While trying to snap a three-game losing streak, a Southern Methodist team with a veteran coach, an experienced point guard and an all-conference forward wasn’t the ideal opponent for the Michigan men’s basketball team.
And the losing streak lived on as the Wolverines shot 8-for-36 from 3-point range and dropped their fourth straight Saturday at Crisler Center, 62-51.
On a dismal shooting afternoon for Michigan, sophomore guards Derrick Walton Jr. and Zak Irvin began to heat up from the 3-point line midway through the second half, hitting three triples in the next three minutes.
“I thought the start of the second half was really a telltale sign in this game, and I was so proud of our team when we fought back to take a three-point lead,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “At that point, I thought, ‘All right, we are making strides now. We can play with a lot of people if we can pull this one out.’ But obviously we didn’t have enough.”
SMU matched the Wolverines’ run with jumpers and layups. After Walton’s 3-pointer put Michigan ahead, 48-45, with 7:50 left, the Mustangs scored eight quick points in 3:09 to go up by five. That escalated into a 17-0 run over 6:45 that put the game on ice.
“SMU rallied, made some tough shots and then they really executed down the stretch,” said junior guard Caris LeVert. “We were on 48 for what seemed like seven minutes.”
The Wolverines missed all five of their 3-point attempts during their stretch, and SMU’s size began to wear on Michigan. Forward Yanick Moreira finished with a game-high 19 for the Mustangs.
Michigan hit only one of its first nine shots in the second half, falling behind by 10. SMU went deep into its bench and ran the floor to try to capitalize on misses, but the Wolverines made a brief run to take the lead. After Michigan’s 1-3-1 zone defense forced a stop, redshirt freshman Mark Donnal rebounded a Spike Albrecht miss, scored the put-back and drew a foul. When he made the free throw, the Wolverines trailed by only one.
When Michigan’s 3-point shooting cooled off again, the Wolverines had no answer. Irvin was 3-for-11, Walton 3-for-10 and junior guard Caris LeVert 0-for-5. As a team, the Wolverines shot a season-high 36 attempts.
They dug themselves into a hole in the first half the same way. In their first 14 shots, they were 2-for-10 from long range and 4-for-4 from inside the arc, and they didn’t heat up enough in the second half to make up for the early woes.
“There are some 3’s that you have to take when they’re packing the paint, and there’s some other ones where we gotta finish around the rim,” Beilein said. “We got the ball inside, we gotta finish around the rim, finish our foul shots, all that stuff.”
Southern Methodist, meanwhile, rode junior guard Nic Moore, who started 4-for-4 from the field with the team’s first 11 points.
Michigan got a spark late in the first half from Irvin, who came in having hit five of 22 3-point attempts in the Wolverines’ three-game losing streak. Irvin drove in for a dunk with 1:58 left in the first half but got undercut and hit the floor hard. When he got back up, he missed the free throw, hustled for the rebound and hit a 3-pointer a moment later to draw Michigan within one.
“We needed that energy — the crowd was going, it was pretty loud in there — we just gotta be able to feed off that more,” Irvin said.
It wasn’t nearly enough, as the cold spell would set in again before long.