After a month and a half of infallibility, the No. 2 Michigan basketball team looked shockingly beatable against a middling Big Ten foe in Penn State. On Tuesday night, the Nittany Lions had a shot at the buzzer to win, ultimately coming up just two points short of upsetting the Wolverines, who hadn’t played a single-possession game since Nov. 14.
“I want to tip the cap,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “A lot of times coaches get up here in a game like this and talk about what they didn’t do. Penn State was more physical than us. Their game plan was better than ours.”
Penn State was without its leading scorer, freshman guard Kayden Mingo, but still found success in different ways, bringing the Wolverines to the precipice of defeat.
Here are five takeaways from Michigan’s narrow win over the Nittany Lions.
LJ Cason has best half of his Michigan career
This past offseason was clearly transformational for sophomore guard L.J. Cason. The first half showed just how far Cason — who was seeing almost no minutes this time last year — has come.
In two first-half stints totaling 10 minutes, Cason was in full command of the offense. His 14 points doubled the next leading scorer and made up for a sluggish start.
“I think I did good just getting guys involved, making plays for myself,” Cason said. “I think I’m just doing whatever the team needs is my role. … If they need me to pass or score or just get stops on the defensive end.”
Cason actually started his day with a missed layup and then a turnover on his first two possessions. He then assisted or scored on nine of the Wolverines’ next 11 points to turn an 8-12 deficit into a 19-14 lead before he was substituted out.
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