Michigan Basketball Instant Recap: Wolverines Beat Creighton, 79-69
ANN ARBOR, MICH. — Michigan head coach Juwan Howard predicted an up and down game against Creighton Tuesday night. It played out that way early in a 79-69 win over the Bluejays, but a solid defensive second half was the difference in U-M's second straight win.
The Wolverines and Bluejays both got their shots up in the first five minutes. Creighton managed 12 in the first five minutes alone with the help of several offensive rebounds, taking a 10-8 lead before Michigan senior point guard Zavier Simpson tied it at 10 with a driving lay-up.
A pair of triples, one from junior wing Isaiah Livers and another from sophomore wing Adrien Nunez, helped keep pace with Creighton’s Mitch Ballock. He scored 11 of the Blue Jays’ first 13 points, including three bombs from long range.
U-M opened up a five-point lead at 11:49, 18-13, behind two more three-pointers, another from Livers and one from Simpson.
The Wolverines struggled to stay in front of the smaller Bluejays, giving up several looks at the rim. They stayed ahead with some hot shooting. Sophomore shooting guard David DeJulius impressed with a midrange jumper off the dribble and a stepback triple from the corner that would have been ill-advised had it not fallen, and Simpson nailed another three-pointer from the top of the key.
U-M opened it up to 31-23, but yet another offensive rebound putback and two lay-ups in transition off turnovers made it 31-29 at 5:45. Creighton had outrebounded the Wolverines 16-7 at that point, 9-0 on the offensive glass.
The Wolverines went zone after a second pick and roll dunk from Simpson to Teske, but Ty-Shon Alexander’s triple quickly busted it, cutting the lead to one. Creighton got the lead back, 34-33, at 3:15 on a short jumper by Marcus Zegarowski.
The two teams traded buckets the rest of the half, the Bluejays earning a few more for a 41-38 halftime lead. The smaller Jays dominated the glass, 23-10, and finished the half with 12 more shots than the Wolverines, making 18 of 40.
Livers led U-M with 11 points in 18 minutes, while Simpson added eight.
SECOND HALF
Michigan came out swinging, getting four points at the rim from Simpson and a Livers jumper to open the scoring. Livers gave it back, falling asleep on a backdoor cut, but another Simpson drive and finish pushed the lead back to three.
The Wolverines started to get it going offensively. Brook hit a corner triple, and Livers scored five points on a pull-up jumper and a three-pointer. The latter gave U-M its biggest lead, 56-50; it was 56-52 at 11:45, but 60-52 on two DeJulius free throws and a steal and alley-oop from Brooks to Livers in transition.
They kept the foot on the gas. A diving steal by Livers led to two inside for sophomore Brandon Johns, and Simpson’s drive and finish made it 64-55, giving the Wolverines their biggest lead.
Creighton responded with a 4-0 run of its own, but U-M went to a three-guard lineup down the stretch and Simpson found Teske rolling again, and-one, to make it 67-59 at 5:42. Another and-one, this one Brooks to Teske, pushed it back to nine, 70-61 at 4:17, and the Wolverines just needed to finish.
The Bluejays kept coming. They scored four straight and got the ball back on a turnover when DeJulius stepped out of bounds with 3:14 remaining. The Wolverines got the stop and Teske scored in the post with a lefty finish to push the lead back to seven. Simpson found Teske again inside for a short half-hook after another stop, and the Wolverines finished it from the line.
Livers led the way with 22 points, including four triples, while Simpson and Teske added 17 points each.
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our newsletter, The Wolverine Now
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine, Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook