A fitting end to the season.
Fittingly, the Michigan Wolverines closed out the regular season with another loss, falling to the Nebraska Cornhuskers , 85-70, on Senior Day. The Wolverines finished the season on an eight-game losing streak starting and ending with the Cornhuskers.
First Half:
With the 14-seed locked for the Big Ten Tournament , Michigan came out hot from the jump, starting 3-for-3. This fast start was matched by Nebraska, however, who quickly erased a six-point deficit, in large part from Keisei Tominaga, who went on a personal 8-0 run, to help the Cornhuskers jump out to a 27-21 lead with 11:44 remaining in the first half.
Dug McDaniel did his best to keep the Wolverines at bay with Nebraska, scoring 17 points in the first half (6-for-8), but Tominaga continued to stay on a level above everyone else, making six straight shots to put up 20 points in the first 16 minutes of the contest to hold an eight-point lead with just over four minutes remaining in the first half.
For the final four minutes, Nebraska struggled from the free throw line (1-for-4), but Josiah Allick and C.J. Wilcher continued to make shots and gave the Cornhuskers a comfortable cushion going into halftime, leading 50-43.
In all, very little defense was being played early as Nebraska shot 70% from the floor and Michigan converted on 55% of its shots.
Second Half:
The momentum built up by the Cornhuskers carried from the first to the second half. Tominaga eclipsed 25 points with the first basket in the second and Allick surpassed double-digits one possession later (11 points on 5-for-5 shooting) to force Juwan Howard to call a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Will Tschetter scored a basket for Michigan to cut the deficit to nine, but Tominaga wouldn’t miss, draining another three to take a 14-point lead into the first media stoppage.
30 seconds later, the Cornhuskers lead ballooned to 20 off of two Wolverine turnovers as Michigan went 1-for-7 from the floor.
For the next four minutes, however, Nebraska didn’t convert a field goal. The Wolverines chipped away a little bit, and with 10:53 remaining in regulation, things got a little dicey as Wilcher shoved Youssef Khayat to the floor and received a technical foul. Khayat converted on one of two free throws and Tray Jackson made both of his attempts a possession later to cut the deficit to 12.
Out of the under-eight timeout, neither team could convert on their field goals (Michigan went 0-for-six in two and a half minutes), and both turned the ball over four times in five minutes, but the Cornhuskers were able to make five straight free throws to take a 17-point lead with just under five minutes to go in the game.
Very little scoring took place for the rest of the game as Michigan did not make a field goal for the final 5:42. Both teams put their reserves into the game with two minutes remaining and Terrance Williams, Jaelin Llewellyn and Nimari Burnett received standing ovations as they walked off the floor.
The Cornhuskers went on to win, 85-70.
The Wolverines followed a 55% shooting first half with 25% in the second. They saw a huge downturn in three-point percentage as well, going from 53% in the first to 9% in the second (1-for-11). For Nebraska, it also saw a dramatic decrease in shooting in the second half (44%), but converted on 10-for-14 free throws to hold onto its double-digit lead.
Tominaga finished with 30 points and Allick had 15. McDaniel did not score a point in the second half and had 17 points for the game.
Michigan will play on Wednesday night at 9 p.m. in the Big Ten Tournament.