Michigan knocks off Purdue, moves to first place in Big Ten

ANN ARBOR – The Michigan Wolverines found a way to grab the biggest win to date of the Dusty May era on Tuesday night, knocking off the 7th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers 75-73 to move to 19-5 on the season and 11-2 in Big Ten play.

Junior center Danny Wolf led the Wolverines with 15 points and 9 rebounds, while junior forward Roddy Gayle Jr. chipped in with 14 points off the bench. Tre Donaldson and Vlad Goldin had 12 points apiece.

The Wolverines fought back from a pair of double-digit deficits to come back and win the game, which moves them into first place alone in the Big Ten pending the result of the Michigan State vs. Indiana game.

Here is the full game recap from Tuesday night’s Big Ten slugfest in Ann Arbor.

First half

Purdue won the opening tip to get things going in Ann Arbor. In the early stages, it looked like the first time these two met with Purdue roaring out to an early 7-0 lead thanks to a bucket from Trey Kaufman-Renn and a pair of baskets from Braden Smith (18:04). Tre Donaldson got the scoring started for the Wolverines at the 17:04 mark with a jumper, before a pair of free throws from C.J. Cox to push the lead to 9-2 at 16:41. Vladislav Goldin hit a shot in the paint to trim the Purdue lead to 9-4 before a Fletcher Loyer put Purdue up 12-4 with 15:53 to go in the half.

Michigan got rolling a bit over the next four-minute stretch with Donaldson scoring a quick four points between 15:25 and 14:59, cutting into the Boilermaker at 12-8. Kaufman-Renn hit a layup in the paint for Purdue before the Wolverines ripped off a 7-0 run via a Donaldson three-pointer, a Rubin Jones dunk and a Danny Wolf layup. Michigan would hold its first lead of the game at 15-14 with 13:18 left in the half. Purdue answered with a 4-0 run to grab back the advantage at 18-15 (12:10), followed by Michigan getting two points on the board via a pair of Wolf free throws to put the score at 18-17 at the 11:51 mark.

Purdue’s Smith went on a personal 9-2 run to push the Boilermakers’ lead up to 27-20 with 9:07 to go before Roddy Gayle Jr. started to take over for the Wolverines, hitting a trip of layups between 7:52 and 4:09 with a handful of Boilermaker buckets mixed in. Fletcher Loyer would hit a three-pointer at the 3:46 mark to give his team a game-high 11-point lead at 37-26.

However, it would be the last time Purdue scored in the first half. Michigan closed out the half on a 9-0 run with Gayle scoring six of the points and Wolf hitting a three-pointer during the stretch, cutting Purdue’s lead to 37-35 heading into the locker room.

HALFTIME: Purdue 37, Michigan 35

Second half

Purdue started the half with the first four points on the board, going up 41-35 at the 18:32 mark. Burnett stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer at 18:13 to get the Wolverines back to within 3 at 41-38. The Boilermakers kept rolling, though, going on a 7-0 run to take a 48-38 lead by the time the 14:44 mark hit.

Wolf kicked off a mini-run for Michigan on a paint shot, followed by a layup by Tschetter with 12:22 remaining, cutting the lead to 48-42. Purdue’s Loyer had a made jumper and free throw at 11:19, putting the Boilermakers back up 9. A 3-0 scoring run from Goldin trimmed the lead to 51-45 with 9:47 left. Kaufman-Renn followed it up with a paint jumper to push the lead back to 8 before a 5-0 Michigan thanks to a jumper from Gayle and a three-pointer from Burnett. Purdue led 53-50 with 8:11 to go.

The Boilermakers would maintain their three-point lead until the 6:01 mark when Burnett hit another three to tie the game at 57-all. Goldin hit a pair of free throws to give Michigan its second lead of the night at 59-57 with 5:33 to go. The Boilermakers went on another scoring burst to go back ahead 63-59 with 4:28 remaining. The Wolverines and Purdue would go back and forth over the next few trips down the floor with Purdue holding a 67-66 advantage with 2:48 to go.

That’s when Michigan’s late-game heroics started to take over , going on a 7-0 run between 2:21 and 39 seconds remaining to take a 73-69 lead. Smith hit a three-pointer to trim the lead to 73-70 with 21 seconds left, and Wolf made a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left to put U-M back up 75-70. Smith hit another three with 8 seconds to go, and then had an opportunity at the buzzer that went wide. Michigan won the basketball game.

FINAL: Michigan 75, Purdue 73

Final Michigan vs. Purdue box score