With 2:08 to go in a tight Big Ten contest at Crisler Center between Michigan and Penn State, the Nittany Lions led by five after two Ace Baldwin Jr. free throws extended the road team's lead.

The Michigan crowd was as quiet as it had been all evening — which is saying a lot — as the Wolverines were trending toward their third loss in the last four games.

But then Tre Donaldson happened.

On Michigan's first possession after Baldwin's free throws, Donaldson found a cutting Roddy Gayle Jr. for an easy dunk to cut the lead to three.

Baldwin turned the ball over on Penn State's ensuing possession, and Donaldson then connected on a mid-range jumper — a rare shot taken in Dusty May's style of offense. Michigan trailed by one with 56 seconds to go.

Back on the other end of the floor, with Penn State looking to extend its lead, Danny Wolf blocked Penn State's Nick Kern's layup attempt, and the ball found its way to Donaldson once again.

The Michigan point guard carried the ball up the floor and, without passing, created his own 3-point shot and drilled it.

Baldwin missed his own 3-point shot just seconds later, and Donaldson connected on two free throws with four seconds left to give the Wolverines a stunning 76-72 victory.

With Vlad Goldin only playing 17 minutes due to an illness, Donaldson stepped up in his absence.

"We talk about it all the time," Donaldson said after the game. "I'm going to have a bad game, Danny (Wolf) is going to have a bad game, Vlad (Goldin) is going to have a bad game, but us dudes just have to have each other's backs. We talked about it all the time. And I was there to have his back tonight. And that's what teammates do. And I feel like if we continue to do that, it's going to be hard to stop us if we continue to play physical like we did tonight, continue to do the little things like take care of the ball."

Donaldson went on a personal 7-0 run in the last 56 seconds of the game to keep Michigan from losing three of its last four games and near the top of the Big Ten standings.

"It meant so much to me. ... Going into Purdue game — a loss like that — it was just something that we needed," Donaldson said. "I was just happy that I get an opportunity to do it for these guys. It was just exciting."

Had Michigan lost, the Wolverines would have fallen to 14-6 on the season and 6-3 in the conference — a striking fall off from the 5-0 start the Wolverines jumped out to in conference play.

But with the win, Michigan still has a leg up on many of the league's second-tier teams. At the time of this writing, the Wolverines hold a one-game lead over fourth-place Wisconsin and a 1.5-game lead over the three teams (Maryland, UCLA, Illinois) tied for fifth.

When asked if the win was a season-saver, Donaldson was reluctant to go that far

"I wouldn't say a season-saver. We went to Purdue and got beat. We got beat bad. It's just part of it. We know who we are. That was just out of character, I would say. They've got to come and play us again, so we're looking forward to that. But it was just all about response. It was just all about how can we respond to the game? Everything's not going to go right."

Instead, Donaldson called the win over Penn State a "booster."

"I feel like we've continued to protect our home court and continued to steal some games on the road. We've still got a chance at this. I don't think it was a season-saver at all. I think it was a booster. It was a step in the right direction of where we need to be, because we hold ourselves to a high standard."

Michigan will take the court again on Saturday, Feb. 1 at Jersey Mike's Arena in Piscataway, New Jersey against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET, and the game will air on FOX.

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