Keisei Tominaga drops 30 points, Michigan defense struggles in 85-70 loss to Nebraska

Michigan Wolverines basketball (8-23, 3-17 Big Ten) closed out the regular season with an 85-70 senior-day loss to Nebraska (22-9, 12-8) Sunday afternoon at Crisler Center.

In a pregame ceremony, Michigan honored graduate guard Nimari Burnett, graduate guard Jaelin Llewellyn, graduate forward Jackson Selvala and senior forward Terrance Williams II.

Nebraska guard Keisei Tominaga dropped 30 points, including 23 in the first half, to lead the way for the Cornhuskers, who shot 58 percent from the field with just 8 turnovers.

Michigan is the No. 14 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and will play Wednesday night in Minneapolis, with the opponent to be determined.

Here’s a recap of how Sunday’s game unfolded.

First half

Both teams started out on fire, combining to make 8 of the game’s first 10 field goals. Michigan hit 4 early three-pointers, including two — one by Williams and the other from sophomore guard Dug McDaniel — that got it out to an 8-2 edge.

Tominaga hit a three to give the Cornhuskers a 14-13 lead, but Williams’ second triple of the afternoon was the answer to put the Wolverines ahead 16-14 with 14:35 to go in the first half.

Nebraska made 5-straight field goal attempts and held a 27-21 lead at the media timeout with 11:44 remaining. Tominaga heated up with a pair of threes, one to make it 17-16 and the other to give his team a 22-16 edge, part of a personal 8-0 run over a span of less than two minutes. Nebraska was shooting 11-of-14 from the field at that juncture, while Michigan sat at 8-of-13 with a pair of turnovers.

Michigan cut the deficit to two points, 27-25, in the immediate aftermath after Tominaga went to the bench, but he continued his strong play with a layup that put the Cornhuskers up 34-27 soon after reentering, taking Llewellyn to the rim. That bucket gave him 15 points for the game.

Tominaga continued to dice Michigan up. He had 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field after his fourth made three of the game to put Nebraska up 43-35 with 4:22 remaining. The Cornhuskers were scoring 1.654 points per possession at that juncture, shooting a whopping 72 percent from the field. McDaniel, meanwhile, was shooting well for Michigan with 11 points (4-of-4 from the field), but the Wolverines were having major issues getting stops.

Reed picked up his second foul at the 5:10 mark, replaced by redshirt sophomore Will Tschetter. The call was on Reed as he attempted to get post position on Nebraska forward Josiah Allick. Nebraska’s big man was also in foul trouble, with Rienk Mast picking up his second personal at the 6:19 mark. He also sat the rest of the half.

McDaniel stayed red hot for Michigan, making 5 first-half three-pointers and scoring 17 points. But the Wolverines couldn’t get consistent stops. Tominaga ended the half with 23 points on 12 field goal attempts, and the Cornhuskers shot 70 percent from the field with just 4 turnovers.

Nebraska ended the half on a 4-0 spurt with layups from C.J. Wilcher and Allick. Michigan’s last-second shot attempt, a McDaniel three-pointer, fell short. The Cornhuskers held a 50-43 advantage at halftime.

Second half

Michigan started the second half by getting a rare stop, Mast missing a layup. but the Wolverines were cold themselves, beginning the stanza shooting 2-of-6 from the field. Nebraska missed its first 2 three-point tries but got to the rim for 4 made layups, getting up 59-48 with 16:27 to play, at which point Michigan head coach Juwan Howard called timeout.

Tominaga drilled a dagger three, his fifth of the game, to give Nebraska its largest lead, 64-50, with just over 15 minutes to go. Allick followed it up by drawing a foul and making both free throws to make it 66-50. Wilcher got a steal after a bad pass from Reed, who was double teamed in the post, and finished a breakaway layup to extend the lead to 68-50, before Allick made a layup in the half court the next time down (70-50).

Williams stopped the Cornhuskers’ 16-2 run with a layup and made free throw, making it 70-53 with 13:26 on the timer.

Williams and Wilcher were assessed technical fouls after the former spun Michigan sophomore guard Youssef Khayat down to the ground with 11 minutes left. Burnett and Wilcher exchanged words and shoves after the incident. Burnett was charged with a technical. Khayat made 1 of 2 free throws, cutting the deficit to 70-56.

Nebraska led 76-62 at the media timeout with 7:46 to go. The Cornhuskers had made just 1 of their last 7 field goal attempts at that point. Michigan cut the deficit to 12 at two different junctures. McDaniel checked back in at the 8:26 mark, after a lengthy stay on the bench (subbed out at 13:26).

Michigan shot 3-of-13 from the field from the 12:36 mark until there was 4:33 to go, while Nebraska extended its lead with good foul shooting and a pair of layups from Juwan Gary (81-64) and Tominaga (83-64), sparking a timeout from the Maize and Blue with 4:26 remaining.

Nebraska closed out the game with little drama. Selvala and Michigan’s deep reserves came in with just over a minute to play, and the walk-on drew a foul. He made 2 free throws, his third and fourth points of his career in his final home game.

The final score was 85-70.