ANN ARBOR, Mich. – HBU fought hard on the defensive end and held a big advantage on the boards but it wasn’t enough to lift them past the three-point shooting and defense of 15th-ranked Michigan on Friday night at Crisler Arena as the Huskies fell, 77-55.
HBU opened up the scoring with a basket from Wendell Preadom nearly a minute and a half in to the game. HBU then built its’ lead to 8-3 thanks to five-straight points from Mario Flaherty. Michigan cut it to one but the Huskies pushed it back to five on an Andrew Gonzalez layup. HBU kept the lead until Michigan tied it up going in to the media timeout with 7:42 left in the half. The Huskies held their final lead at the 7:15 mark and the game was tied 20-20 with 5:53 on the clock. Michigan went on a 10-2 run to go ahead by eight and the Wolverines pushed their lead as high as 12, taking a 41-29 lead in to the half.
In the second half, Michigan got an early basket but with a couple of stops and buckets by Flaherty and Remy Boswell cut the lead to 10. Michigan was able to build on that lead and it got to as many as 28. After trailing by 28, HBU scored seven-straight points to cut it 70-49.
Flaherty had another big night for the Huskies, finishing with 17 points and a career-high 13 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. The HBU big man fought constant double-teams down low and went 6-14 from the field. He was also 5-8 at the foul line and dished out three assists. On the boards, nine of his 13 rebounds came on the offensive end and he led all players on the boards. Flaherty leads HBU with 13.8 points per game and 10 rebounds per game.
Gonzalez finished the night with 14 points on 5-13 shooting and he went 2-4 from three-point range. Boswell, a sophomore, reached double-digits on the boards with 10 while adding eight points. Preadom had six for HBU while Miles Dixon and Khris Roy each added four. Michael Moss had just two points but pitched in with seven rebounds.
Michigan primarily used a two-pronged attack on offense with Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims accounting for 47 points combined. Sims, a 6-8 post was 5-8 from three-point range.
HBU held a 52-39 advantage on the boards, including 18 offensive rebounds as a team. The Huskies shot 34.4 percent (22-64) from the field and 21.4 percent (3-14) from beyond the arc. HBU held Michigan to just 26-71 (36.6 percent) for the game and 10-28 (35.7 percent) from three-point range. UM forced the Huskies in to 24 turnovers while being careful with the ball themselves and committing just seven turnovers.
HBU falls to 0-4 and will take on Northwestern State in Natchitoches, La. on Tuesday at 7:45 pm.
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