The Michigan basketball program had an opportunity to raise some eyebrows at the Legends Classic. Instead, they may be hoping few fans were watching during the holiday weekend.
The Wolverines followed up their narrow loss to Syracuse on Friday night with a 65-56 loss to UTEP in the tournament’s consolation game at Atlantic City, NJ.
The game was tied 29-29 at halftime, but UTEP scored the first 13 points of the second half to pull away. Meanwhile, Michigan went 13 minutes without a field goal, spanning the end of the first half to the 8:35 point of the second half. The Wolverines missed 12 shots during that stretch.
Randy Culpepper, the reigning Conference USA player of the year, led the Miners with 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting. Michigan’s leading scorer was Darius Morris, who finished with 20 points, shooting 8-of-11. Zack Novak added 10 points.
After winning their first three games of the season, Michigan has now lost two straight. The Wolverines will visit Clemson on Tuesday night.