Instant Recap: Michigan 69, Minnesota 60
Michigan kept its Big Ten titles hopes alive and well this evening, picking up a huge 69-60 victory at Minnesota.
Here's how it all unfolded:
First Half
Michigan's offense got off to a hot start tonight with junior center Jon Teske pouring in the club's first four points, resulting in a 4-4 tie at the 17-minute mark.
Sophomore guard Jordan Poole broke a 6-6 deadlock when he knocked down a three to give the Wolverines a 9-6 lead, and that's where things stood at the under-16 timeout.
Freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis joined the party with a three of his own to make the score 12-6 at 14:30, and the offensive barrage continued with a driving layup from Poole to give the Maize and Blue a 14-6 edge with 12:34 to go in the half.
A triple from junior point guard Zavier Simpson capped off an 11-0 run and made the score 17-6 at the under-12 timeout.
U-M's defense was also doing its job up to the point, holding the Gophers to a 3-of-15 start from the floor.
Minnesota broke Michigan's run and cut it to 17-10, but Poole answered immediately with a three to put the Maize and Blue back up 20-10 with 9:10 to go.
The score was 22-14 at the under-eight timeout, and then a massive scoring drought occurred for both teams — the next bucket didn't occur until 4:30, when Teske threw down a thunderous alley-oop dunk from redshirt junior guard Charles Matthews to make the score 24-14.
Poole connected on a triple with 45 seconds remaining in the half to give the Wolverines a 28-16 advantage, but Gopher freshman center Daniel Oturu tipped in a miss at the buzzer to trim his team's deficit to 28-18. The play was reviewed, but stood.
Second Half
The Maize and Blue offense came out on fire in the second half.
A driving layup from 6-8 Minnesota junior guard Amir Coffey made the score 28-20 to start the half, but Brazdeikis answered with an and-1 to extend it to 30-20 (he missed the free throw). The infraction was also the third foul on Gopher senior big man Jordan Murphy.
A layup from Poole in transition stretched U-M's edge to 35-20 at 17:30, and Teske gave Michigan its biggest lead of the night up to that point when he connected on a triple to make it 40-22 at the under-16 timeout.
The lead grew to 20 for the first time on two Matthews free throws at the 13:50 mark, and then to 21 (50-29) when sophomore forward Isaiah Livers nailed a three from the top of the key at 11:50.
The Gophers went on a run of their own after that though — freshman guard Gabe Kalscheur hit a three to make it 53-38 at 8:20, and that was followed by a steal and easy dunk from senior guard Dupree McBrayer to trim his club's deficit to 53-40 at the 7:54 mark.
The Minneapolis crowd was then ignited and back into the game.
Matthews quieted them, however, when he connected on a corner triple to stretch Michigan's advantage back to 58-43 at 5:25.
After Minnesota cut it to 58-47, Teske killed any hopes of a Gopher comeback by nailing threes on two straight U-M possessions, with the second one putting the Wolverines up 64-47 with 3:30 to go.
Simpson continued his hot free throw shooting when he converted two straight to make it 68-52 with 1:30 left, but the Wolverines finished the game a bit sloppy when they fouled two Gopher three-point shooters.
The end result was a 69-60 win, however, which sets up a monstrous showdown with Michigan State on Sunday afternoon at Crisler.
U-M held Minnesota to just 37.3 percent shooting this evening, including a 1-of-10 mark from behind the arc.
On the flip side, Poole led all scorers with 22 points (including 5-of-10 from deep), while Teske tied his career-high with 17 points.
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