For 20 minutes, Michigan played Alabama basketball. The Crimson Tide spread the court, buried threes, attacked defensive breakdowns, and flummoxed Michigan with their defensive gimmicks. Michigan’s two offensive engines both ended the first half with stints on the bench for two fouls, and the Wolverines went ot the locker room with one of their worst closes of the season — an 8-0 Alabama run that led to a 2-point halftime deficit.
In the second half, Yaxel Lendeborg made sure that Michigan’s season continued. He took the floor with new aggression and assertiveness, and the understanding that he is the best player on the floor. Lendeborg dominated the opening stretch of the second half with a torrid stretch of two-way basketball that played out for long stretches without a stoppage.
The Wolverines outscored Alabama 23-8 over the first seven minutes of the second half. Lendeborg scored or assisted 18 of the 23 points. The 6-foot-9 forward has been one of the sport’s best all season long, but he reached another level during that run.
He chased offensive rebounds with a burst he lacked in the first half. He dominated as a ball-screen creator, flung transition passes, and buried 3-pointers. It could have been an NBA Draft sizzle reel, but it came at the most important moment of Michigan’s season — yet. A back against the wall stand in the Sweet Sixteen, facing the reality that anything less than a Final Four would be bitterly disappointing.
But as he has done all season, Lendeborg delivered and sent Michigan on to the Elite Eight.
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