By Josh Kleinbaum
Daily Sports Editor
WEST LAFAYETTE - The script has been around almost as long as Gene Keady has been at Purdue - only the set changes. The Michigan basketball team travels to another Big Ten school, falls behind by double digits early, makes a valiant comeback at the end of the game, but falls just short of actually winning it.
Saturday, the set was Mackey Arena. Michigan fell behind Purdue 20-6 in the first six minutes, was behind by as much as 19 early in the second half, battled back to within five with just more than four minutes left in the game, then let it slip away, losing 81-71.
The loss dropped Michigan to 1-6 in opponents buildings and 2-10 away from Crisler Arena.
"They got off to a big start and we were never able to recover," Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe said. "At some point, our basketball team has to make plays with the game on the line."
But Michigan (3-4 Big Ten, 9-11 overall) didn't make plays with the game on the line. In fact, it did just the opposite - a handful of turnovers and fouls towards the end of the game, including two costly errors by freshman forward Chris Young, just may have cost the Wolverines a shot at a valuable road win.
"We stopped ourselves," Ellerbe said. "We didn't fight through down screens, we travelled. In fundamental situations, we didn't come through."
With 7:46 to play in the game and Michigan trailing by seven, forward Brandan Smith stole a Jaraan Cornell pass and broke down the floor. As he went for an easy layup, Purdue's Carson Cunningham dragged Smith to the floor. Cunningham was called for an intentional foul. Smith hit both his free throws to cut the lead to five, and it looked as though momentum was swinging Michigan's way.
But on the ensuing inbounds pass, Young was called for a questionable pushing-off foul. Instead of getting a chance to cut the lead to three, Purdue hit a free throw on the other end to push it up to six.
From that point on, Michigan committed five more turnovers, resulting in seven Purdue points.
"We exert a lot of energy getting back into the game," Michigan guard Louis Bullock said. "It's tough getting over that final hump. Five points seems that much tougher when you've come back from 19 down."
But why does Michigan consistently fall behind on the road in the first place?
"We play hard, but we don't really start to concentrate until we're down," Bullock said. "If we could come out and concentrate like we do when we're down, we'll do a lot better."
The Wolverines were behind in this one before they knew what hit them. In the first minute and a half, Michigan committed two turnovers and one foul, leading to a 7-0 Purdue lead. The Wolverines cut it to 9-4 only to see the Boilermakers (3-3, 15-5) go on a 9-point run.
But lapses in concentration weren't limited to just the opening minutes. Three times in the first half, Purdue went on runs of six points or greater. Twice, Michigan had droughts of over 3 minutes from the field.
Offensively, the Wolverines shot just 30 percent from the field on the half, including 1-of-8 from beyond the arc. Their here-today, gone-tomorrow frontcourt decided not to show for this one, despite a distinct size advantage. Both center Pete Vignier and power forward Josh Asselin had at least three inches on any Purdue regular, but the two combined for just seven points.
But a few Wolverines did play well.
Brandon Smith had a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Robbie Reid had 16 for Michigan, including 11 in the first half. Bullock struggled shooting the ball - his 33 percent from the field is well below his average, and he hit just one of six from 3-point range - but he was able to get on the charity stripe 14 times, converting on 12 of them. He ended the game with 25 points, the most on either team.
DANA LINNANE/Daily
Not even Brandon Smith's career high of 15 points could help resurrect the Wolverines from a 19-point deficit to Purdue. Michigan came within five points, but the Boilermakers closed out the victory at Mackey Arena.