It wasn’t pretty, but Wolverines win their 11th straight opening game of the Big Ten tournament
New York — Michigan appeared to be on the brink of an early exit in the Big Ten tournament.
The Wolverines were plagued by foul trouble, couldn’t hit a 3-pointer in the first half and had no momentum heading into halftime.
Then they squandered a six-point lead with 2:09 left in regulation as Iowa forced overtime.
But in the end, fifth-seeded Michigan found a way to survive and push past No. 12 Iowa, 77-71, in a whistle-filled, second-round game Thursday at Madison Square Garden. It was the 11th straight opening game victory in the Big Ten tournament for the Wolverines.
Charles Matthews rediscovered his shooting touch with 16 points, Zavier Simpson had 12 points and Moritz Wagner and Duncan Robinson each scored 11 for Michigan (25-7), which was called for 24 personal fouls and improved to 6-0 all-time against Iowa in the Big Ten tournament.
With the win, Michigan advances to face No. 4 Nebraska at 2:30 p.m. Friday in the quarterfinals and will have a shot to avenge its worst loss of the season.
However, it looked like Michigan might not get its chance after a wild finish in regulation that led to an extra five minutes.
Iowa struck first in overtime and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman fouled out with 2:34 left in overtime, which led to Luka Garza splitting two free throws to give Iowa a 70-69 lead.
Robinson countered with a 3-pointer and Simpson split four free throws to give Michigan a 74-70 edge with 1:17 to go.
Tyler Cook split two free throws to cut the deficit to three at the 1:04 mark and two missed free throws by Jon Teske with 24 seconds left gave Iowa life.
But Michigan was able to close it out this time as Robinson made two free throws with 10.1 seconds left and Matthews added another with 0.9 seconds to seal it.
Ryan Kriener finished with 14 points and Garza and Cook scored 13 apiece for Iowa (14-19), which was held 1-for-9 from the field in overtime.
After a foul-filled first half that saw also saw Michigan go 0-for-7 from 3-point range, the Wolverines jumped all over Iowa and erased a five-point halftime deficit within the blink of an eye as it opened the second half with an 11-0 run.
Michigan did all the damage at the rim with Wagner, Simpson and Matthews each knifing their way to the basket for a layup before Wagner capped it with a three-point play following a one-handed dunk to pull ahead, 46-40, with 17:43 remaining.
But Michigan’s foul trouble woes popped back up as it picked up six fouls over the first four minutes of the half, one of which led to two free throws for Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon at the 16:39 mark to snap the Wolverines’ furious flurry.
Michigan leaned on its defense, holding Iowa to eight points over the first 10 minutes while extending its lead to 53-46 following a Jordan Poole steal and dunk with 12:35 to go.
Iowa clawed back to cut it to 53-51 following Wagner’s fourth foul, but Duncan Robinson responded with back-to-back 3-pointers – Michigan’s first makes from beyond the arc after an 0-for-12 start – to make it 59-51 at the 7:46 mark.
The Hawkeyes wouldn’t go away though and kept hanging around until they pulled within 67-64 following a Nicholas Baer 3-pointer with 59 seconds left to set up a frantic finish.
Following a five-second call by Michigan on the ensuing inbounds, Iowa got the ball back but misfired on a Bahannon 3-pointer. Abdur-Rahkman grabbed the board and raced up court, where he was fouled and sent to the line with 28 seconds left.
Abdur-Rahkman missed the front end of the one-and-one and Bohannon knocked down a 3-pointer to tie it at 67 with 16 seconds left.
Michigan had a chance to win it in regulation, but Abdur-Rahkman couldn’t connect on a layup attempt in the final seconds.
