The Wolverines won at Illinois this evening, 79-69, and in the process tied their best start in school history at 16-0.
U-M never trailed against the Illini this evening, but the Orange and Blue still managed to hang around for most of the game.
Here's how it all went down:
First Half
Michigan got off to a hot start tonight in Champaign, with sophomore forward Isaiah Livers returning from injury and grabbing the game's first basket on a short jumper at the 18:56 mark.
A three from junior point guard Zavier Simpson stretched Michigan's lead to 5-0 on the team's next possession, and an impressive and-one under the rim from freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis made it 8-0 with 17:49 to go.
Livers' impressive return continued when he converted an and-one of his own to make it 12-4 at 15:59 — in fact, the sophomore scored seven of the team's first 17 points.
Michigan stretched its lead to 20-11 at the 12:10 mark, signaling its biggest advantage of the night up to that point.
Illinois immediately went on a run, though, trimming it to 20-17 on an impressive layup in transition from freshman guard Ayo Dosonmu with 10:30 to go.
U-M led 24-19 at the under-eight timeout, and stretched it back to 28-19 on a thunderous dunk from junior center Jon Teske at 6:25.
A fun sequence for U-M then occurred when sophomore guard Jordan Poole nailed a three after Illini head coach Brad Underwood thought Simpson had double-dribbled, leading to a heave of the coat from the Illinois head man and a subsequent technical foul.
Poole converted both free throws with 3:42 to go, giving Michigan a 36-25 lead.
Dosonmu then capped off an incredible first half that saw him score 19 points when he nailed a deep three with just eight seconds left, and U-M took a 39-34 lead into the break.
The Wolverines shot 46.4 percent for the first half, but allowed Illinois to convert on 50 percent of its attempts.
The Maize and Blue dominated on the glass, however, outrebounding the Illini, 21-11, but uncharacteristically committed 11 turnovers.
Second Half
Michigan grabbed some of the momentum back early in the second half when Teske nailed a triple at 17:55 to extend Michigan's lead back to 44-37.
Simpson kept the momentum on U-M's side when he converted a layup in transition to make it 46-37 a minute later.
Illinois refused to go away, however, and trimmed the Maize and Blue's edge to 49-44 when senior guard Aaron Jordan made a triple with 13:40 left in the game.
Michigan answered, though, stretching its lead back to 55-44 on a monstrous two-handed slam from redshirt junior guard Charles Matthews in the club's half-court offense with 11:50 remaining.
Matthews threw down yet another massive two-handed dunk on the club's next possession, maintaining U-M's 11-point lead at 57-46.
Michigan held a 61-49 edge at the under-eight timeout, and all but put the game away when Livers threw down a huge one-handed dunk on an outlet pass to make it 68-46 with 3:42 remaining.
Matthews recorded yet another dunk to make it 72-60 when Michigan got the ball up court quickly with the Illini pressuring and just 50 seconds left, and Brazdeikis and Dosonmu were each issued double technical fouls after a brief scuffle with just 12 seconds to go.
It was a balanced offensive attack for the Maize and Blue tonight, with five players scoring in double figures — Simpson (16), Brazdeikis (15), Matthews (14), Teske (13) and Poole (10).
U-M also had an advantage on the glass this evening, outrebounding Illinois, 38-30.
Perhaps the most encouraging sign of all, though, was Michigan's free throw shooting. The Wolverines connected on 18 of their 22 attempts (81.8 percent), led by Poole's 5-of-6 mark.
Michigan will next try to set the best all-time start to a season in school history on Sunday night when it takes on Northwestern at 7:30.
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