Five Key Plays: Michigan 85, USC 74

Michigan knocked off USC in Los Angeles on Saturday night to move to 3-0 in the Big Ten. It was a game of runs, with Michigan stringing together three different 10-0 kill shots, but USC never went away. The Trojans consistently battled back into the game all night, forcing Michigan to execute down the stretch.

Here are Five Key Plays from the win featuring Danny Wolf, Vlad Goldin, Tre Donaldson, Roddy Gayle Jr., and more.

1. First half 3-point barrage

Michigan was on fire from 3-point range in its final two home games of the year and carried that momentum into the Galen Center. On Saturday night, the Wolverines got off to a terrific shooting start, knocking down their first five 3-pointers and finishing with ten made threes in the opening half.

The Wolverines have been a volatile 3-point shooting team all year. They’ve hit double-digit threes in eight of 14 games but shot worse than 30% from three in five games. They shoot 36.6% from three (54th nationally) as a team but have shot better than 40% or worse than 30% in 12 of 14 contests.

In 28 halves of basketball, Michigan has hit seven or more threes nine times (32%). They’ve also hit two or fewer threes in 10 of those 28 halves (36%) — including last night’s 0-of-8 second-half performance.

Michigan’s half-by-half perimeter shooting splits are becoming a trend to watch closely. The Wolverines shoot 40.8% from three in first halves (5.9 for 14.4 attempts) compared to 31.2% in second halves (3.5 of 11.2 attempts).

Michigan survived 0-of-8 3-point shooting to win last night, but it is 5-of-36 (14%) from 3-point range in the second halves of its three losses — a particularly painful stat given that those defeats came by five points total.