Michigan showed no signs of a pre-holiday letdown as they thumped Coppin State 76-46 on Tuesday night. DeShawn Sims and Stu Douglass fueled a 20-2 run in the first half as Michigan pulled away from the Eagles. Manny Harris said that Stu Douglass gave Michigan a spark in the first half. He did so by finally exorcising the shooting demon that has been haunting him. Douglass knocked down 4 of 7 three-pointers in the first half. While he was staggering Coppin State from the outside with those triples, DeShawn Sims was delivering the knock-out blow in the paint. Peedi was chewing up the Eagles on the baseline with spin moves and turn-around jumpers.
Stu Douglass
Michigan coasted into the half with a 41-18 lead and the game was pretty much over. Douglass, who started for the second straight game, led Michigan with 20 points and drained 6 of 10 from beyond the arc. He also dished out 5 assists and only turned the ball over once.
Manny Harris only scored 5 points but did drop a game high 7 dimes on his teammates. Sims finished the game with 18 points and 5 rebounds. Laval Lucas-Perry scored 10 points (all in the first half) and grabbed a career and team high 6 rebounds to go along with 3 assists and 2 steals.
“As far as our shooting woes, I don’t think 33% answers the question but, its double what we did at Kansas” said John Beilein. “It’s a step in the right direction. The key, I think, today was holding them to 33% both ways.” The Eagles were 33% from the field and 33% on three-pointers.
“Hopefully we got [rid of] part of that shooting flu, game flu, or whatever we’ve had at different times” Beilein said. “Hopefully this was a bit of the shot in the arm to help us with that. Coppin isn’t Kansas, but I thought we came out and played with a lot of that same energy.” Beilein was also pleased with the fact that Michigan had 25 assists on 30 made field goals for an outstanding 83% ratio.
Zack Novak finally drained a triple after starting the game 0-6 on three-pointers. That three also snapped a 0-17 streak for Novak and was his first triple since December 2nd against Boston College. Novak was in good spirits after the game as he discussed the shooting slump. “There was only one [three-pointer] where I was like, alright that’s not in. Every single other one I was like this is it, this is it” said Novak. “One literally went in the basket [and popped out], I don’t know what happened.” Novak still chipped in 11 points and hauled down 5 rebounds.
Notes
- Michigan shot 49% from the field and they only turned the ball over 8 times.
- Manny was held to single digits for the first time since last season’s Big Ten Tournament semifinal against Illinois (March 13, 2009).
- The win over Coppin State was Michigan’s 500th at Crisler Arena. The Wolverines are 500-137 all-time in the building.
- In my game preview I predicted Michigan would win 76-54. The final score was 76-46
Next: Michigan will practice Wednesday morning and the players will head home for Christmas and be off until Sunday.
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