Michigan basketball lights up Toledo from deep in 90-80 win in NIT opener

Michigan basketball entered its matchup against Toledo in the National Invitational Tournament opener with a focus on the 3-point line.

The Rockets were the second-best 3-point shooting team in the nation (40.5%) and the Wolverines' ability to limit them from deep was key. U-M flipped the script with one of its best shooting performances of the season.

Michigan opened the second half with three straight 3-pointers, part of a 13-2 run where all five starters scored, and rode the momentum to a 90-80 win in its NIT opener over Toledo on Tuesday.

"We didn't want to lose four in a row, that's not us," said Joey Baker, who set a personal high at Michigan with 21 points. "We decided we're going to go out there, we're going to fight and we're going to play to win and that's what we did — especially in the second half."

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U-M went 13-for-23 (56.5%) on 3-pointers, led by Baker (5-for-7) who started in place of guard Jett Howard, ruled out shortly before tipoff with an ankle injury. Howard has missed time this year with injuries to both of his ankles; he saw a foot and ankle specialist last week but as of now the team has him listed as "day-to-day".

Kobe Bufkin had a team-high 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists to make up for the lack of the Wolverines' second-leading scorer, Hunter Dickinson added 19 points and nine rebounds and Dug McDaniel finished with 16 points and eight assists as he made four 3-pointers of his own.

Still, the Wolverines trailed by two at the half. How did they recover the momentum?

"I think we realized that we were playing a really talented team and if we didn't lock in and buckle up on defense that we were going to lose," Baker said. "It was kind of just an understood thing, we were going to go out there and hoop and play our game."

Michigan advances to the second round and will play the winner of Thursday's late game between No. 2-seed Vanderbilt and Yale. If Vanderbilt wins, U-M will play in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday or Sunday; if Yale wins, the Bulldogs will visit Crisler Center.

Toledo, the fourth-ranked offense in the nation (85.6 points per game), got a team-high 19 points from Setric Millner Jr., while JT Shumate added 18 points and seven rebounds, Ra'Heim Moss added 15 and RayJ Dennis scored 13 points with eight assists.

Closing out strong

Baker hit a 3 to start the second-half, then Michigan got runouts on consecutive 3-point misses by the Rockets which led to McDaniel and Bufkin 3-pointers, as U-M turned a two-point deficit into a 49-42 lead less than two minutes into the second half.

After Moss threw a bad pass, U-M pushed the ball again and Will Tschetter hit a mid-range jumper.

Dickinson then swatted a layup attempt on one end and added a hook on the other to cap the 11-0 run. It was the first of seven straight points for the 7-foot-1 Dickinson, who had a notable size advantage over the Rockets.

"We got the ball inside and let Hunter operate," coach Juwan Howard said. "He did a really good job of being patient, when he got doubled, he made the right plays to the guy on the perimeter.

"When we're playing like that, we're a tough team to guard."

Added Dickinson, "I saw they were probably not the biggest team we'd face all year, I knew my guys would look for me ... So I just tried to make the right plays."

The Rockets closed the gap when Moss hit consecutive 3-pointers from the same corner to get within four points, but Bufkin hit one of his three 3-pointers to answer. Toledo closed within three once more, 66-63, on a Millner jumper, before McDaniel hit a 3-pointer from two steps inside the half court logo to stretch the lead to six.

"My offense generates a lot of good things for our offense overall," said McDaniel, a game after going without a field goal in U-M's Big Ten tournament loss vs. Rutgers. "I looked back at last game and tried to make a lot of changes for this game."

With U-M up only three, Bufkin hit a layup, Baker hit a fast-break layup and then Bufkin hit a jumper to go up nine with 4:41 to play.

The Rockets never got within seven points again as Michigan closed the game out from the free throw line, going 13-for-16 on the night; the Wolverines held Toledo to 4-for-13 shooting on 3s after halftime.

"Make sure we contest every shot, hand-ball contest," Juwan Howard said of the halftime tweaks. "And we made some adjustments on ball-screen defense. There were times where Shumate got open off the pick-and-pop and we had to make an adjustment with that.

"But holding that team to 40% (shooting) in the second half, that was big for us."

Shumate went just 1-for-5 on 3s in the second half after making all three of his tries in the opening 20 minutes.

Track meet starts early

Toledo didn't take long to show its high-powered offense.

The Rockets hit each of their first four shots, capped by a Shumate 3-pointer at the top of the key to take a 9-2 lead less than two minutes into the game. Michigan chipped away with an 8-1 run of its own as McDaniel assisted on two straight buckets before he hit a 3 of his own to get within one.

"We knew they were a high-paced team and wanted to get up-and-down," Dickinson said. "Just tried to limit them in transition, limit their second-chance points and guard them at the 3-point line."

After five straight Toledo points, including another Shumate 3-pointer, McDaniel hit a deep 3-pointer with one second on the shot clock then threw a skip pass across the court to Baker for a 3-pointer of his own.

Michigan opened the game 4-for-4 from deep before a Baker crossover tied the game at 18.

The Rockets then went on a 9-0 run over the next three minutes to take their biggest lead of the half as they held a 16-6 edge on points in the paint and 6-0 lead in fast break points.

But Toledo went cold, making just one of 13 shots over the next eight minutes as Michigan chipped away. Dickinson scored four straight in the paint before Bufkin hit a slashing layup and then a jab-step 3-pointer to get within one, 28-27.

After a three-point play by Millner gave Toledo a 32-29 lead, U-M scored the next three buckets to take its first lead, 35-33.

Baker hit a 3 to put U-M up by one in the final minute before a Shumate 3 came with three seconds in the half.

Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @realtonygarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball rains 3s in 90-80 NIT opening win over Toledo