Game recap: Michigan basketball wins Big Ten opener at Minnesota
Michigan (6-3, 1-0 B1G) basketball started off the Big Ten slate of its schedule with a 90-75 win over Minnesota (4-5, 0-2 B1G) on Thursday night in Minneapolis. It was the first game without starting point guard Jaelin Llewellyn, who will miss the rest of the 2022-23 season with an ACL injury.
In his absence, the Wolverines turned to true freshman Dug McDaniel in the starting lineup, who finished with 15 points and 7 assists. Michigan was led in scoring by junior center Hunter Dickinson, who had 19 points and 4 rebounds on the evening. Sophomore guard Kobe Bufkin chipped in with 15 points of his own, while freshman wing Jett Howard finished the night with 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting (2-for-5 from 3-point).
Michigan was blistering from the 3-point line as a team, finishing 10-of-18 (55.6%) on the evening.
Here is the full recap of Michigan’s win over the Gophers in the Twin Cities.
First half
Michigan got off to a hot start with Dickinson scoring the first 7 points of the game, jumping to a 7-2 lead early on. The Wolverines would lead 13-6 at the under-16 media timeout thanks to threes from Bufkin and McDaniel. Michigan would jump out to a 20-9 lead with 13:40 left in the first half before Minnesota called timeout. They were able to get there via a layup from junior forward Terrance Williams II, a layup from Dickinson and 3-pointer from freshman wing Jett Howard.
Graduate wing Joey Baker split a pair of free throws before another 3-pointer from Howard to 24-9 before a Jamison Battle layup narrowed the deficit to 24-11 at the 12:10 mark. Michigan would rattle off 6-straight points from there to take a 30-11 lead with 11:10 remaining. Another dominant stretch had the Wolverines leading 37-13 at the under-8 timeout.
Minnesota was able to chip into the lead, trailing 40-24 with 4:46 left in the half. Freshman forward Youssef Khayat had a 3-pointer in that span to get the Wolverines to the 40-point mark. Minnesota was eventually able to get things down to 40-28 before a 7-3 Michigan run closed out the half with a 47-31 lead at halftime.
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Second half
Minnesota had the first 2 points of the 2nd half on a pair of free throws before a 7-0 run on McDaniel 3-pointer, a Bufkin layup and a McDaniel layup to go up 54-33 at the 18:29 mark. Jumpers from Bufkin and Dickinson would help the Wolverines out to a 60-39 lead at the under-16 media timeout with 15:25 remaining. Both teams would go back and forth over the next 4 minutes with the Wolverines leading 66-47 with 10:55 to go in the contest.
Michigan would put its foot on the accelerator over the next stretch of minutes. Jett Howard made a trio of free throws, followed by a Tarris Reed putback, Khayat 3-pointer and jumper from Bufkin to extend the lead to 76-47. The Wolverines would lead by 32 at 81-49 with 8:24 to go in the game thanks to a Bufkin jumper and and-1 opportunity from forward Will Tschetter. Michigan led 81-54 at the under-8 media timeout with 7:24 remaining.
Over the next 5 minutes, Minnesota struck back with a 22-7 run to narrow the deficit to 88-71 with 2:59 left in the game. Head coach Juwan Howard emptied the bench and the group was able to hold off the Gophers by a final margin of 90-75.
Michigan at Minnesota final box score, statistics
