Michigan was looking to wrap up its nonconference slate in style and end the year on a high note.
UCF’s Brandon Mahan and Darrin Green Jr. had other plans.
The duo combined for 53 points, spearheaded a second-half surge that wiped out Michigan’s 12-point lead and torched the Wolverines from 3-point range in an 85-71 loss on Thursday at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Fla.
Fifth-year senior guard Eli Brooks scored 18, grad transfer guard DeVante’ Jones added 17, freshman forward Moussa Diabate had 13 and sophomore center Hunter Dickinson had 12 points and nine rebounds for Michigan (7-5), which was outscored 54-36 in the second half.
Green scored a career-high 27 points and Mahan added 26 for UCF (9-2), which shot 72% from the field (18 for 25) and made all eight of its 3-point attempts after halftime. The duo also finished a combined 12 for 16 from beyond the arc.
After a tight first half, Michigan wasted little time creating some separation out of the break with a 9-1 spurt. Jones knocked down a 3-pointer. Diabate canned two free throws. Brooks drove, collapsed the defense and found Dickinson for a dunk. Then after a steal by Jones, Brooks came away with an offensive rebound and scored on a put-back to make it 44-32 with 17:34 remaining.
But just when it looked like the Wolverines were starting to pull away, the Knights reeled them back in. Mahan, who scored UCF’s first nine points of the second half, bookended a string of three straight 3-pointers that ignited an 18-2 blitz. Green capped a stretch of 13 unanswered points with a fast-break dunk off a blocked shot and stole the ensuing inbounds pass that led to another dunk, giving UCF a 50-49 lead at the 13:12 mark.
Dickinson momentarily stopped the bleeding with a layup, but UCF kept pushing. The Knights remained on fire from beyond the arc and Green capped the stretch with his sixth 3-pointer to make it 55-51 with 11:46 to play.
The Wolverines pulled within one twice but could do little to cool off UCF’s offense. Mahan had the hot hand and drained another 3-pointer. Then coach Juwan Howard was whistled for a technical foul — he disagreed with a charge call on sophomore forward Terrance Williams II — that led to two free throws and a 62-56 lead for the Knights with 8:40 remaining.
Michigan countered with a pair of deep balls of their own from Jones and Brooks to trim it to 64-62, but it could pull no closer as the wheels fell off. The Wolverines missed five straight shots and couldn’t get stops, while the Knights turned a turnover into a layup and used a seventh 3-pointer from Green to push the lead to 72-63 with 3:33 left.
From there, the Wolverines trailed by at least six points the rest of the way until the Knights salted the game away at the free-throw line over the final minute.
Playing for the first time since Dec. 18 and for just the second time in 19 days, the Wolverines leaned on Brooks and Diabate during a fast-paced, up-and-down start.
The duo combined for 14 points over the first six and a half minutes as Michigan took a 16-11 lead. Brooks knocked down a jumper, buried a pair of 3-pointers and found sophomore center Hunter Dickinson for an alley-oop dunk. Diabate brought the energy and effort, scoring on a second-chance bucket, knocking down a baseline jumper and converting another basket around the rim.
UCF took advantage of a turnover and a pair of offensive rebounds to stay close before Jones scored off an offensive board and Williams scored a layup in transition to push Michigan’s lead to 23-17 at the 9:20 mark.
As both teams continued to search for some offensive consistency, the Wolverines hit a rough patch. They missed seven straight shots and slogged through a four-minute scoreless stretch until freshman guard Kobe Bufkin snapped the drought with a 3-pointer.
Green, though, seemingly couldn’t miss and single-handedly prevented Michigan from gaining any sort of momentum. He scored eight straight for UCF and trimmed the deficit to three before Michigan used a dunk and offensive tip-in from Dickinson to push the lead to seven en route to a 35-31 halftime lead.
