Michigan basketball drops first game of the season to Seton Hall

The Michigan Wolverines lost their first game of the season to the Seton Hall Pirates in the Gavitt Tipoff Games Tuesday night, falling 67-65 at home. Hunter Dickinson and Eli Brooks led the way for Michigan scoring 18 and 17, but it wasn’t enough in the end to pull out the victory. Seton Hall had three players in double figures, Jared Rhoden led the way with 16 points while Bryce Aiken and Tray Jackson both had 13.

Michigan’s defense did a good job in the first half of forcing Seton Hall into tough shots, but the Pirates were hitting enough of them to stay in the game. Michigan was dominating down low, but struggled with the outside shot, going 0-7 from 3. The first half was tight all the way through and ended with Michigan taking a 31-28 lead into the break.

Michigan had an uncharacteristically poor shooting night from beyond the arc, starting 0-11 and finishing just 3-15 from three. Despite the low shooting percentage from three, Michigan had control of the game for most of the second half and led by 11 with 14:46 remaining, its largest lead of the game. Terrance Williams sunk a three with 8:49 remaining to put Michigan up by nine, but Seton Hall began to slowly chip away after that before taking their first lead, 63-62, with 1:15 left in the game.

Juwan Howard said Michigan got the looks they wanted down the stretch, but couldn’t capitalize on the chances they got. With Michigan down 64-62 in the final seconds of the game, Terrance Williams was fouled and went to line with a chance to tie the game. He missed the first free throw and then banked the second one in when he was trying to miss to give the Wolverines a rebound attempt, and the game was over after that.

Michigan looks to bounce back from its first loss this weekend as the team heads to Las Vegas for the Roman Main Event. Michigan faces UNLV on Saturday morning (or Friday night if you want to call it that) at 12:30 a.m. Michigan will face either Wichita State or Arizona on Saturday.