'It's rough': Michigan's road to Big Dance gets tougher after devastating Indiana loss

Bloomington, Ind. — Same story. Different day.

In a campaign that’s been filled with one missed opportunity after another, it seemed only fitting that Michigan closed out the regular season in gut-wrenching fashion.

After storming back from a 14-point first-half deficit, the Wolverines let a 12-point second-half lead slip away, were tripped up by late-game woes once again and fell to No. 15 Indiana in overtime, 75-73, on Sunday at Assembly Hall.

“It's really rough,” said junior center Hunter Dickinson, who finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds and missed a potential winning 3-pointer on Michigan’s final possession in regulation.

“When everybody on the team is making so many winning plays and playing so hard out there, you feel like you almost deserve one of these. But that's sometimes the way basketball goes. There’s going to be one winner and one loser. Today, they just made a couple more plays than we did.”

BOX SCORE: No. 15 Indiana 75, Michigan 73 (OT)

Sophomore guard Kobe Bufkin scored 19, freshman wing Jett Howard had 16 points and freshman guard Dug McDaniel added 10 points for Michigan (17-14, 11-9 Big Ten), which shot 3-for-13 over the final 10 minutes in regulation, made just one field goal in overtime and fell to 0-5 against ranked opponents this season.

Before the game reached overtime, Michigan had a couple of chances to pull ahead in the final minute after Indiana (21-10, 12-8) wiped out the 12-point deficit and Jalen Hood-Schifino’s 3-pointer tied it at 69 with 59 seconds remaining.

On the first opportunity, Dickinson turned the ball over and was stripped in the paint by Race Thompson, who raced down the floor, missed a layup in transition and gave Michigan another shot to win it.

But once again, the Wolverines came up empty. Coming out of a timeout with 13 seconds left, Michigan’s final possession ended with Dickinson taking a contested 3-pointer that bounced off the back of the rim.

“We were trying to throw it in to Dug, I believe, and then (Howard) was supposed to get the handoff and then it was supposed to be a post entry pass,” Dickinson said of the final play. “But I saw the way (Howard’s) defender was playing him, so I went to screen, and we got a decent look at it.”

Added Michigan coach Juwan Howard: “We got a good shot.”

After Michigan dodged a bullet and Trayce Jackson-Davis nearly banked in a halfcourt heave, the Wolverines headed to overtime for the third straight game.

The Hoosiers scored the first six points of the extra session and held on from there. After Jackson-Davis blocked a layup attempt by McDaniel at the rim, Miller Kopp nailed a deep jumper to put Indiana up, 75-69, with 2:21 to play.

Dickinson kept Michigan in it with a 3-pointer and made it a three-point game with 1:58 left. But the Wolverines couldn’t muster another bucket. Dickinson had a shot blocked in the paint by Jackson-Davis and freshman center Tarris Reed Jr. misfired on a deep jumper late in the shot clock.

Then after getting another stop on defense, Michigan called a timeout with 23 seconds left and drew up a play for Dickinson to get a quick bucket in the paint. However, Dickinson committed another turnover as Thompson poked the ball away again.

“He got the ball in a good spot," Juwan Howard said. "Unfortunately, the defender came and took the ball away."

Indiana couldn’t slam the door on Michigan. Thompson was fouled with 12 seconds left and missed both free throws.

The Hoosiers opted to foul up three and sent McDaniel to the free-throw line with six seconds left. He made the first, cutting it to 75-73, and purposely missed the second.

Thompson corralled the rebound and was sent to the line, where he missed two more free throws and gave Michigan a glimmer of hope. But it ultimately didn’t matter as Bufkin passed the ball into Dickinson's back near midcourt and the Wolverines couldn’t even get a shot off before time expired.

“If you look at it, in overtime, we lost by one possession,” Howard said. “They only scored one more bucket than we did. We were 1-for-6 (shooting). They were 2-for-5. That's how it goes sometimes.”

Jackson-Davis scored 27, Thompson had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Hood-Schifino scored 13 for Indiana, which denied Michigan of a needed resume-building win and a double-bye in the Big Ten tournament.

"I thought we came out and defensively, we were as good as we've been all year," Indiana coach Mike Woodson said. "Then right before the half, they made a run...and kind of knocked us for a loop a little bit.

"We came back the second half and they were clicking on all cylinders, man. We just kept grinding. … I thought everybody that played kept making plays, and I thought the two plays that Race made down the stretch from a defensive standpoint, the two steals, were the two biggest plays of the game."

After falling behind by 14, Michigan flipped the game with a hot-shooting stretch and a 29-7 run between the first and second halves. The Wolverines made their final six shots and closed the first half on a 14-2 spurt.

Coming out of halftime, they picked up where they left off. The Wolverines made their first four shots in the second half, including two 3-pointers from Jett Howard and another deep ball from Bufkin, and reeled off a 15-5 flurry that put them up, 42-34, with 16:37 left.

Indiana battled back as Michigan’s offense cooled. The Hoosiers pulled within 60-59 at the 6:42 mark after Thompson capped an 8-0 spurt with a three-point play, paving the way for another forgettable, frustrating finish.

Down the stretch, Michigan missed the front end of a one-and-one and committed turnovers on back-to-back possessions. Jackson-Davis scored consecutive baskets at the rim. Indiana took a 66-65 lead with 2:49 remaining.

Michigan used two free throws from Bufkin and a hook shot from Dickinson to go back in front, 69-66, before Hood-Schifino’s 3-pointer tied it and the Wolverines wrote another crushing chapter to their season-long story.

With the loss, Michigan will be the No. 8 seed in the conference tournament in Chicago and will need to make a run to build its NCAA Tournament case, beginning with the second-round matchup against No. 9 Rutgers at noon Thursday at the United Center.

“We've got do what it takes to win. If it's playing an extra five, 10, even 15 minutes, then that's what it takes,” Dickinson said. “But no excuses. Now we're on to the Big Ten tournament where we'll probably have to win a couple of games in a row and try to shock the world.”

jhawkins@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @jamesbhawkins