniel made both free throws to get within 10.

"It's a rivalry game," Juwan Howard said. "Rivalry game always gets you going. When you see a team you do not care for too much, you're going to go out there and give it your best. That's exactly what we did when they were in our building."

U-M was within seven after a Tarris Reed Jr. layup and Williams had the ball on a breakaway, but it was knocked off his leg for Michigan's 13th turnover of the game. OSU responded with a long ball by Thorton and an and-1 layup by Gayle to go back up 60-47: OSU made 9 of 10 shots after a miss to start the second half.

McDaniel would score two buckets, but those were the only Michigan points in a 6:30 stretch until a pair of Will Tschetter free throws with 3:31 to play cut OSU's lead to 23 points. In all, the Buckeyes went on a 22-4 run in the middle part of the second half and a 14-2 spurt in 3:24 to end any ideas of a comeback.

"Just going to give props to Ohio State, they wore down on us," Williams said. "We were close, then they went on their run and we couldn’t punch back. That’s what we’ve been having troubles with all season, consistently punching back when teams make their run."

Ohio State made 15 of its first 18 shots in the second half (83.3%) and 4 of its first 5 3-pointers (80%) before the walk-ons subbed in with a 29-point lead with three minutes to play.

Sloppy first half

Michigan got out to another terrible start. The Wolverines made just one field goal, committed four turnovers, and missed both free throw attempts in the first seven minutes of the half, but the Buckeyes let Michigan stick around.

Though Key opened with a thunderous dunk, Thorton made all four of his early free throw attempts and OSU got six early points in the paint, the Buckeyes couldn't grow their lead beyond 10-2 despite U-M's slow start.

That's because OSU started the game slowly as well, making just 3 of its first 12 shots and committing four turnovers of its own. It gave Michigan enough time to find its rhythm, as McDaniel knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key, followed by a scooping layup before Williams hit a pair of free throws to cut U-M's deficit to one, near the midway point of the half with a 7-0 spurt.

But the Buckeyes, and Key, would wake up. The senior hit a tough fadeaway to halt U-M's run, then after a Royal slam dunk, Key stripped Reed in the paint which led to a runout the other way and a Battle 3-pointer as OSU put together a 7-0 run of its own in just 1:20.

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After Howard called timeout, Burnett kept the Wolverines within striking distance with a mid-range jumper and a slashing layup, before adding another reverse layup with a lot of English to get Michigan within four, 21-17.

After an OSU layup, McDaniel added a second-chance bucket off his own miss before Reed made a pair of free throws to get within a possession. Then after a dunk from Thorton appeared to take the momentum back for OSU, Williams drilled a corner 3-pointer to get Michigan within one.

That's as close as it would get the rest of the half. Thorton hit a slashing layup, Okpara split a pair of free throws and then caught a lob from Battle and threw it down to put the Buckeyes back up six. OSU's lead got out to seven in the final minute of the half, but McDaniel got his second offensive rebound and put-back of the half to go into the break down, 32-27.

Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.

Next up: Cornhuskers

Matchup: Michigan (8-21, 3-15 Big Ten) at Ohio State (17-12, 7-11).

Tipoff: 4 p.m. Sunday; Value City Arena, Columbus, Ohio.

TV/radio: CBS; WWJ-AM (950).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball suffers second-half onslaught in 84-61 loss to OSU