Michigan basketball falls again, this time to Penn State
Michigan head coach Juwan Howard turned the reins over to assistant Phil Martelli Sunday at the historic Palestra in Philadelphia — Martelli’s hometown — where the Wolverines took on Penn State. U-M didn’t bring its ‘A’ game in the first half but took a solid lead before reverting to its ‘F’ game in the second half, falling to 6-9 overall and 1-3 in the conference with a 79-73 loss.
The Nittany Lions missed their first 9 shots of the game Sunday despite several good looks. It took a while, but the Wolverines took advantage. After missing many good looks of their own early, Michigan marched to a 7-0 lead before the Nittany Lions scored 4 minutes in.
It was 12-2 when Dug McDaniel tripled from 22 feet, and the Wolverines were looking good. When grad Tray Jackson drove the lane and threw down a massive, one-handed windmill jam, they were up 21-11, having made 9 of 13 shots.
PSU scored the next 5 points, but a putback dunk by grad Olivier Nkamhoua and a corner triple from Nimari Burnett — he’d been in a 3-for-17 slump from long range until then — pushed the lead back to double digits.
The Wolverines played sloppy basketball for much of the first half, turning it over 10 times. The Nittany Lions were in the double bonus with several minutes remaining in the half, though U-M shored it up a bit defensively late and never picked up the 10th foul — they’d make only 5 of 9 free throws in the first half, 2 of 13 from long range.
Still, U-M went up by as many as 14, taking a 36-22 lead after a Youssef Khayat free throw (though he only made 1 of 3 on the possession). It was 37-27 at the break after a missed PSU triple from the corner, senior Terrance Williams II leading the way with 10 points, Nkamhoua 9 for Michigan. Senior guard Nimari Burnett added 7 and 5 rebounds, the latter tied for team high with Nkamhoua.
SECOND HALF — Penn State comes back and pulls away from Michigan
Penn State scored the first 4 points of the second half to cut the deficit to 6, but a Nkamhoua jumper slowed the run. A PSU triples, a Michigan turnover, and another Nittany Lions bucket in transition cut it to 3 almost immediately and forced a U-M timeout at 17:40.
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Williams slowed the bleeding again with a corner triple to push the lead back to 6, but 5 straight from PSU made it a one-point edge, and the Wolverines were in another dogfight. In a complete turnaround from the first half, the Nittany Lions made 7 of their first 8 to open the stanza.
They took their first lead, 51-49, at 11:40 with a triple in transition. They expanded their lead to 56-49 when Michigan turned it over 8 times in the first 10 minutes of the half, and it wouldn’t get much better. The Wolverines went several stretches without scoring, and PSU expanded the lead to 65-54 with 4:40 remaining.
Michigan settled for tough shots most of the half when they weren’t turning it over and never really threatened again. They cut it to 7 on a McDaniel drive and finish, and forward Will Tschetter to 71-65 with a triple at 1:04. A Williams triple made it 74-69 at :44 and 75-71 with a drive and finish with 27 seconds left. But poor defense and sloppy overall play created too big a hole, and PSU made its free throws down the stretch to put it away.
The Wolverines finished with 19 turnovers while allowing Penn State to shoot better than 50 percent both from two and three in the second half.
Williams scored 24s to lead Michigan, while Nkamhoua added 13 and Burnett 10.
