Michigan sloppy again early, but pulls it together in blowout win over Miami
Dusty May wasn’t fooling around Monday night in Michigan’s 94-67 win over Miami (Ohio). After four turnovers in the first seven possessions, the U-M coach replaced his five starters with five reserves, trying to send a message to his team that ball protection needed to improve.
It would work — eventually — but it didn’t initially. The Wolverines continued to be careless with the ball, leading to several easy points in transition. Miami notched nine points off turnovers and 6 uncontested in transition to stay with the wolverines through the first 15 minutes of the first half. At one point, the RedHawks were 9-for-21 overall to 7-for-12 for Michigan thanks to the turnovers and four offensive rebounds.
It didn’t help, either, that Miami shot the lights out, taking a 30-29 lead into the break despite an unacceptable 12 turnovers in the first 16 minutes for the Wolverines. The RedHawks were 5-of-7 from three in one stretch to take their lead despite good, aggressive defense from the Wolverines. They made some extremely tough shots and would finish the first half 8-for-17 from long range.
Point guard Tre Donaldson’s triple at 2:55 finally gave the wolverines a 32-30 lead. The Wolverines forced three consecutive turnovers and went on a 6-0 run to take a 33-30 edge — once they started protecting the ball, the started to pull away. Center Vlad Goldin had a couple dunks inside on nice passes, the second putting the wolverines up 42-33 with 45 seconds remaining in the half.
Miami remained hot outside. Kam Craft cut it to 42-36 with a long triple from 25 feet. Donaldson, though, drove and finished to give the Wolverines a 44-36 lead at the break.
Michigan went on a 17-6 run to end the half, turning it over only once in the last four minutes. Donaldson, L.J. Cason, and Nimari Burnett led the scorers with 8 points each. Eight threes in the first half kept the RedHawks in it, though many were contested.
Second half — Michigan blows it open, doesn’t look back
Michigan brought the energy in the second half and took the fight to Miami from the start. Roddy Gayle Jr. started the break after a rebound and found Burnett in transition for two … Gayle’s triple from the corner pushed it to 49-36 and forced a quick Miami timeout.
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The Wolverines expanded it to 50-36, and it would have been more had Donaldson not missed 3-of-4 free throws after drives to the rim. A nice feed from Burnett to forward Danny Wolf in transition started the half 8-0 for the Wolverines and pushed the lead to 52-36.
Donaldson’s two slick drives and finishes inside pushed the lead to 56-37, the Wolverines’ biggest lead. They expanded it to 68-45 on a three-point play from Will Tschetter. At that point, Michigan had only 2 second-half turnovers and was moving better offensively.
Miami heated up a bit, but Michigan matched them bucket for bucket. It was 74-54 at the under-8 timeout when Burnett tripled from the corner in transition off a make to keep U-M comfortably ahead. The lead was a game-high 25 when Goldin slipped a screen and took a nice feed from Wolf for the dunk.
Back-to-back triples from Burnett and Donaldson and a Burnett dunk from Donaldson in transition pushed it to 89-58, and there was no further suspense. Michigan was 13-for-26 from long range at that point on the way to 14 for 29, and the reserves closed out the 27-point win.
Burnett finished with 18, Donaldson 16, Cason 11, and Gayle 10 for Michigan, who improved to 3-1 with the victory.
