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Game recap: Michigan basketball wins Big Ten opener at Minnesota

Anthony Broomeby:Anthony Broome•12/08/22•

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MINNEAPOLIS, MN - DECEMBER 08: Dug McDaniel #0 of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates his basket against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the first half of the game at Williams Arena on December 8, 2022 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)

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.

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

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