Michigan topples No. 23 Ohio State without Hunter Dickinson to bolster NCAA hopes

Columbus, Ohio — When Michigan acting head coach Phil Martelli informed the team on Sunday morning that sophomore center and leading scorer Hunter Dickinson would be unavailable in the regular-season finale, he took notice of the response.

None of the Wolverines batted an eye.

“When I told them that Hunter would not be playing, their physical presence didn't change,” Martelli said. “Earlier in the year, maybe we would have shriveled up and worried.”

Instead, Michigan stepped up and rose to the occasion. Behind a huge second-half run, the Wolverines rallied past No. 23 Ohio State, 75-69, at Schottenstein Center and earned their first road win over a ranked opponent to move closer to securing an NCAA Tournament berth.

Michigan (17-13, 11-9 Big Ten) will open the Big Ten tournament as a No. 8 seed, facing No. 9 seed Indiana at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Grad transfer guard DeVante’ Jones led the way with 21 points and nine assists, the last to freshman forward Moussa Diabate to give Michigan an eight-point lead with 42 seconds left. The Wolverines made four free throws the rest of the way, finishing 11-for-11 at the line, to close it out.

BOX SCORE: Michigan 75, Ohio State 69

Sophomore forward Terrance Williams II scored 17 off the bench, fifth-year senior guard Eli Brooks had 14 points and Diabate finished with 14 points while sliding over and starting at center in place of Dickinson, who was out due to a stomach bug. According to Williams, who is Dickinson’s roommate on the road, Dickinson started throwing up around 3 a.m. and told Williams he had food poisoning.

“I mean, he's a great player. We obviously need him, but like Coach (Juwan Howard) always says: We've got enough,” Diabate said. “I believe that when we play as a team, no matter who we're missing, we definitely are going to give a challenge to any team that we play.”

That showed once the second half got underway. After entering halftime down by seven, Jones and Brooks spearheaded a 26-7 run out of the break as the Wolverines tightened up defensively. Brooks came away with a steal that led to a fast-break opportunity and ended with an offensive putback by Diabate. Brooks followed that with a 3-pointer in transition to tie it at 39 with 15:50 remaining.

Jones countered a pair of layups by Ohio State (19-10, 12-8) with a couple of 3-pointers. The second deep ball put Michigan ahead for good, 45-43, at the 14:18 mark and trigged a 14-1 spurt where Ohio State could only muster one free throw over a five-minute stretch.

Williams capped a string of seven unanswered points with a driving layup to put Michigan up, 49-43. Then after Ohio State’s Malaki Branham split two free throws, Williams and Brooks provided the finishing touches on the game-changing run. Williams drew a foul and sank two free throws. Brooks scored a layup and made three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt to put Michigan in control, 56-44, with 10:18 to play.

“The biggest thing in the locker room was coming out (in the second half) with energy,” Williams said. “The defense clicks more when you have more energy. Even though the offense was going well for us, we didn't let the offense dictate what we did on defense.”

Ohio State mustered a response on its Senior Day. Jamari Wheeler snapped a nearly six-minute field-goal drought with a 3-pointer that sparked a 10-2 run. After Wheeler banked in another deep ball, Branham made four consecutive free throws to cut Michigan’s lead to 60-56 with 5:02 remaining.

But Michigan found a way to finish and made winning plays in crunch time. Jones stemmed the tide with a layup and a bounce pass to Diabate for a two-handed jam, putting Michigan up by eight. After Justin Aherns drained a 3-pointer, Diabate blocked a shot at the rim on Ohio State’s next possession and Jones scored on a driving layup on the other end to make it 66-59 at the 1:56 mark.

Aherns made another 3-pointer to cut it back to four. Freshman guard Kobe Bufkin promptly answered with a 3-pointer of his own. The Buckeyes trimmed the deficit to four points two more times in the final 25 seconds, but they couldn’t get any closer as Brooks and Williams salted the game away at the free-throw line.

Branham finished with 18 points, E.J. Liddell had 16 points and 13 rebounds and Ahrens scored 12 for Ohio State, which shot 39.1% from the field in the second half (9-for-23), turned the ball over 13 times and missed six free throws.

“Defense and turnovers,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said when asked what contributed to Michigan’s second-half run. “We just didn’t have the urgency we needed. That’s my fault.

“I think clearly we didn’t have enough want to on that end (defense) today. I thought that and our turnovers got us beat. Again, that’s on me. They didn’t have the readiness that they needed to have.”

The rivals traded baskets over the first 10 minutes of the first half during a back-and-forth start where neither team led by more than three. After freshman guard Frankie Collins scored back-to-back layups to give Michigan a 17-16 lead, the offense went through a rough patch and missed 11 of 13 shots, many coming at the rim.

Williams helped the Wolverines navigate the stretch and kept them close with a trio of 3-pointers. When the Buckeyes pulled ahead by two, Williams splashed a 3-pointer to give Michigan a one-point edge. When Liddell scored five straight, Williams buried one from the right wing to cut Ohio State’s lead to 26-27 at the 3:52 mark.

The Buckeyes created some separation and used an 8-0 spurt that featured three baskets in the paint by Joey Brunk to take their largest lead, 37-28. The Wolverines closed the half with a buzzer-beating jumper from Williams to quell the momentum before they seized it at the start of the second half.

“We came here to win,” Martelli said. “We were on every ball. We were raising hell on that court, every guy that got in the game.

“They stayed the course and really dug in defensively. …I know they feel great. This three-hour bus ride will now become a three-minute bus ride. It’ll be a lot of joy.”

Big Ten tournament

No. 8 seed Michigan vs. No. 9 seed Indiana

► Tip-off: 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis

► TV/radio: BTN/950

► Records: Michigan 17-13, 11-9 Big Ten; Indiana 18-12, 9-11

► Outlook: Michigan won the lone regular-season meeting between the teams, 80-62, at Assembly Hall on Jan. 23. …Indiana has lost seven of nine heading into the Big Ten tournament second-round matchup. …The winner will advance to face top-seeded Illinois in the quarterfinals at 11:30 a.m. Friday

jhawkins@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @jamesbhawkins