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The Michigan basketball team nearly left the Queen City feeling like kings.
Instead, for the second consecutive game, it’s just the joker.
Michigan, which has largely played well through the first month-plus of the young season, again blew a halftime lead to a high-powered attack. This time, after mounting an 11-point lead with less than 10 minutes to play, U-M allowed Oklahoma to put together a 21-4 second-half run.
Even still, Michigan clawed back and again led by three points late and looked poised to win, but after Roddy Gayle Jr. turned the ball over on offense, he ran into Jeremiah Fears’ leg on a 3-point attempt with 11.5 seconds left.
The freshman not only made the long ball, but added the free throw to go up one. Michigan’s Tre Donaldson couldn’t make a 3-pointer with three seconds left, Wolf’s put-back attempt came up short and the Wolverines were stunned in an 87-86 loss in the Jumpman Invitational at Spectrum Center in Charlotte on Wednesday.
While much of the blame can go to the discrepancy in shooting from long range — Michigan made just 4 of 28 attempts while the Sooners made 12 of 25 — this game was more than there for the taking for the Wolverines.
Michigan led for almost the entirety of the game but couldn’t come up with 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 comes after last week’s performance at Madison Square Garden, when Dusty May’s group led Arkansas by 15 before it eventually fell behind by 18 in what winded up as a close loss.
U-M now leaves the last of its six tests against high-major competition in the nonconference portion of the slate at 3-3, and wasted the yet another huge performance from its 7-foot duo recently nicknamed “Area 51.”
Vladislav Goldin had a career-high 26 points and 10 rebounds and Danny Wolf added 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, while Gayle scored 15 and Donaldson added 14 for the Wolverines, who have dropped two straight for the first time on the season.
Fears scored a game-high 30 points, Duke Miles added 17 and Jalen Moore scored 16 for the Sooners (11-0) who are one of four remaining undefeated teams in the country.
Michigan (8-3, 2-0 Big Ten) has just two games remaining against Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne (Dec. 22) and Western Kentucky (Dec. 29) before league play gets into full swing in the new year.
Winning in the paint early
It was clear Oklahoma had little answer for U-M’s front court at the start. After the Sooners got out to an early lead, the duo had a 9-0 run by themselves as Goldin hit three buckets in the paint, sandwiched around a Wolf hit a deep 3-pointer.
The only reason Michigan didn’t blow Oklahoma out in the first half was because of long-range shooting. Michigan struggled, making just 2 of 14 attempts while the Sooners went 6 of 12 from behind the long line.
While OU’s shooting kept the game close, they went cold near the end of the first half, going 5:59 without a bucket.
That streak ended when Luke Northweather got a layup on a busted coverage on a defensive under-basket out-of-bounds play with 10 seconds left and sent Michigan into the break up 43-38.
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 U-M went into the break with a 28-12 advantage in the paint, a 22-16 edge on the glass and perhaps most importantly just six turnovers.
“We did a nice job early getting them both involved,” May said to ESPN’s Myron Medcalf heading into the half of Goldin and Wolf. “Then we settled for too many threes when we were doing a great job at the rim.”
Michigan can’t survive ice-cold shooting
U-M’s lead lasted less than a minute as OU made consecutive buckets to tie things at 43, but Goldin found Wolf on a handoff to take back the lead, then Gayle went on a tear.
The junior transfer from Ohio State was credited with an and-one floater after he was fouled and the shot attempt was called goaltending, then on the next trip down he got an offensive rebound and was fouled. He made both free throws then made yet another bucket on the ensuing trip for a personal 7-0 spurt.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma missed six consecutive shots and turned the ball over three times and after a Donaldson layup Michigan had put together an 11-0 run to get out to an 54-43 lead with 15:13 to play.
Oklahoma used a quiet 8-2 run − Michigan’s ice cold shooting from outside extended to 2 of 21 on the night with 10 straight misses to that point − to get within five, before Goldin got back in on the action when he finished a tough left-handed layup.
After a pair of flagrant foul free throws by OU, Nimari Burnett made a pair of free throws, Rubin Jones made a 3 from the left side and Donaldson forced a Porter Moser timeout after a crossover and layup capped a 7-0 spurt in one minute and put U-M back up double digits, 68-57, and seemingly in control.
Instead, Oklahoma responded with a 12-3 run in less than three minutes to get back within two points. Though Wolf found Goldin on a pick-and-roll to set up a and-one spinning layup, the Sooners punched back.
Fears and Miles hit consecutive long balls, then Moser’s team added a quick 9-0 run in 1:29 of play to take the first lead since it was 10-8.
Down by four with three minutes to play, U-M scored six straight as Burnett sandwiched a pair of free throws and layup around a Goldin bucket to take the lead, 84-82. After OU split free throws, Goldin got a key offensive rebound and made two from the line to go up three with 1:14 to play.
Wolf came away with a steal on defense with 58 seconds to play, but Gayle turned the ball over with 3 seconds left to allow the Sooners another chance within a possession which led to Fears’ game-winning play.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
