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The scoreboard far behind the Conseco Fieldhouse basket during Michigan’s Big Ten tournament quarterfinal wasn’t changing.
“It was frustrating; it felt like we didn’t score for like 10 minutes or something,” said Harris, Michigan’s freshman guard. “It was at 44 for so long.”
How long? More than 10 minutes. Twelve missed shots. Three turnovers. That long.
Yet, after Thursday’s game, the ninth-seeded Wolverines were smiling. They had a 55-47 victory over Iowa and a third chance to beat top seed Wisconsin at noon today.
After a season of disappointment and lost leads, Michigan held on Thursday by playing its most impressive defense of the season to supplement Manny Harris’ 19 points.
No. 8 seed Iowa was worse than U-M (10-21), going nearly 16 second-half minutes without a field goal.
Iowa guards Tony Freeman (nine points) and Justin Johnson (five) were shut down all game by the defense. That kept the Hawkeyes’ three-point shot out of play; Iowa (13-19) went 0-for-10 from three-point range after halftime and shot just 20% from the field.
“It doesn’t take a very astute basketball individual to figure out if you go 2-for-17 in three-pointers and struggle from the line, that you would be amazed it’s an eight-point game,” Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said. “I’m surprised it was an eight-point game. (Michigan) got on a run early. We couldn’t stop them. We missed early, and then from there it was fairly even.”

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