It happened again.
michigan basketball Vanderbilt was up by eight with less than a minute to play. Then it scored nine straight points, forced three straight turnovers and was called for a field goal with 13 seconds left.
Even with that, he had the ball on one down with 13 seconds to play.
Doug McDaniel could not connect on a floater on the final possession, Hunter Dickinson could not find a tip-in for a fall and, in the end, Michigan fell 66–65 to Vanderbilt in the second round of the NIT.
Michigan’s (19–16, 11–9 Big Ten) season is over, as it turns a 12-point first-half deficit into a 10-point second-half lead.
Opinion:Michigan basketball is headed in the wrong direction. Juwan Howard should fix that this offseason.
Dickinson finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds, and scored 11 straight in the second half for Michigan to turn a one-point lead into a double-digit margin. McDaniel finished with 19, one point short of his career high, and scored 13 of them in the first half to keep UM in the game when it fell behind by a dozen.
Joey Baker added 11, Williams had six points and five rebounds and Tarris Reed Jr. had five points and six rebounds.
But the effort was not enough for the short-handed Wolverine.
Jett Howard, the team’s second leading scorer (14.2 ppg) who missed the team’s NIT opening win over Toledo, was out with an ankle injury. Kobe Bufkin, who said on a TV broadcast that he injured his ankle during Friday’s practice, was also ruled out.
Tyryn Lawrence led Vanderbilt with 24 points and nine rebounds. Manzon scored 17 and Collin Smith scored 11 for the Commodores, who will face the winner of 4-seed UAB and Morehead State in next week’s NIT quarterfinals.
Dickinson handles, McDaniel helps close the door.
It was a quiet start to the day or Dickinson. He scored the opening bucket of the game, then did not add any more points for 17 minutes. He scored two buckets late in the first half in what looked to be a strong final 20-minute performance.
The 7-foot-1-center hit a left-handed hook off the break to go up three, then after a Baker spinning layup, Dickinson added a baseline layup to put UM back up one.
Baker got the next five UM points from the free throw line, while Vanderbilt countered with two Lawrence layups and a Wright free throw before Dickinson made it 41–40 Michigan.
First, he caught a pass from Terrence Williams Jr. and threw down the slam. He added a spinning hook and downed the next trip and followed that up when he caught a hard pass from McDaniel and added another one-handed flip.
Then, it was freshman Yusuf Khayat’s turn to feed the big man, who was converted by Dickinson on an End-1 finish. He then added two more free throws to put the Wolverines up 52–42 with 10:52 to play.
early fall
Dickinson again did not score from the floor, but after three Reed free throws, UM led 59–51 with 5:08 remaining.
Jordan Wright fouled out, then Lawrence hit five straight runs for Vanderbilt to score within five.
Baker and Trey Thomas appeared to have swapped the 3, but Baker’s was overturned on the two when replays showed his toe was on the line, so the five-point lead was converted to four. Baker and McDaniel added consecutive mid-range jumpers to put Michigan up 65–57 with 1:45 to play, but Vanderbilt turned on the full court press and turned the game.
Lawrence scored five and Manzon scored four as Vanderbilt went up 9–0 with 46 seconds remaining.
first half run
Michigan got off to a fast start, as Dickinson hit the game’s opening bucket and freshman Khayat – making his first career start and only his second appearance in the game since January 1 – hit his fourth career 3-pointer to go up 5. Danced for -0.
Vanderbilt took the next seven minutes, including a stretch where it kicked six straight field goals; A 3-pointer by Colin Smith, a layup and highlight dunk by Tyryn Lawrence, then eight straight Smith on a slashing layup and consecutive long balls from the right corner.
The Commodores held UM to 0-for-6 shooting during that same time period to go on a 17–0 run with four turnovers and go up to 17–5 with 12:53 to play in the first half.
But a combination of McDaniel and Williams put UM back in the game.
After two misses, Williams scored an offensive rebound before McDaniel hit another -1 floater. Williams added another offensive rebound and a tip-in on the ensuing possession before McDaniel nailed a mid-range jumper off a screen to start a 9–0 Michigan run and cut the lead to three.
Vanderbilt’s Paul Lewis fired a long ball over the key to put Jerry Stackhouse’s team in the six, as McDaniel hit consecutive 3-pointers—the first on a pull-up, the next on a handoff from his roommate Tarris Reed Jr. . Tie the game at 20.
Reid also provided key minutes early, making a put-back to tie the game at 22. He had five rebounds in six first half minutes. A high-flying Lawrence and -1 dunk put Vanderbilt up 27–24, Michigan went on a 6–0 run to cross the half.
Dickinson, who did not score other than the first point of the game, hit consecutive buckets in the lane as he led UM to a 30–29 lead at the break and surpassed the 1,600-point benchmark for his career.
All players not named Smith or Lawrence for Vanderbilt combined to go 4-for-15 from the floor for 11 points and 3 turnovers.
This article was originally published on the Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball collapses in NIT loss to Vanderbilt