EVANSTON, ILL. — Michigan started slowly yet again on the road, missing its first 11 shots, almost all of them at the rim. Senior center Jon Teske missed all five within three feet, most badly, but the bench responded to lead U-M to a 79-54 road win over Northwestern.
The Wolverines trailed 4-0 at the first TV timeout and wouldn’t score until junior Eli Brooks hit a corner triple at 14:51. Fortunately for U-M, the Wildcats weren’t much better, making two of their first six. U-M seemed content to try to drop it inside to Teske and play inside out, but they couldn’t get it working.
Senior point guard Zavier Simpson’s second foul, an offensive one, sent him to the bench for the last 12 minutes of the half.
Redshirt junior Austin Davis replaced Teske and U-M picked it up on offense. Davis dunked inside and Brooks hit his third triple to tie it at 13. Freshman Franz Wagner’s triple made it 16-13 Wolverines at 10:56, putting the Maize and Blue up for the first time despite shooting only 24 percent from the floor.
Davis continued to provide a spark. He scored twice more inside and put up seven points before Teske replaced him.
Sophomore David DeJulius gave Michigan its biggest lead, 26-18, on a triple off the dribble at 6:11. Sophomore Brandon Johns made it an even 10 with a post and finish at the five-minute mark, and U-M started to open it up. They got good minutes from sophomore Adrien Nunez, and Livers scored five points on three free throws and a cut and finish to make it 38-23 Wolverines at the half.
Livers and Brooks finished with nine points each and Davis seven to lead the scoring. U-M shot 41.9 percent from the floor after starting 0-for-11 and 1-for-14, making 5-of-11 triples and 12 of their last 17 shots.
U-M held the Wildcats to only 8-for-26 shooting, 2-for-8 from long range.
SECOND HALF
Northwestern opened the second-half scoring with a pair of free throws, but the Wolverines ran great sets to get very good looks. Livers scored inside and Brooks set up Teske for a dunk, and Wagner’s steal led to a Simpson breakaway layup, a 44-25 lead and a Wildcats timeout at 17:49.
A transition dunk by Livers from Simpson gave U-M its biggest lead, 52-29 at the 13-minute mark.
Northwestern chipped away and cut it to 18, but a floater by Eli Brooks at the nine-minute mark kept the Wolverines comfortably ahead. Northwestern, however, went on a run. The Wildcats cut it to 58-45 at 7:35 on a sophomore forward Miller Kopp triple following another Teske miss inside, forcing head coach Juwan Howard to call timeout.
Livers missed a corner triple, and a freshman forward Robbie Beran free throw on the other end cut the lead to 12. As he has all year, Brooks came up with the clutch bucket to stop a run, a long triple from the top. Livers then scored four points, including two on a monster jam in transition, and the Wolverines were back up 65-48.
The Michigan fans in attendance, about 50 percent of the crowd, started the ‘Let’s Go Blue’ chant in full force as U-M closed in on victory.
Brooks and DeJulius both finished inside to push the lead back up to 18, 69-51, where it stood at 3:09. The Wolverines closed it out with good minutes from sophomore Colin Castleton (five points) off the bench, including a triple from frosh Cole Bajema, to improve to 6-7 in Big Ten play with seven games remaining.
Brooks led Michigan with 18 points and Livers added 17 in the win.
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