Michigan rallies late, but drops exhibition game to Cincinnati

ANN ARBOR – The Michigan Wolverines lost 100-98 to the Cincinnati Bearcats out of the Big-12 on Friday night at Crisler Center in an exhibition tilt 2.5 weeks ahead of the regular season.

The Wolverines were down 52-34 at halftime after a pretty lackluster first 20 minutes, but rallied late to make it close and eventually got the deficit down to 2 points late in the second half. Ultimately, the hole they dug early was too much to overcome, and they could not break through with a few missed opportunities down the stretch.

Michigan was without two of its key players and two potential starters in big men Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara, who were held out for precautionary reasons due to injuries suffered in the leadup to the season. Neither is expected to miss much more time, if at all, before the season opener on Nov. 3.

Yaxel Lendeborg led the Wolverines with 29 points and 12 rebounds in his Michigan debut, with 24 of those points coming in the second half. Next up is another exhibition game next Saturday against St. John’s at Madison Square Garden.

Here is how it all went down on Friday night with the box score attached.

First half

With Michigan’s injuries, it started a lineup of Elliot Cadeau, Nimari Burnett, Roddy Gayle Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg and Will Tschetter. Lendeborg took the opening tip for the Wolverines, but it was Cincy who got the scoring started. Sixth-year guard Kerr Kriisa got the scoring going with a three-pointer, followed by a Baba Miller layup to put the Bearcats up 5-0 early on. Michigan’s first points of the night came the next trip down the floor on a three-pointer from Gayle at the 18:44 mark, trimming the deficit to 5-3. 11 seconds later, Moustapha Thiam scored on a dunk to put Cincinnati up 7-3. Michigan responded with an 8-0 run between the 18:26 and 16:56 marks thanks to a bucket from Gayle, an and-1 for Cadeau and a three-pointer for Lendeborg, taking an 11-7 lead. Miller broke the scoring run with a layup at 16:16, trimming the lead to 11-9 at the under-16 timeout (15:34).

Cadeau added to Michigan’s lead with a pair of free throws at the 14:26 mark, followed by two at the other end for Sencire Harris to bring the score to 13-11 Michigan with 12:58 to go. On the next trip down the floor, Cadeau found Lendeborg for a lob dunk to push the score back to a four-point lead at 15-11 (12:41). Halvin Dzellat of Cincy split a pair of free throws at 11:40 (15-12, U-M) before Tyler McKinley tacked on a dunk 31 seconds later, bringing the score to 15-14 in favor of the Wolverines. Michigan forward Oscar Goodman scored his first points at the college level, exhibition or not, in a layup at the 10:52 mark to give his team a 17-14 lead.

From there, the Bearcats went on a 7-0 run thanks to a three-pointer (10:31), a paint jumper from Miller (10:00) and a layup from Day Day Thomas (8:45) to move ahead 21-17, which is where the score would stick at the under-8 media timeout (7:59). Freshman guard Trey McKenney stopped the run after the TV timeout by splitting a pair of foul shots, trimming the deficit to 21-18.

Cincy went on a tear from that point, going on a 23-5 run to eventually take a 42-23 lead with 3:39 remaining. Michigan cut into the lead with a four-point spurt from Burnett on a pair of free throw makes and a layup, trimming the deficit to 41-27 with 2:36 to go in the half. Cincy’s Harris answered with a 3-point play 13 seconds later, pushing the lead back up to 44-27 with 2:23 remaining.

Will Tschetter was fouled on a three-point attempt and sank all three of his foul shots, cutting the lead down to 44-30 with 2:11 to go. The Bearcats outscored Michigan 8-4 the rest of the half, taking a 52-34 lead into the half. U-M went 2-for-13 from the floor over the final 16:55 of the half and had 14 turnovers.

