Trailing 50-47 to No. 7 Ohio State with 11 minutes left in the game, the Michigan women's basketball team finally got tired.

The shots finally stopped falling, and the Wolverines (0-12 Big Ten, 6-18 overall) finally fell to the Buckeyes (20-2, 10-1) by a score of 74-55 on Friday night.

But it took a lot longer than anybody expected.

Freshman Stephany Skrba, who put the team square on her shoulders, buckled under the weight of carrying the squad. While jumpshot after jumpshot found the bottom of the net for Skrba through the first 30 minutes of the game, one attempt finally came up short. Then another. And by the time she hit her next and final shot with less than two minutes left in the game, the Wolverines trailed by 15.

"It didn't come quite as natural for a stretch," Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett said. "We did become a bit stagnant. I'd like to think that if you have 10 to 12 (players) and you can sub freely, you don't have those lapses. But we don't, and we just accept it and try to fix it."

Skrba did as much as she could, finishing with 17 points and 13 rebounds in playing all but one minute of the contest. Michigan needed her to play all those minutes, as the roster shrank to seven players for Friday's game with sophomore Katie Dierdorf's season-ending hip injury and forward Ta'Shia Walker's impending surgery further depleting the roster. Add Dierdorf and Walker's problems to the season-ending injury to junior Kelly Helvey, and the Wolverines were missing their three leading scorers. The team was so thin that Burnett brought in two walk-ons and three volleyball players to fill out the bench.

"We already knew about Ta'Shia, but when we found out about Katie, I think it took a little air out of all of us," Burnett said. "It's like, 'Oh my gosh, we're going to be playing with seven? What if we get in foul trouble? If somebody goes down, what are we going to do?' "

Except for the last 10 minutes of the contest, most observers wouldn't have known that anything was wrong. The bench was filled, the Wolverines were competing hard, and the game was close.

It all began with Michigan's hot start. After opening their Jan. 6 contest against Ohio State 0-for-13 from the field, the Wolverines' shooting couldn't have gotten much worse. In fact, it got much better. Michigan doubled its field goal output from the first half of its previous game with the Buckeyes, and knocked down five of its nine 3-point attempts.

"They made shots," Ohio State coach Jim Foster said. "Because of their injuries, they know they are going to get a significant number of minutes. And then you just go out and play, and it's like burden-free basketball."

After closing the first half of the teams' first meeting by letting Ohio State go on a 9-0 run, the Wolverines reversed course in this game.

Trailing 31-21 following Buckeye junior Brandie Hoskins's layup, the Wolverines shut down Ohio State's offense and went on a run of their own.

They closed the first stanza with a 9-1 run, and entered the break trailing by just two points.

And Michigan didn't let up after the intermission. Sophomore Janelle Cooper nailed a three to open the second half and give Michigan a 33-32 lead. That would be the last time the Buckeyes would trail.

Immediately following Cooper's triple, Buckeye center Jessica Davenport converted a three-point play. After a turnover by Wolverine sophomore Melinda Queen on the ensuing possession, Ohio State countered with a 3-pointer from senior Ashley Allen.

But Skrba and Michigan would not go away. The Ontario native made a layup off a Cooper dish.

The Buckeyes weren't fazed, and extended their lead to nine points with a 3-pointer from sophomore Marscilla Packer and consecutive buckets from Hoskins. Skrba came right back with a soft jumper in the lane to cut the lead to seven, and Cooper followed that with a three to cut the lead back down to four. The lead was trimmed to three a few minutes later, after a Skrba put-back.

"She's a good player," Davenport said of Skrba. "She played really well tonight both offensively and defensively. She brought a lot of energy."

Said Burnett: "Stephany really had some great moments, and her final (stat) line tonight was incredible."

But then fatigue set in. After its scorching first half, Michigan hit on just two of its 12 second-half treys, and went without a field goal until Cooper's driving layup with less than seven minutes to play.

"(Michigan is) a resilient team," Foster said. "I've told my team since the beginning of the season they're going to get somebody before the season is over."

Nobody would deny that Michigan played hard, just as they do every game. And with more efforts like the one on Friday night, that first, elusive Big Ten win could be just around the corner.

Ohio State - 74
Michigan - 45