Second-half lead slips through No. 5 seed Michigan’s fingers, season ends in 78-65 loss to No. 1 seed Auburn in Sweet Sixteen

ATLANTA — Less than a week after taking down an SEC foe in No. 4 seed Texas A&M to reach the Sweet Sixteen, the No. 5 seed Michigan men’s basketball team faced another team from down south. This time, it was the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, Auburn, a task feared by much of the college basketball landscape.

The Tigers’ (31-5) firepower proved too much in the second half, ending the Wolverines’ (27-10) season in the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Tournament, 78-65.

It hasn’t been often this season to see Michigan enter the second half winning the turnover battle, especially when it had eight of its own. But in the frantic, bad-decision riddled play that defined the first half, Auburn racked up 10 turnovers of its own.

The turnovers are uncharacteristic for the Tigers, a team that normally takes care of the ball fairly well. But the Wolverines are far more experienced in playing through their own mistakes, so forcing Auburn to play out of its comfort zone swung the momentum into Michigan’s favor.

The Wolverines couldn’t fully capitalize, though, as they were out-rebounded 29-17 in the first half. A margin that large isn’t conducive to putting an opponent in the dirt — when you give a Tigers forward three chances at making a layup, he’s certainly going to put it in the basket eventually. So, Michigan entered halftime down 30-29 with several things to clean up in the second half.

Out of the break, the Tigers still didn’t look comfortable. They forced passes through tight windows and rushed their shots. The Wolverines weren’t without their woes as well, still struggling on the defensive glass, but Auburn’s turnovers just kept piling up. 

Michigan was able to open up a nine-point lead at 48-39 with just over 12 minutes to play. Junior forward Danny Wolf led the charge scoring from both the perimeter and down low, forcing the Tigers to pick their poison.

Still, Auburn hung around, not letting the Wolverines open up any lead that couldn’t be surmounted. And a quick 10-0 run from the Tigers sapped all the energy that Michigan worked so hard to build up. All of the sudden, the turnovers and bad decisions that plagued Auburn through the first 30 minutes of the game fell away, and it retook a 49-48 lead.

Even when the Wolverines forced misses, they continued to feed the Tigers extra possessions through offensive rebounds and bail-out fouls. And the game continued to slip through Michigan’s fingers as back-to-back 3-pointers from Auburn guard Denver Jones extended its run to 15-2 and its lead to 57-50 with 7:38 remaining.

The Wolverines couldn’t climb out of the hole as their counterparts had done, and with each second that ticked off the clock, the inevitable grew larger in their peripheral vision. And as the final buzzer sounded, it didn’t signal the end of the game for Michigan, but the end of the season — a season which finished far ahead of expectations, but short of its goals.

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