No. 20 Michigan suffered its first conference loss to a team that didn’t have any Big Ten wins.
The Wolverines will try to bounce back when they host Northwestern on Sunday afternoon in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The Wolverines (13-4, 5-1 Big Ten) lost in overtime, 84-81, to Minnesota on Thursday, snapping Michigan’s five-game winning streak. Dawson Garcia hit a long 3-point attempt at the overtime buzzer to stun the Wolverines, who squandered a 10-point lead in the second half.
Turnovers played a role, as Michigan committed 13 and forced only six. That’s something coach Dusty May will look to turn around on Sunday.
“The ones early in the game, it sets the tone that that’s how the game is going to be, especially when we were finding good looks,” May said. “Our defense, our ability to rebound the basketball when it really mattered was, I think, ultimately the difference.”
Nearly half of Michigan’s turnovers (six) were committed by big man Danny Wolf, who otherwise had a strong game with 23 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. His frontcourt partner, Vladislav Goldin, scored 18 points but shot just 5-for-15 from the field. Two games earlier, Goldin scored 36 points in a victory over then-No. 22 UCLA.
May is looking for better efforts from both players on Sunday.
“Vlad’s played a lot of basketball games, and I’m just going to chalk this up to just wasn’t his night,” he said. “We’ve got to be more determined on the glass. We’ve got to be more aggressive finishing, and I thought he had several good looks that just didn’t drop. And on the nights when the ball is just not dropping, you can’t give up the offensive rebounds, and you can’t turn it over. You just can’t do all those in the same game.”
Michigan carries a nine-game streak of scoring at least 80 points into its game against the Wildcats, though it needed overtime on Thursday to keep it going.
Northwestern’s most recent game also went to overtime, but the team prevailed over Maryland, 76-74 on Thursday, to snap a three-game losing streak. Nick Martinelli made the game-winning shot just before the overtime buzzer.
The Wildcats (11-6, 2-4) had lost conference games to Penn State, Purdue and Michigan State before before capturing Thursday’s thriller.
“It’s been a tough couple weeks,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. “Any time you go through this league, every team in this league puts a lot into every single game, and when you have a couple week stretch where you don’t win, it’s hard. You just have to keep fighting.”
Martinelli got a Gatorade shower from his teammates after the win.
“I’m grateful they did go to me, and I’m just grateful we won,” said Martinelli, who averages a team-best 20 points per game.
“That play, obviously, it’s cool, but it does not define the game at all. There were so many people who had to make big plays.”
Brooks Barnhizer had 20 points and 10 rebounds against the Terrapins, his ninth double-double of the season. He’s Northwestern’s second-leading scorer (18.2 per game) and leads it in rebounding (9.4), assists (4.4), steals (2.4) and blocks (1.4).
–Field Level Media
