Instant Recap: Michigan Wolverines Basketball 56, Holy Cross 37
First Half
The first half couldn't have been much uglier for Michigan this evening.
Freshman forward Iggy Brazdeikis got the scoring started with two free throws at the 17:08 mark, but fans soon found out that points would be hard to come by.
U-M got off to a disappointing 3-of-10 start from the floor, and Holy Cross held an 11-9 lead at the 13:28 juncture.
The Crusaders increased their edge to 18-9 with 11:11 to go in the half on a hot 7-of-12 shooting start.
U-M, meanwhile, was only 3-of-12 at that point, with redshirt junior guard Charles Matthews (five points) and Brazdeikis (four) the only two Wolverines who had scored.
A corner triple from Matthews with 9:23 to go cut the deficit to 18-14, and that's where things stood at the under-8 timeout.
The Maize and Blue only tacked on two more points before the under-4 timeout, and trailed 22-16 (Matthews had 10 of the 16).
One free throw each from sophomore guard Jordan Poole and sophomore forward Isaiah Livers made it 24-18, and that's where things stood at the break.
Second Half
The second half began as the Iggy Brazdeikis show.
He got the scoring started with a driving layup to trim Holy Cross' lead to 24-20, and made a corner three at 18:38 to cut the deficit to one at 26-25.
The Wolverines knotted the score at 30-30 on a Brazdeikis layup at 16:50, and finally grabbed a 32-30 lead on two of his free throws moments later.
They never looked back from that point on.
Two more Brazdeikis free throws stretched the lead to 36-30 at 15:11, before a monstrous dunk from junior center Jon Teske made it 38-30 at 14:47.
A Matthews floater in the lane increased the scoring barrage to 40-30, and that's where things stood at the under-12 timeout.
The Wolverines held a 46-32 advantage at the under-eight break, and were outscoring Holy Cross in the second half, 28-8, at that juncture.
Consecutive free throws from Livers made it 48-32 with 7:38 to go, while Matthews made it 50-32 with a baseline jumper moments later.
Holy Cross went on a quick 5-0 run to make it 50-37, but the Crusaders never got any closer than that.
Head coach John Beilein inserted freshmen Adrien Nunez, Brandon Johns and David DeJulius into the game for the first time in the contest's final minute, and Michigan came out with a 56-37 victory.
The Wolverines outscored Holy Cross, 38-13, in the second half, while Matthews led all scorers with 20 points.
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