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Michigan blows double-digit halftime lead, falls at Maryland 64-57

clayton-sayfieby:Clayton Sayfie01/11/24

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(Photo by Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports)

Michigan Wolverines basketball sophomore point guard Dug McDaniel missed the first of his six-road-game suspension due to academics in a 64-57 loss to Maryland. The Wolverines held a 12-point lead at the break but were out-scored by 19 in the final 20 minutes. Here’s a recap of how the game unfolded.

First half

It took Michigan a few minutes to settle in. The Wolverines fed sophomore forward Tarris Reed Jr. on their first two possessions, but he missed a hook shot and was blocked the next time down. Graduate guard Jaelin Llewellyn threw a pass that was intercepted and was dunked on by Maryland forward Donta Scott, who put the Terrapins up 4-0 just over two minutes in.

But the Wolverines battled to lead 7-6 at the 14:40 media timeout, highlighted by a triple from graduate guard Nimari Burnett and a layup by graduate forward Olivier Nkamhoua.

Both teams combined to make only 5 of the game’s first 20 field goals with 7 turnovers in the first eight minutes. There was no scoring from the 15:10 mark until the media timeout at 11:54, an ugly affair to that point. Llewellyn had struggled for Michigan, missing his first two shots and notching 1 turnover. Freshman guard George Washington III and redshirt sophomore forward Will Tschetter were the first two Wolverines off the bench.

Nkamhoua broke the drought with a jumper to put the Wolverines up 9-6 at the 11:11 mark. Michigan went on an 8-0 run over almost a six-minute span to take a 10-6 advantage.

A Reed dunk tied the game at 12-12 with under nine minutes remaining following a 6-0 Maryland run.

Maryland was 0-for-8 from three-point range at the 7:32 mark, a fact that kept Michigan and its inept offense in the game. The Wolverines shot 4 of its first 13 from the field with 7 turnovers. Llewellyn struggled against Maryland’s pressure defense. The Terrapins led 15-13 at that media timeout.

A layup by Maryland center Julian Reese stopped a 12-0 Michigan run. Maryland was out of sorts offensively prior to that, scoring just two points in a four-minute span. Nkamhoua answered Reese’s dunk with a layup on the other end to make it 27-17 with 4:01 to play, before Michigan called a timeout.

A pair of Llewellyn triples — including a bank shot from the left wing — helped Michigan take a 12-point, 33-21 lead into the halftime locker room. Despite clunkiness and issues taking care of the ball, the Maize and Blue finished by making 8 of their last 10 field goal attempts.

All told, Michigan shot 50 percent from the field, including 5-of-9 from long range, in the first half, with only 2 giveaways in the final 7:30 of the stanza. Both teams had 9 turnovers, but Maryland was just 33 percent from the field with 1 made triple. The Terrapins scored just .636 points per play in the first half.

Second half

Reed missed a put-back attempt after a failed Llwellyn layup on Michigan’s first possession of the half. Maryland guard Deshawn Harris-Smith nailed two free throws on the other end to pull the Terrapins within 10, 33-23.

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A couple minutes later, Harris-Smith finished a reverse layup off a feed from guard Jahmir Young, forcing a head coach Juwan Howard timeout with Maryland cutting the Michigan lead to 35-29 with 17:43 to go. The Terrapins were on a 6-0 spurt, while the Wolverines started the half shooting just 1-for-4 from the field.

Michigan went over three minutes without scoring until Tschetter scored in the post to make it 37-29 with 15:34 remaining. Tschetter backed down Scott, who hit the deck, and finished on the left block.

Michigan’s lead diminished from 12 at the half to one with 11:37 to go, when there was a media timeout. Scott found his range with a pair of triples, and backup forward Jamie Kaiser Jr. hit one to make it a one-point game. The turnovers started back up for the Maize and Blue, including 1 that turned into a dunk with Williams throwing away an inbounds pass. Nkamhoua was carrying the Michigan offense, with six of its 10 second-half points at that juncture.

Scott continued his hot shooting, and his triple with just under eight minutes left gave Maryland a 49-48 lead — its first advantage since there was over seven minutes to go in the first half. Scott followed it up with his fourth three of the second half the next trip down. Maryland led 52-50 with 7:09 left on the clock.

Kaiser drilled a right-corner three-pointer to put Maryland up 56-51 with five minutes to go, marking the Terrapins’ sixth made triple of the half and seventh of the game. Meanwhile, Michigan had missed its most previous three field goal attempts. It was 58-51 after a Scott layup, before Howard called timeout with 4:40 remaining.

Michigan trailed 5-57 with just over a minute to go, but Williams couldn’t cut into it with a missed layup. Maryland committed a 30-second shot clock violation on the other end, giving the Wolverines another chance. Burnett was blocked by Reese on two different shots on that end. Tschetter fouled Reese after he corralled the rebound. Reese made both free throws despite being a 58.6-percent shooter on the season. Williams missed a layup on the other end, which was also blocked by Reese, Scott made two free throws to take a 64-57 lead, Burnett missed a three and Maryland ran out the clock. The final was 64-57, with Michigan losing its fifth straight game.

Michigan was out-scored by 19 points in the second half, shooting just 32.2 percent from the field. Here’s a look at the final box score:

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