HALFTIME: Cincinnati 52, Michigan 34

Second half

Michigan started with the same five it had on the floor to start the game, and one of its stars got the scoring going in the second half thanks to a Lendeborg three-pointer 26 seconds in to trim the lead to 52-37, Cincinnati. The Bearcats put together a 5-0 run in response on a dunk from Thiam and a three-pointer from Kriisa. The Wolverines fired back on a 9-0 run, sparked by a three-pointer from Burnett and a pair of and-1s from Lendeborg, trimming the lead to 57-46 Cincinnati with 17:11 left. The Bearcuts punched back on a dunk from Miller and a pair of free throws made, stretching the lead back out to 15 points by the under-16 media timeout (15:53).

Coming out of the break, Cadeau hit a pair of free throws to pull the game to 61-48. Lendeborg followed it up 27 seconds with his third and-1 of the half, cutting the Cincy lead down to 10 at 61-51 with 15:26 to go. Shon Abaev put up four-straight free throws from the 15:12 to 14:12 marks to push the lead back out to 14 points before two more layups from Lendeborg at 13:47 and 13:06, respectively. That brought the score to 65-55 prior to a pair of Tillery free throws for Cincy, matched at the other end by two Gayle free throws at 12:33 (67-57).

Thiam hit a layup 16 seconds later, but Gayle cashed in on an and-1 situation to trim the Bearcat lead to single digits at 69-60 with 12:04 to go, which is where the score would stand at the under-12 media timeout. Gayle hit a pair of foul shots on the other side of the timeout, cutting the lead to 69-62. Thiam hit a pair 12 seconds later to put the Bearcats back up 9 before Tschetter sunk a 3-pointer to trim the lead to 6 at 71-65 with 11:05 to play. Thiam added a paint jumper 15 seconds later, followed by another Tschetter triple that cut the deficit to 73-68 (10:41). Tschetter was issued a technical foul for yelling in a defender’s face, leading to a Kriisa free throw make at the 10:38 mark and Thomas triple to push the Cincy lead back up to 9 points at 77-68 with 10:11 remaining. Michigan freshman Winters Grady hit a triple at 9:55 to cut the lead back down to 6 at 77-71, followed by Miller and Gayle free throw makes for the Bearcats and Wolverines, respectively. That put the score at 78-72 with 9:34 to play.

Kriisa hit a triple 15 seconds later, pushing the lead back out to 9 at 81-72 with 9:19 to go. Cadeau made a pair of free throws at 9:10, folowed by a third make at 8:24 to trim the deficit back down to 6 at 81-75 with 8:24 remaining. The Bearcats got a dunk from McKinley with 8:14 to go, pushing the lead to 83-75, where things would stick through the under-8 media timeout.

Grady hit a three-pointer to cut the lead back down to 5 at 83-78 with 7:22 to go. A three-point spurt from the Bearcats helped stretch the lead back to 8 points at 86-78 with 6:15 to go before a 6-0 Michigan run to pull within two at 86-84 with 4:23 to go, thanks to 4 points from Lendeborg and a layup for LJ Cason. Kriisa hit a pair of free throws at 4:15 to push the lead back out to 88-84, answered at the other end by a pair of makes from Tschetter to get back to within 2 at 88-86. Harris hit a pair of layups, sandwiched on each side of a Lendeborg layup make, to have the game at 92-88 with 3:12 to go.

Gayle split a pair of free throws to trim the lead to 3 at 92-89 with 3:05 to go. Thomas hit a three-pointer for the Bearcats at the 2:08 mark to double the lead, pushing the deficit out to 95-89 in favor of Cincinnati. Gayle hit a layup to trim the lead to 4 with 1:40 to go, answered by a Kriisa triple at the other end with 1:17 remaining to push the lead to 98-91. Lendeborg hit a pair of free throws with 37 seconds to go, followed by Thomas hitting a pair at the other end to push the lead out to 100-93 with 31 seconds to play. Lendeborg hit two more free throws with 25 seconds to go to cut the lead to 100-95, then Tschetter hit a triple with 4 seconds left to bring the game to 100-98. The clock would run out on the Wolverines, though, who could not complete the comeback.

FINAL: Cincinnati 100, Michigan 98

Final Michigan vs. Cincinnati box score