Michigan basketball hangs on to beat Maryland, advances to Big Ten Championship Game
Michigan basketball got double revenge on Purdue after losing to the Boilermakers in West Lafayette earlier in the season. The Wolverines not only took them down in Ann Arbor, but ousted them in the Big Ten Tournament on Friday night. Now, the maize and blue have an opportunity to take down yet another team they lost to just 10 days ago.
3-seed Michigan paired up against 2-seed Maryland -- a team it lost to by six points on March 5 -- in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals with an opportunity to play in the championship game on Sunday. Would the Wolverines be able to get it?
First half
The good news started with an early Tre Donaldson 3, showing he still has the stroke he showed on Friday after a month-plus of struggles. But the Wolverines also started out with some early fouls and miscues against the 'crab five' which included two early turnovers (Michigan had six total on Friday). Even still, the game was knotted at the first under-16 timeout at 10-all. Not much happened over the next four minutes, with Maryland scoring six and Michigan scoring four.
Maryland's defense continued to suffocate and the Wolverines found themselves with six turnovers early and down seven with just under 10 minutes to go in the first half. The Terps narrowly missed a 3 to stretch the lead to 10 but Michigan's excellent rebounding continued from Friday and it scored on the other end to cut the lead to five. At the under-eight, the deficit was just three.
Michigan tied the game at 25 at the six-and-a-half minute mark, and it was able to hang around despite star center Vlad Goldin only being 1-for-3 from the floor to that point. Nimari Burnett, also continuing a stellar stretch of play, had a nice finish at the rim to get the Wolverines to a four-point advantage with 4:35 remaining in the first half -- a 9-0 run by the Wolverines. It was short-lived though, as Maryland went on a 7-0 run to take a three-point lead.
Minutes later, still down by three, Roddy Gayle Jr. hit a 3 (his first since January) to tie the game at 34. Goldin then posterized the Terps to go up by two with just under a minute left in the half. Gayle finished the half off with a dunk of his own on an alley-oop to close out the first half with a Michigan 38-34 advantage.
The Wolverines had several advantages on the stat sheet entering the second half. They had outrebounded Maryland 27-12, outshot the Terps 44% to 38%, had nine assists to four, and shot better from 3. However, it was the turnover differential, 9-3, that kept the game close for Maryland.
Second half
Vlad Goldin scored on the first possession and then again with an alley-oop on the ensuing possession to push the Wolverines to a game-high eight-point lead. He then blocked a Derik Queen dunk attempt and the maize and blue kept being aggressive, and just moments into the second half, Michigan was up 46-34.
After a timeout, Danny Wolf drained a 3 to push the lead up to 15 but Maryland responded in-kind on the next possession. By the under-16, thanks in large part to two more turnovers by the Wolverines, the Terrapins were on a 7-0 run and it was just an eight-point Michigan lead. Coming out of the timeout, it was just a five-point lead after a Maryland 3.
The Wolverines stemmed the bleeding after going on a 6-0 run of their own, capitalized with a Will Tschetter slam dunk to push the lead back to 11. It was 61-50 Michigan at the under-12 timeout. But a minute later, Derik Queen drew a foul on Roddy Gayle Jr. while scoring to cut the lead to eight. After another turnover by the maize and blue (their 15th) it was just a six-point game. With Queen hitting a 3, Maryland was on a 14-2 run and Michigan turned the ball over four times in under a three-minute span. Before you knew it, Michigan was down by one, just minutes after leading by 11. The Wolverines, with Tre Donaldson and Danny Wolf on the bench, had gone four minutes without scoring a single point.
The impasse was broken when Vlad Goldin was fouled on a rebound and was sent to the line. Minutes later, still having not scored from the floor in nearly six minutes, Danny Wolf got the lead back after going to the line and draining two free throws. But Rodney Rice took it right back for Maryland after knocking down a 3 with 5:49 remaining in the game. With 4:33 remaining, Goldin finally broke Michigan's near seven-minute drought from the floor, and he hit a 3 on the ensuing possession to give the Wolverines a three-point lead, 74-71, at the under-four media timeout.
At 2:58 remaining, it was a tie game at 74, and Maryland was still hot from the floor while Michigan was looking to get around the Terps' pesky defense. Vlad Goldin turned the ball over with an offensive foul, his fourth foul of the game. But Goldin ended up with a layup on the ensuing possession to put Michigan up by two with 1:52 remaining in the game.
The Wolverines held Maryland on the ensuing possession but an offensive foul on Danny Wolf gave Maryland the opportunity to tie it with 43 seconds remaining. But Tre Donaldson still had that stroke, and he hit a pivotal 3 with 28 seconds remaining. The Wolverines would need to close out defensively to hold on.
Julian Reese drove the lane to hit a layup and cut the lead to one. They quickly fouled Danny Wolf who missed the front end of the one-and-one. The Terps would have seven seconds to win outright with a made shot, and the Wolverines would have that same amount of time to keep them from scoring. Rubin Jones ended up fouling (out), putting Derik Queen on the line. He hit both shots, so now the maize and blue would have five seconds to win it.
And they made good on it with a Tre Donaldson going end to end for a game-winning layup -- and the Wolverines win, 81-80.
What's next?
Michigan will advance to the Big Ten Championship Game to face Wisconsin on Sunday.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Recap of Michigan basketball win over Maryland in Big Ten Tournament
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