Ohio State vs. Michigan: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 Regular Season

One team was nationally ranked during Michigan's 64-57 victory over Ohio State, and the other was a borderline NIT contender that was stuck in a five-game losing streak.  

You would have never guessed which squad was which during the actual game.

The struggling Wolverines ended their losing streak by jumping all over the Buckeyes in the first half to establish a 16-point lead at intermission. They put it on cruise control for much of the second half, although Ohio State did make a late push behind full-court pressure and a solid effort on the glass.

Zak Irvin and Spike Albrecht led the way for the Wolverines with a combined 31 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and four steals.

D'Angelo Russell spearheaded the Buckeyes' attack with 16 points, although he only shot 6-of-15 from the field and turned the ball over five times. It was the second consecutive game that Russell struggled, which is detrimental to the Ohio State offense.

As Tim Shoemaker of Eleven Warriors noted, the Buckeyes got some bad news before the game even started:

The worst part about that from Ohio State's perspective was that disappointing center Amir Williams had to start the game. The Wolverines took advantage of his lackluster defense early to build a 9-2 lead in the opening few minutes, as Ari Wasserman of Cleveland.com pointed out:

Michigan continued to add to its first-half lead thanks to impressive play from Irvin. Brendan F. Quinn of MLive Media Group praised Irvin's performance, while Sam Vecenie of CBS Sports tried to offer a solution for the Buckeyes:

"

Ohio State needs to just lock Sam Thompson on Irvin the rest of the day. This isn’t tough.

— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) February 22, 2015"

Things only got worse for Ohio State as the first half went on as Albrecht got hot from downtown, per CBS Sports:

Bob Baptist of The Columbus Dispatch pointed out exactly what all Ohio State fans were probably thinking when the Wolverines pulled ahead 28-11:

Michigan rode that momentum all the way to a shocking 39-23 halftime lead. Alex Gleitman of 247Sports blamed the Ohio State defense for the first half, which was understandable considering all the wide-open looks the Wolverines had at the rim during the opening 20 minutes:

It shouldn't have come as much surprise that the Wolverines came out ready to play given coach John Beilein's pregame comments, via Quinn of MLive:

"

I don't we're trying to knock anybody out of the tournament, but I think we are trying to just reestablish ourselves. When you play us, w're in there for all 40 minutes and we're going to give it everything we have. Despite the roster right now, we're going to give it everything we have and you're going to be in a dogfight.

"

The Buckeyes came out with some energy at the start of the second half and cut the deficit to 10. Wasserman and Clay Hall of ABC 6 in Columbus pointed out a couple of the things that were working for Thad Matta's team:

The spurt only lasted a couple minutes, though, as Michigan countered with a run of its own to stretch the lead back to 49-32. Jeremy Birmingham of Eleven Warriors noted that Ohio State's leader just didn't look like himself:

Michael DeCourcy of Sporting News took a different approach and offered some praise for Albrecht:

Much to the crowd's chagrin, the Buckeyes didn't just roll over and play out the rest of the game. They made a strong push in the middle of the second half to cut the lead to single digits at 49-40, thanks to better rebounding and more effort on the defensive side.

One reason for the push was better play from Russell during a two-minute stretch, as DeCourcy acknoweldged:

While the Buckeyes cut into the lead because of Russell's offense, the Wolverines also went ice cold on the offensive end. Quinn highlighted the struggles:

Baptist noted that Ohio State's defense also had something to do with Michigan's scoring drought, but Shoemaker passed along a reaction to a monumentally important three-pointer for the Wolverines:

The teams traded baskets until there was less than four minutes to go, but Shoemaker highlighted an ongoing problem for Ohio State during its comeback attempt:

Michigan certainly deserves some credit for the way it simply out-hustled the Buckeyes to almost every loose ball and rebound late in the second half. Were it not for that effort, Ohio State likely would have overtaken the Wolverines at around the five-minute mark.

The Buckeyes didn't help themselves with three consecutive misses at the free-throw line in the course of one possession when they were down six. When Michigan scored to push the lead to eight with a minute remaining after the deflating free throws, the game was essentially over.

Eric Seger of TheOZone.net summarized the proceedings:

The fans couldn't go home until a final minute that seemed to last forever after the referees had to go to the replay monitor multiple times for close calls. None of them went Ohio State's way, though, and the Wolverines iced the contest away at the free-throw line.

The Buckeyes may have made a push, but the Wolverines controlled the game from the opening tip and came away with a much-needed 64-57 win after five straight losses.

What's Next? 

Tony Ding/Associated Press

Ohio State returns home for a date with Nebraska Thursday against a Cornhuskers team that had NCAA tournament aspirations heading into the season but is a disappointing 5-9 in the Big Ten. All of a sudden, that game will take on more importance for the Buckeyes considering they are not a lock for the tournament and just lost to a horrible Michigan squad Sunday.

They will need much more urgency in front of their home fans than they showed against their archrivals.

As for the Wolverines, the road doesn't get much easier when they go to Maryland Saturday. They stopped the bleeding from the five-game losing streak against Ohio State Sunday, and now they will look to parlay some late season victories into an NIT berth.