ANN ARBOR — No. 12 Michigan men’s basketball (20-6, 12-3 Big Ten) fell out of first place in the conference Friday night with a 75-62 loss to No. 14 Michigan State. The Spartans (22-5, 13-3 Big Ten) have now gotten the best of the maize and blue in three straight regular season matchups. The Wolverines sit a half-game behind in second place.
Second-half surge puts MSU over Michigan for Big Ten lead
As some could come to expect, Michigan started rather slow Friday night. Through the first seven minutes of the game it scored eight points. However, around the midway point of the first half, the Wolverines took off on a 15-0 run.
They would lead by as much as eight points, but the Spartans cut the score to 38-34 at halftime. Michigan State freshman guard Jase Richardson seemed to be in a zone early on, and he had a game-high 11 first-half points. Nine different Wolverines scored in the first-half, led by Nimari Burnett’s nine points.
Michigan head coach Dusty May said something was different after halftime.
“In the second half they were able to answer every run,” May said. “They were the aggressor, and tonight we didn’t look like a championship caliber program.”
The Wolverines were outscored 41-24 out of the break, and nothing seemed to be working on either end of the floor. They shot 9-of-24 (38%) from the field and 1-of-10 (10%) from behind the arc in the final 20 minutes. Additionally, MSU won the game’s rebounding battle 34-25, including 14 offensive boards.
Richardson tied Michigan center Vladislav Goldin for a game-high 21 points. Junior Spartan Tre Holloman gave his team a boost off the bench in the form of 18 points. Goldin said Holloman’s performance was a bit of a surprise.
“… We had a gameplan, and when somebody who we didn’t expect starts making plays, we have to live with that because you can’t (stop) everybody,” Goldin said. “All credit to them, they played harder. We just have to be better in the little details.”
Goldin said he also didn’t expect Michigan State’s depth to be such a factor.
“I was surprised how deep they are,” Goldin said. “They continued playing different players, so it surprised me (when) they were coming (in) fresh and playing as hard as they do. It’s definitely something to keep in mind.”
Danny Wolf had 11 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. Tre Donaldson and Rubin Jones combined for five points on 2-for-8 (25%) shooting from the field, and Michigan seemed to need more from them in the scoring department. Nimari Burnett turned in 12 points on an efficient 5-for-8 (63%) performance from the field.
What’s next
Michigan is set to visit MSU to end the regular season on March 9. Next up, the Wolverines are on the road against Nebraska on Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. If they win out, they’ll still be able to claim the Big Ten regular season title.
“The main focus (is) to stay together and continue fighting,” Goldin said. “We lost this game. It stinks, but (our) whole season is in front (of us). We have a lot of basketball left, and the main questions is, how we are going to respond? Because that’s going to show a lot of character.”
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