Michigan basketball cruises to 92-45 exhibition win over Northwood

Michigan Wolverines basketball was without head coach Juwan Howard for its exhibition game against D-II Northwood in front of a solid crowd, a 92-45 Wolverine win. Howard is recovering from a heart surgery he underwent Sept. 15, but his team performed well in its first game-like action of the season.

U-M had several injuries, as well. Graduate guard Jaelin Llewellyn is still out while recovering from a knee injury suffered last December, junior guard Jace Howard will miss four to six weeks with a stress fracture and sophomore guard Youssef Khayat did not play due to knee soreness.

Northwood went 2-26 last season and was picked to finish 13th in its conference by the media.

Michigan will take the floor to open the regular season next Tuesday (Nov. 7) for a date with UNC Asheville at Crisler Center.

Here’s a recap of how the exhibition unfolded:

First half

Michigan went with a starting lineup of sophomore guard Dug McDaniel, graduate guard Nimari Burnett, senior forward Terrance Williams II, graduate forward Olivier Nkamhoua and sophomore forward Tarris Reed Jr.

Michigan fired out to a 6-0 lead behind a trio of layups — two from Reed and one from sophomore guard McDaniel. The Wolverines led 13-4 at the under-16 timeout.

It took Michigan just over six minutes to grab a double-digit lead that it didn’t relent. The Wolverines led by 21 points with 5:47 to go in the half and Northwood didn’t make it any close than that at any point after, either.

Graduate forward Tray Jackson checked in off the bench at the 14-minute mark and started what was a big night for the Seton Hall transfer. He scored 9 first-half points with 3 made twos and a triple.

Freshman guard George Washington III flashed during a minute-stretch with under eight minutes to go in the half. He nailed a triple from the left wing, before finishing a nifty, contested transition layup to put the Maize and Blue up 32-14. They held a 34-13 advantage at the media timeout with 6:11 to go.

Northwood trailed 44-14 with 3:33 to go in the first half but was able to answer some scores down the stretch. The halftime score was 54-23 in favor of Michigan. Michigan shot 20-of-35 from the field and 8-of-14 from long range in the first half, holding Northwood to a 10-of-39 overall mark.

Second half

Michigan kept its momentum going in the second half, scoring the first nine points. Nkamhoua started off with a pair of dunks, and Jackson scored seven straight, including hitting another triple at the 17:08 mark. The Maize and Blue led 70-25 with 15:43 remaining. McDaniel went down after making a layup, which triggered the media timeout, but returned to the bench quickly instead of staying at the training table. McDaniel returned to the game a few minutes later.

Williams threw up a lob to Jackson, who finished over a defender, at the 14:20 mark, also drawing the foul and making the and-one free throw. That put the Wolverines up 73-25. Jackson finished with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from long range with 2 rebounds.

McDaniel, who wound up with 16 points, tripled to put Michigan ahead 82-27 at 11:49. That was the Wolverines’ 10th three-pointer of the night. Things came easily on both ends of the floor all evening long. At that point, Northwood was just 12-of-52 from the field (23 percent), including 1-of-14 from long range.

Michigan held an 82-32 advantage at the 9:49 media timeout, and 87-34 after a Tschetter three with 7:38 to play.

Michigan started to empty the bench with just over five minutes to go, inserting walk-ons into the game. Wsahington was the last scholarship player to stay on the floor. The Maize and Blue had the game firmly in hand.

U-M closed out a 92-45 victory, after the crowd went wild for a walk-on freshman Harrison Hochberg transition layup with just under a minute to go.

Reed did not play in the second half (either rest or minor ailment) but was on the bench in full uniform.

Here’s a look at the final box score.