With four straight conference losses heading into Saturday night's home match-up
with Minnesota, the Michigan Wolverines were sorely in need of a victory. In
a conference where protecting the home floor is the name of the game, last
week's home defeat at the hands of the Iowa Hawkeyes magnified the significance
of the match-up with the Gophers even more However, early in the contest
it seemed as if the Maize & Blue wouldn't be up to the challenge.
After scoring a quick 2-0 lead on a Lester Abram lay-up, Michigan was outscored
7-0 over the next three minutes. The Wolverines battled back minutes
later thanks in large part to six straight points from Dion Harris. That
helped them regain the advantage, 14-13, but the lead was short lived. After
the two teams battled to a 16-16 tie, the Golden Gophers used a balanced offensive
attack consisting of penetration that led to open looks from the perimeter
and low post scoring from Spencer Tollackson to go on a 16-7 run. That
put the visitors up 32-23 with 4:01 left in the half. Michigan attempted
to battle back down the stretch and managed to get within six. Then a
Lawrence McKenzie triple right before the buzzer sent Minnesota into the locker
room maintaining the nine point advantage 42-33.
Dion Harris' 14 first half points were all that stood between the Wolverines
remaining striking distance and being blown out. The team's floor leader
came out of the break and he picked up right where he left off by nailing a
three-pointer to start the second half scoring. Minnesota grew the lead
back to nine over the next few minutes, but then Michigan began to whittle
away at the lead again thanks to the spirited play of Brent Petway.
Harris started a Michigan run with a successful drive to the hole, but it
was Petway that sustained it with two rim-rattling dunks that electrified both
the crowd and his team. The first came off of a beautiful alley-oop setup
from Jerret Smith to cut the lead to three. Minnesota quickly answered
with a Tollackson jumper. That's when Petway brought the crowd to its
feet again. A shot fake from the left baseline got his defender up in
the air before he exploded to the basket to again trim the lead to three, 51-48
at the 14:23 mark. He added an 18-foot jumper shortly thereafter and
Lester Abram chimed in with a free-throw to cap off a 15-6 run to tie the score
at 53.
The Golden Gophers re-took the lead immediately on a Limar Wilson bucket,
but the Wolverines refused to go away. A driving Abram found Ronald Coleman free at the top of the circle from a three-pointer that crept in after
bouncing off the front of the rim. Two Minnesota free throws put the
visitors back up by one, then Coleman came free off a screen for an elbow-three
on the ensuing possession that put Michigan up 59-57 at the 10:24 go. The
home team would never trail again.
The Wolverines grabbed their biggest lead of the game with just under a minute
remaining when two Jerret Smith free throws put them up 77-70. The Gophers
made things interesting by canning a two more three-pointers and few quick
lay-ups to get within two, but Michigan was able to go 5/8 from the charity
stripe down the stretch (including two Lester Abram misses with one second
left) to preserve the 82-80 victory.
After the contest Amaker credited the career-best performances from Petway
and Abram with keying his team's win.
"There's no doubt that Petway was the catalyst for us," Amaker said. "I
thought his energy, his playing on both ends of the floor, blocking shots,
rebounding the ball, being savvy, getting offensive boards and kicking it out,
giving us another possession to use clock, and certainly making a few of those
high-flying dunks that he usually does for us. He got some baskets around the
goal where he finished and got fouled and he did a tremendous job from the
foul line - 4-of-5 - which is outstanding. That was a big key; the plus for
him was to finish things at the foul line."
"(Harris') offensive production carried us," Amaker continued. "You
look at (the fact that) we didn't play very well defensively. We couldn't guard
them. They had five guys in double digits and shot a high percentage. We wouldn't
even be able to think about winning this basketball game if that young man
didn't have a tremendous basketball game and he did some really good things
for us. He was savvy out there, got to the foul line, utilized his size to
shoot over the top of that smaller player he had guarding against him. I was
real pleased in seeing how two of our seniors really carried us."
On the game Harris led the way for the Wolverines with a career high 27 points,
while Petway also chipped in with a career high 18 points and seven rebounds. Lawrence
McKenzie and Dan Coleman led five Golden Gophers in double figures with 18
points apiece
For more on the game click the following links: Boxscore, Notes, Quotes.
The Wolverines will next hit the hardwood Tuesday night when they travel to
East Lansing to take on the Michigan State Spartans. Tip-off is scheduled
for 9 PM EST.