Michigan basketball pounces on Purdue for first Big Ten semifinal appearance since 2021
INDIANAPOLIS — Leading into this week’s Big Ten tournament, Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May all but put the onus for the Wolverines reversing their three-game slide on guard Tre Donaldson.
In Friday’s quarterfinal matchup with Purdue, Donaldson delivered.
The first-year transfer from Auburn scored 10 points in the second half at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, sending the third-seeded Wolverines to an 86-68 victory over the sixth-seeded Boilermakers for their first Big Ten semifinal appearance since 2021 and keeping alive their hopes of going from worst to first in the conference tourney in a season’s time.
Donaldson finished with 13 points, point-forward Danny Wolf chipped in a team-high 18 points, 11 rebounds and six assists and big Vlad Goldin added 15 points and eight rebounds as Michigan broke open a close game at the half with a 12-5 run over the opening 4:06 of the second.
The Wolverines shot better than 60% in the second half despite struggling from 3-point range again.
Wolf-ing down the Boilermakers
Wolf picked up where he left off Sunday against Michigan State. In that game, a Michigan loss, Wolf closed with 15 points in the second half in East Lansing. On Friday in Indianapolis, he opened the first 20 minutes with nine points on 4-for-6 shooting, pulled down five rebounds and added three assists while turning it over just once.
Wolf also hit one of his two 3-point attempts. His fellow Wolverines weren’t nearly as adroit behind the 3-point line, making just three of 13 tries (23.1%); Tre Donaldson and Nimari Burnett each went 1-for-4 on 3s, and Rubin Jones added the other 3 in his lone attempt. Freshman L.J. Cason missed both of his first-half attempts, as did Roddy Gayle Jr.
The Wolverines took some time to warm up, with their first basket coming on a Burnett jumper two minutes in, with U-M trailing 6-0. Burnett then buried a 3 on the fastbreak to kickstart a 10-0 run that put the Wolverines in control. Later in the half, Wolf and fellow 7-footer Vlad Goldin contributed three points apiece to a 6-0 run; Wolf knoked down a 3 with 3:55 left in the half, and 45 seconds later, Goldin had a layup and a foul for a three-point play to make it 38-28.
But the Boilermakers climbed back late with a 10-2 run over the final 2:58 to make it a four-point game at the break.
Next up for U-M
U-M faces second-seeded Maryland in the second semifinal Saturday (approximately 3:30 p.m., CBS); the Wolverines fell to the Terps, 71-65, in their home finale in Ann Arbor on March 5. The winner of Saturday’s semifinal faces the winner of the early game between top-seeded Michigan State and fifth-seeded Wisconsin in Sunday afternoon’s championship game.
This story will be updated shortly.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball barrels past Purdue, into Big Ten semifinals
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