Michigan senior Anthony Wright works between Northwestern junior Ivan Peljusic, left, and freshman Drew Crawford on Sunday at Crisler Arena. Northwestern beat Michigan, 62-68. (Photo: Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com)
Why not? If it weren’t for Crawford, Northwestern likely wouldn’t have knocked off Michigan, 68-62, in a game where the Wildcats trailed by 17 points early and then used a run from Crawford to spark what Northwestern does best.
Trailing 31-14, Crawford scored 11 points in a row - he finished with a game-high 25 points - to cut Michigan’s lead to six points, 31-25, late in the first half. From there, the Wildcats’ 1-3-1 defense took over.
They trapped. They tipped balls. And the Northwestern frustrated Michigan (8-7, 2-2 Big Ten).
DeShawn Sims works around Northwestern freshman Drew Crawford in the first half Sunday in Crisler Arena. Crawford finished with 25 points on 7-of-9 shooting. (Photo: Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com)
“Everybody rotated and played their position right, and it caused a lot of turnovers,” Northwestern junior guard Michael Thompson said. “They turned their backs on us a lot, opposed to them being comfortable dribbling the ball. That played into our advantage.
“They just didn’t seem comfortable dribbling the ball.”
Michigan wasn’t. Playing a freshman, Darius Morris, and a sophomore, Stu Douglass, in its main ball-handling roles, the Wildcats (12-3 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) often forced Michigan back into its block “M” near the middle of the court midway through possessions.
It kept the Wolverines from making entry passes to senior forward DeShawn Sims, who scored 17 points but just four after halftime. It forced the Wolverines into 11 second-half turnovers, mostly coming from mistakes at the top of the key.
Michigan coach John Beilein even told his team in preparation for the 1-3-1 to penetrate the lane. Except the Wolverines couldn’t.
“Coach was talking about attacking it, and I was just kind of looking at it, reading it, instead of just attacking and playing basketball,” Douglass said. “That was where I faulted. It’s just hard to find (Sims) inside.
“They are very good at that zone. I just didn’t attack.”
As the defense started creating purple havoc, the Northwestern offense started hitting 3-pointers to cut into and eventually take the lead from Michigan.
As focused as Michigan was on Thursday against Penn State, when the Wolverines overcame a 16-point halftime deficit to knock off the Nittany Lions on the road, they looked sloppy and lackadaisical once they had a lead on Northwestern.
The Northwestern zone took care of that.
“That certainly took us out of rhythm,” Beilein said. “And then, because that took us out of rhythm, our defense in the second half was not good. We just got distracted by our lack of offense.
“That’s just the story of this team, so we got to keep working at that.”
It resulted in Northwestern taking a 10-point lead with 7:28 left after a 3-pointer from Wildcats junior forward John Shurna. Only then did Michigan awaken and rediscover the crisp passing and attacking style that got the Wolverines the 17-point lead in the first place.
Except Northwestern had the momentum and almost fittingly, when Michigan took a one-point lead on a Morris 3-pointer with 1:28 left, the Wolverines had three turnovers and a missed shot in their final four possessions culminating in junior guard Manny Harris, who scored 24 points, tripping over his own feet on a turnover.
“They just outplayed us in the second half,” Michigan sophomore guard Zack Novak said. “They deserved to win. They were down big, (we) let them get back in the game.
“I don’t know what happened.”
Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.
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