Michigan vs. TCU game recap: Wolverines hold on despite early miscues

ANN ARBOR – The Michigan Wolverines moved to 2-1 on the season with a 76-64 win over TCU on Friday night in Ann Arbor, grabbing a solid non-conference win coming off a loss to Wake Forest on Sunday.

Michigan was led in scoring by graduate guard Nimari Burnett, who got the start at shooting guard, with 16 points while shooting 6-for-7 from the floor. Junior guard Tre Donaldson and junior forward Danny Wolf chipped in with 14 points apiece, while sophomore Sam Walters had 10 points off the bench.

The Wolverines had 16 turnovers in the first half, but played a much cleaner game in the final 20 minutes with a defensive effort that shined throughout leading to a much-needed win.

Here is the recap from Friday night’s home victory.

First half

Roddy Gayle Jr. got the Wolverines on the board first on a layup at the 19:19 mark before Danny Wolf found Nimari Burnett in the paint for a layup, giving Michigan a quick 4-0 lead at the 18:50 mark of the first half. Burnett added a three-pointer on his next trip down the floor, pushing the advantage to 7-0 (18:26). TCU’s Brenden Wenzel ended the run with a three-pointer, followed by a pair of TCU steals at the other end and layups from Trazarien White to tie the game at 7-all. Vlad Goldin gave Michigan the lead back at 9-7 with a layup 16:39. U-M would hold onto the lead at the under-16 timeout, no thanks to 5 turnovers committed in the first 4:01 of action.

Three free throw makes from TCU between 14:55 and 14:01 helped them take the lead at 10-9 before a Gayle layup (13:36) and three-pointer from Will Tschetter (12:46) put Michigan back in front 14-10. Freshman Justin Pippen checked in for his first minutes of the season and had a goaltend called on him, leading to Frankie Collins’ first points of the night for the Horned Frogs (14-12, 12:06). 26 seconds later, Sam Walters put three points on the board for Michigan to push the lead to 17-12 at the 11:40 mark. It would hold that lead at the under-12 media timeout at 11:12.

A layup from White narrowed Michigan’s lead to 17-14 at 10:08, followed by a Danny Wolf putback at 9:13 (19-14 U-M). Noah Reynolds split a pair of free throws at 9:04 to chip into the Michigan lead, but 21 seconds later Burnett would hit on a fast break layup, forcing a TCU timeout at 8:40 with the Wolverines leading 21-15.

TCU’s Wenzel hit a three at the 7:38 mark to pull the deficit closer, but Wolf responded on the next position with one of his own. Wenzel added another 17 seconds later to bring the score back to within three at 24-21 (6:57). Another Horned Frog basket – a layup from White – cut the lead to one at 24-23 with 5:59 left in the half. Tschetter was fouled on a dunk attempt and split his free throws, giving U-M a point back with a 25-23 lead at 5:38 to go. Gayle made a layup at 5:13 to push the lead back up to four at 27-23.

Rubin Jones hit a pair of free throws at the 4:32 mark to extend the lead to 6, putting Michigan up 29-23 at the final media timeout of the first half (3:41). Micah Robinson hit a pair of free throws for the Horned Frogs at 3:23, followed by a Burnett three-pointer at 3:07 (34-25 U-M). Robinson added a layup at 2:25 to bring the score to 34-27. Robinson chipped in a few more points on a pair of free throws at 1:21 remaining (34-29, U-M). Reynolds added a layup just before the buzzer to trim the deficit to 34-31 Michigan at halftime.

Second half

Goldin got the scoring started in the second half with a pair of free throw makes at the 19:22 mark, followed by a dunk from TCU’s David Punch at the other end at 19:04 (36-33, U-M). Tre Donaldson scored his first basket of the night on a three-pointer that extended the Michigan lead to 39-33 at 18:49.

Wenzel answered with a triple of his own at the other end of the court (39-36), which was then matched by Burnett’s three-pointer at 17:16, extending the lead back to six points at 42-36. White hit a pair of free throws for the Horned Frogs before a Donaldson basket put the game at 44-38 with 15:39 to go and the under-16 media timeout. Walters would make a fast break layup 26 seconds later, followed by a Wolf layup at the 14:29 mark to extend the Michigan lead to 48-38.

TCU’s Vasean Allette went off for his team’s next five points, on each end of a Walters three-pointer, narrowing the lead to 51-43 with 13:23 remaining. Another layup from Wolf gave Michigan a 53-43 lead with 11:43 remaining and the under-12 timeout.

The Horned Frogs rattled off a 5-0 run on a David Punch layup and three-pointer from Wenzel, trimming the lead in half to 53-48 at the 11:11 mark. Michigan answered with a free throw from Burnett, then Collins had a dunk for TCU to bring the lead down to 54-50 with 10:34 to go. Donaldson hit ap air of free throws for the Wolverines at 9:56 before Collins added another basket on a jumper at 9:14 (56-52). Donaldson added two more points on a layup, answered by a punch Layup at the other end of the floor to bring the score to 58-54 Michigan with 8:14 to go.

Gayle hit a pair of free throws for the Wolverines before a TCU layup brought the game to 60-56 in favor of U-M when the under-8 timeout hit. Robinson hit a layup in the paint at 6:55 to trim the lead to two for Michigan before Donaldson hit a three, his second of the half, to bring the score to 63-58 with 6:35 to go. White hit a pair of free throw for TCU at 6:16, then a layup from Burnett negated it at the other end (65-50, 5:55). The Horned Frogs got a free throw from Robinson, answered by Wolf’s layup at 5:17 to push the lead back up to six at 67-61.

Collins split his free throws at 4:51, as did U-M’s Goldin at the 4:30 mark. Wolf tacked on one more to bring the game to 69-62 at the final media timeout with 3:48 remaining. Goldin split another pair of free throws coming out of the media timeout, extending Michigan’s lead to 70-62. A Danny Wolf layup would push the lead back up to 10 for the Wolverines before a turnover led to a fastbreak layup for White and TCU, bring the score to 72-64 with 2:19 to go.

Michigan was able to land the knockout blowout in the waning moments of the game on baskets from Goldin and Donaldson to close out the contest, holding on for a 76-62 win.

Final box score

What’s next for Michigan?

Michigan is back in action on Monday night at 6 p.m. against Miami (OH) and Thursday at 8:30 p.m. vs. Tarleton State. Both games are at home and will be broadcast via Big Ten Network.