For the first time in quite some time, Michigan faced a true road test in a hostile environment.
The No. 24 Wolverines failed miserably and completely fell apart in the second half as they were run out of the Dean Smith Center in a 72-51 loss to North Carolina in Wednesday’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchup.
Freshman forward Moussa Diabate made his first career start, replacing senior forward Brandon Johns Jr. in the starting lineup, and finished with 13 points. Fifth-year senior guard Eli Brooks added 11 points for Michigan (4-3), which was outscored 43-24 in the second half and shot 35.1% from the field (20-for-57).
Caleb Love scored 22, Dawson Garcia added 14 and Armando Bacot had 11 points and 14 rebounds for North Carolina (5-2), which shot 58.1% from the field (18-for-31) after halftime.
After a tight first half that saw neither team lead by more than five, things started to get away from Michigan out of the break. North Carolina went right at sophomore center Hunter Dickinson and he picked up his third and fourth fouls on the same possession less than two minutes into the second half.
With Dickinson on the bench, the Tar Heels attacked the paint and used a pair of three-point plays – the second coming on an offensive rebound and putback – to take a 37-31 lead with 16:54 remaining.
From there, the margin continued to grow as Michigan’s offense went cold and missed nine consecutive shots. North Carolina took advantage and kept pushing, using a 3-pointer and offensive putback from Garcia to make it 46-35 at the 12:19 mark.
Johns snapped a four-minute scoring drought with a 3-pointer at 9:54 mark, but it only temporarily stopped the bleeding as things continued to get worse. Love threw down an emphatic dunk and drained back-to-back 3-pointers to spark an overwhelming 20-5 flurry that put the game well out of reach.
By the time Love ended the run with another jumper at the 3:51 left, the Wolverines found themselves in a 68-43 hole that it never came close to climbing out of.
It was a struggle out of the gates for Michigan and North Carolina. Over the first four minutes, the Wolverines turned it over five times, gave up four offensive rebounds and Dickinson and Diabate each picked up an early foul. The Tar Heels didn’t fare much better, missing eight of 10 shots before the first media timeout.
Diabate showed why he deserved to be in the starting lineup and came out on fire, making his first five shots as he and freshman forward Caleb Houstan combined for 19 of Michigan’s first 21 points. Diabate backed down a defender and finished with left hook to give Michigan a 9-8 lead with 13:00 left.
Diabate followed that up by draining a 3-pointer from the left wing. Then after Houstan drained his second 3-pointer, Diabate continued to be a handful in one-on-one situations. He scored another bucket at the rim and knocked down a mid-range jumper during an 8-2 spurt that put Michigan ahead, 23-18, at the 5:37 mark.
But Michigan sputtered down the stretch of the back-and-forth opening half and fell behind as it got little production from grad transfer guard DeVante’ Jones and Dickinson. Love capped a 7-0 run with a 3-pointer in the final seconds to give North Carolina a 29-27 lead at the break.
