Michigan went on the road and was trounced by SMU on Tuesday evening, leaving with a 82-58 loss. SMU dominated every facet of the game and Wolverine guard Caris LeVert finished 1-of-13 from the floor and didn’t record his first made field goal until there were less than five minutes left in the second half.
It was over when…
For all intents and purposes, Nic Moore ended this game in the first half. The 5-foot-9 point guard hit back to back three-pointers to stretch SMU’s lead from three to nine points and then followed threw three straight assists to stretch the lead to 14. Michigan would cut the lead back to nine points in the second half, but never threatened as SMU kept the Wolverines at bay.
Player of the game: Jordan Tolbert
Jordan Tolbert didn’t do anything particularly fancy, but he swallowed up every rebound and drop-off pass en route to 23 points on 11-of-12 shooting and nine rebounds. Tolbert was forced into major minutes when starting big man Markus Kennedy went down with an ankle sprain in the opening moments, but the No. 5 offensive rebounder in Division I had no problem slicing up Michigan’s defense with slip screens and lobs.
Stat of the game: SMU Three-Point Shooting
SMU and Michigan both entered this game shooting 44% from three-point range and the Mustangs shot the lights out from three-point range in the easy win. SMU made eight of its first 11 three-point attempts and finished shooting 53% from long distance.
Room for improvement: Defensive Rebounding
This was Michigan’s worst defensive rebounding performance since Kentucky rebounded 63% of its misses against Michigan in the 2014 NCAA tournament as SMU grabbed 54 percent of its missed shots on the night.
