For most of Thursday night, Michigan’s magical run through Big Ten play looked like it was about to end.
The Wolverines gave up 57 first-half points on their home floor, missed 11 free throws, and struggled to make threes for yet another game. Nothing went Michigan’s way for most of the night, and it was staring at a double-digit home deficit with ten minutes to play against a team that was on the Big Ten Tournament bubble a week ago.
“We could have easily thrown in the towel and said tonight wasn’t our night,” Dusty May said.
Instead, the Wolverines rallied one more time. They put together a 14-2 run to draw level, then almost let the game slip away again when Tre Donaldson fouled Tyson Acuff on a 3-point shot with 12 seconds to play.
Down one with three seconds to play after both coaches exchanged timeouts, Danny Wolf found Nimari Burnett on a broken play to knock in the buzzer-beating three-pointer to walk off with a victory.
Michigan’s unprecedented run of nine straight conference wins by two possessions or less has featured many games that Michigan didn’t close with style. This one was different, because Michigan flat out stole it.
“I told Coach Pikiell that his team didn’t deserve to lose that game,” May said.
The result left Pikiell dropping F-bombs in his post-game radio interview, and allowed the Wolverines to keep their Big Ten title dreams alive for another day.
Dusty May Promo!
Photo: Marc-Grégor Campredon
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