Penn State win over Michigan stops skid at 18

The No. 4 Michigan Wolverines have been involved in the breaking of some of the longest streaks in college basketball this season. After running the table on their non-conference schedule and winning their first three Big Ten Conference games, the Maize and Blue traveled to Columbus, Ohio to take on Ohio State Jan. 13th armed with an impressive 16-0 record. Ohio State sent them back to Ann Arbor, MI with their record a bit heavier on the right side after defeating the then No. 2 team in the NCAA, 56:53 (OSU was No. 15 at the time). On Wednesday night, the Wolverines took to the road again to visit Penn State University’s basketball team, who came into the contest with an 8-18 record, which included a 18-game losing streak in the Big Ten that dates back to a win over Iowa on Feb. 16th of last season. With two games against Michigan State and one with Indiana coming up, it would be easy to figure that Michigan just might be looking past the winless Nittany Lions. As the final horn sounded on the end of Penn State’s losing streak with an 84:78 victory and a golden opportunity for Michigan to move up in the Big Ten standings blown, it’s a sure bet the trip back to Michigan was filled with nightmares from the land affectionately known as ‘Happy Valley’.

It’s been another tough week (three days actually) for the AP Top 10 teams with No. 1 Indiana getting beat by unranked Minnesota (19-9, 7-8 Big Ten), No. 7 Georgetown losing to unranked UConn (19-7, 9-5 Big East), No. 8 Florida losing to unranked Tennessee (17-10, 9-6 SEC)), and now No. 4 Michigan losing to Penn State (9-18, 1-14 Big Ten), a team winless in their conference.

Penn State came into the contest celebrating their senior team members and their families as it was designated Senior Night. With the Michigan game in front of them, then two road games and the season finale against Wisconsin a week from Sunday, the seniors were either looking to just get the season over with, or most likely were a bit more amped up and looking for a big win on a big day with the No. 4 club visiting Bryce Jordan Center.

Michigan’s youthful roster that regularly starts two freshmen and a sophomore with three more freshmen getting solid minutes, got out to an early 10:17 advantage, but the Lions played solid defense on both ends of the court to rally back and take a 34:30 lead. The Wolverines closed out the half on a 2:9 run to take a three-point lead, 36:39 into the half-time break.

Early in the second half the Wolverines slowly pulled ahead until part-way through the second 20 they ran off eight unanswered to get up by 15. At that point the Lions backcourt of Jermaine Marshall and D.J. Newbill, the No. 2 backcourt in the Big Ten with a 30.8 point per game average only behind Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway, Jr. of Michigan (34ppg), put their club on their backs and carried them. Marshall dropped in nine of the Lions next 15 and Penn State ran off a 23:8 stretch that knotted the contest at 74.

Michigan didn’t protect the ball as well as they have done during the rest of the season, committing 15 turnovers compared to their season average of nine. When they needed to hang on to the rock, they found it escaping them at the least opportune moments, such as one of Burke’s turnovers with four minutes left the resulted in the Lions going up by two. Burke ended the night with six of the team’s 15 turnovers.

After Marshall connected on a pair of singles to take the lead at 76:74, the Lions never looked back. Key to their win was hitting 20 of 27 free throws on the night, while Michigan only connected on 13 of 20. Penn State also benefitted from some better than normal outside shooting 10 of 20 behind the arc as compared to the Wolverines who only found the cords on 5 of 20 three-ball attempts.

Marshall was game-high for Penn State with 25 points, Newbill added 17 points and 5 assists, and Ross Travis contributed 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Michigan was led by Hardaway, Jr.’s 19 points, Burke added 18 points and 6 assists, and Nik Stauskas added 12 points and 8 rebounds.