Michigan basketball pummeled by Ohio State, sinks to new low for conference losses

Columbus, Ohio — Michigan was hoping to crash the Senior Day party and spoil Ohio State’s home finale.

Instead, the Buckeyes added to the Wolverines’ misery, as they continued their freefall toward the finish line and program infamy.

Michigan was blown away in the second half, dropped its seventh straight game and reached another new low in Sunday’s 84-61 wire-to-wire loss at Value City Arena.

BOX SCORE: Ohio State 84, Michigan 61

The Wolverines (8-22, 3-16 Big Ten) set a program record for the most conference losses in a season, topping the previous mark of 15 that stood since 1952-53.

They also tied the single-season mark of 22 losses, matching the total set by former coach John Beilein in his first year in 2007-08. That means, barring a miracle, this year’s team will take that title and finish with the most losses in the program’s 107 seasons.

“It definitely sits wrong me, this whole season,” said senior forward Terrance Williams II, who scored 13. “I'm not used to losing. You look at my track record from high school all the way to now, I'm not used to losing.

“It's a lot of adversity. It's testing us and it's testing me.”

Michigan stayed close throughout the first half and found itself in a similar position midway through the second half, when it fought back from a 15-point deficit pulled within seven with 10:01 remaining.

The Wolverines had a chance to pull closer and make it a two-possession game. Sophomore guard Dug McDaniel came up with a steal and threw the ball ahead to Williams in transition. But Williams had the ball stripped away and it bounced off his leg out of bounds.

Michigan could never make a serious threat after that wasted chance, as Ohio State (18-12, 8-11) blew the game open with a 22-4 blitz. By the time the flurry ended with a string of 14 unanswered points, Michigan was staring at a 76-51 hole with 3:42 to go.

“It was close, they went on that run, and we couldn't punch back,” Williams said. “That's the biggest thing we've been having trouble with all season is consistently punching back when teams make their runs. Ohio State just wore down on us.”

The Wolverines trailed by double digits over the final 9:17 and by as much as 29 points as their losing streak hit seven games, the team’s longest skid since it lost 10 straight in 2005.

Ohio State outscored Michigan 30-14 over the final 10 minutes and the Buckeyes scored 27 points off the Wolverines’ 18 turnovers.

“It was the turnovers. It was that (Williams) turnover and then from there it spiraled into more turnovers,” coach Juwan Howard said of what went wrong over the final 10 minutes.

“Unfortunately on the offensive end, those were the opportunities where either we get to the bucket and we're trying to make a play and that led to a turnover, or we're trying to make a pass where it did not land in a player's hands. It landed in Ohio State's hands and led to a basket for them.”

McDaniel finished with 19 points for Michigan, which dropped its 10th straight game away from home and lost for the 17th time in 19 games.

Bruce Thornton scored 17 and Roddy Gayle Jr. 15 for Ohio State, which made 19 of its 27 baskets on layups and dunks to snap a three-game slide in the rivalry series.

Following an ugly first half where the two teams slogged along and Michigan trailed 32-27 at the break despite having nearly as many turnovers (nine) as made baskets (10), Ohio State scored the first 10 points out of the break to create some separation.

The Buckeyes, who struggled to knock down jumpers all game long, scored four times at the rim during the spurt with a layup and three fast-break buckets. By the time Gayle scooped up a live-ball turnover by redshirt sophomore forward Will Tschetter and threw down a dunk in transition, the Wolverines fell behind, 42-27, at the 17:05 mark.

Michigan countered with its own quick burst. After McDaniel knocked down a shot to stop Ohio State’s run, sophomore forward Youssef Khayat corralled an offensive rebound and hit a short jumper to cut it to 42-34.

The Wolverines couldn’t muster much more than that as the Buckeyes held them at bay. Michigan pulled within 46-40 on a fast-break dunk by grad transfer guard Nimari Burnett. Ohio State countered with six quick points and used a three-point play by Gayle to make it a 12-point game with 11:27 to go.

From there, the Buckeyes pulled away and sent the Wolverines on their way to another miserable milestone.

“Defensively, they got into us,” Howard said. “It (speaks to) the level of competitiveness at this time of the year, where everyone takes their game higher. Unfortunately, we didn't do that today.”

jhawkins@detroitnews.com

@jamesbhawkins