Michigan Basketball loses heartbreaker to Oklahoma, 87-86

The Michigan basketball team almost left the Queen City feeling like royalty.

Instead, for the second time in a row, it’s just the Joker.

Michigan, which played well for much of the first month of the young season, once again blew a halftime lead with a strong attack. This time, UM allowed Oklahoma to go on a 21-4 second-half run after building an 11-point lead with less than 10 minutes to play.

Still, Michigan led by three points and appeared to be on its way to victory, but Roddy Gayle Jr. scored on the leg of Jeremiah Fears on a 3-point attempt with 11.5 seconds left. The freshman not only made the long ball, but also added the free throw to gain a lead. Michigan’s Tre Donaldson failed to make a 3-pointer with three seconds left, Danny Wolf’s put-back attempt failed and the Wolverines suffered a stunned 87-86 loss at the Jumpman Invitational at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte on Wednesday.

While much of the blame falls on the discrepancy in long-range shooting – Michigan made just 4 of 28 attempts while the Sooners attempted 12 of 25 – this game was more than expected for the Wolverines.

Michigan led for more than 30 minutes (31:36) but couldn’t get enough stops down the stretch as the Sooners made five of their final seven shots and scored 30 points in the final 9:42 of the game.

This came after last week’s performance at Madison Square Garden, when Dusty May’s group led Arkansas by 15 points before eventually falling behind by 18 points, resulting in a narrow loss.

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UM now leaves the last of its six tests against top-tier opponents in the non-conference portion of the slate at 3-3, wasting another great performance from its 7-foot duo recently nicknamed “Area 51.”

Vladislav Goldin scored a career-best 26 points and 10 rebounds; Danny Wolf added 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists; Gayle scored 15 points and Tre Donaldson added 14 points for the Wolverines, who have lost back-to-back for the first time this season.

Michigan (8-3, 2-0 Big Ten) has just two games remaining against Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne (December 22) and Western Kentucky (December 29) before league play gets into full swing in the new year.

Win early in the paint

It was clear that Oklahoma had little answer to UM’s preliminary court early on. After the Sooners took an early lead, the duo had a 9-0 run all to themselves as Goldin hit three shots to the basket, sandwiched around a Wolf shot with a deep three-pointer.

The only reason Michigan didn’t beat Oklahoma in the first half was its long-distance shooting. Michigan struggled, making just 2 of 14 attempts, while the Sooners made 6 of 12 from behind the long line; Three of them came in the next four minutes from Glenn Taylor Jr. and Kobe Ellis.

While OU’s shooting kept the game close, they faltered late in the first half and went 5:59 into the game without a basket.

That streak ended when Luke Northweather got a layup after a broken coverage on a defensive under-basket out-of-bounds play with 10 seconds left, sending Michigan into halftime with a 43-38 lead.

Wolf and Goldin had 27 points on 11 of 15 shooting while the rest of the team had 16 points and made 6 of 19 shots as UM held a 28-12 advantage in the paint and a 22-16 advantage on the glass The break went and perhaps most importantly: only six turnovers.

“We did a good job early on getting both of them involved,” May told ESPN’s Myron Medcalf, who headed into Goldin and Wolf’s half. “Then we settled for too many threes, even though we did a good job at the rim.”

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UM’s lead lasted less than a minute as OU hit consecutive threes to make it 43-0, but Goldin found Wolf on a handoff and took the lead, then Gayle broke out.

The junior transfer from Ohio State was credited with an and-one floater after a foul and the shot attempt was called a goalie attempt. On the next down, he got an offensive rebound and was fouled. He shot both free throws and scored another basket in the following game for a personal 7-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma missed six straight shots and turned the ball over three times, and after a Donaldson layup, Michigan had gone on an 11-0 run to take a 54-43 lead with 15:13 to play.

Oklahoma used a quiet 8-2 run – Michigan’s ice-cold shooting from outside increased to 2 of 21 on the night and had 10 straight missed shots to that point – to get within five before Goldin got back into the game as he completed a hard left-handed layup.

After two blatant foul free throws by OU, Nimari Burnett made two free throws, Rubin Jones made a three-pointer from the left side and Donaldson forced a timeout from Porter Moser after a crossover and layup, capping the 7-0 spurt in a minute and increase They UM again by double digits, 68-57.

Oklahoma responded with a 12-3 run in less than three minutes and got within two points when Wolf found Goldin on a pick-and-roll to set up the and-one spinning layup, but the Sooners fought back.

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Michigan Basketball loses heartbreaker to Oklahoma, 87-86

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