Michigan dominated from wire to wire in 87-62 loss to Arizona State

Michigan Wolverines basketball never had a lead in an 87-62 loss to Arizona State. The Sun Devils won the Legends Classic after the dominant performance. Michigan drops to 3-1 on the season.

ASU got up double digits within the game’s first five minutes and never looked back. They were hot shooting the ball, while the Wolverines couldn’t buy a bucket.

Here a recap of how the game unfolded.

RELATED

• Fab Five: Takeaways from Michigan’s win over Pittsburgh

• Growth evident in several areas during a 91-60 Michigan win over Pitt

First half

The game began with Michigan graduate point guard Jaelin Llewellyn attemting a shot that was blocked by former U-M point guard Frankie Collins, who entered the transfer portal two days after Llewellyn announced his commitment from Princeton.

Freshman guard Jett Howard got Michigan on the board with a three-pointer at the 17:24 mark and Llewellyn made a layup after Dickinson set a hard screen on Collins at 15:18.

The Wolverines’ defense was weak early on, with ASU making 4 of its first 7 shots, including a 2-of-4 mark from long range. The Sun Devils led 12-5 at the under-16 media timeout. Guard DJ Horne led the way with 5 points.

ASU extended its run to 8-0 with a made triple from guard Desmond Cambridge as Michigan went with zone. That made it 15-5 with under 15 minutes remaining.

Michigan’s defense continued to struggle. ASU made seven-straight field goals and started 8-of-11 to go up 22-10 with 13 minutes to go.

A triple from ASU freshman guard Austin Nunez with just over 11 minutes to go gave the Sun Devils a 25-10 edge. At that point, Michigan was 1 of its last 10 from the field, while ASU was 8 of its last 9.

ASU kept it going by making it 29-10 with another Horne three-pointer with under 10 to go. Michigan head coach Juwan Howard called timeout at that point.

Dickinson scored three-straight points, and that sparked a better stretch of energy for the Maize and Blue, who went on to make three-straight field goals — including a layup from freshman guard Dug McDaniel and a transition bunny from Jett Howard. ASU head coach Bobby Hurley called timeout with 5:57 remaining and a 34-17 lead.

Collins picked up his second foul when sophomore guard Isaiah Barnes drew a charge. Dickinson made a shot on the other end to make it 34-19. That was the score at the under-4 media timeout. At that juncture, the Wolverines were on a 6-0 run, while the Sun Devils were on a 3:13 scoring drought with just 2 makes on their last 11 shots.

Cambridge Jr. nailed a three to make it 39-19 at the 2:49 mark. A minute and a half later, Nunez shook a defender with a hesitation move — Juwan Howard thought it was a double-dribble — to free himself up and hit a three from the top of the key to make it 44-21.

Michigan finished on a mini 5-0 run, with Dickinson getting an and-one and Llewellyn finishing a layup just before the buzzer. It was 46-28 at the break.

The Wolverines shot 9-of-30 from the field, including 2-of-9 from long range, in the first half. Meanwhile, ASU hit 18 of its 32 shots, including 8 triples on 14 tries. Nunez led all scorers with 11 points.

Second half

Collins started off the half with a layup over Michigan junior forward Terrance Williams II, but the Wolverines responded nicely. Dickinson scored 4 points and Jett Howard hit a pair of free throws to bring it to 50-34 with 17 minutes to go.

Michigan sophomore guard Kobe Bufkin finished an and-one and made the free throw to make it 52-37 at 15:33. Cambridge Jr. hit his third three-pointer of the game to make it 55-38 the next trip down, though. Cambridge Jr. drained another one a minute later to pull ASU ahead 58-39.

It was 62-43 at the under-12 media timeout with 11:48 to go. ASU heated back up with 5 makes on its last 7 field goals. Cambridge Jr. went to the bench for a spell but he had 15 points in the last 14 minutes at that juncture, with Michigan failing to tightly contest some of his looks.

ASU went on an 11-0 run that put it up 71-43 with just under 9 minutes left. Cambridge (2 points), Horne (7) and Nunez (2) — as they did all night — carried the run. Williams finally stopped the bleeding with a jumper to make it 71-45 with just over 8 minutes to go.

It got uglier for Michigan, which trailed by 32 points with 6:22 to go after another Nunez layup.

The Wolverines emptied the bench with just over 4 minutes to play and an 80-48 deficit.

The final score after garbage time was 87-62. ASU shot a whopping 60 percent from the field and was led by Cambridge Jr. (20 points), Horne (19), Nunez (15) and guard Luther Muhammad (14).