Michigan basketball makes timely second-half plays to top Northwestern, 85-78

Michigan basketball had the ball on a runout Sunday afternoon, after Northwestern's attempted entry pass into the lane went awry.

Point guard Dug McDaniel corralled the loose ball and took it up the right side when he saw teammate Joey Baker streaking up the left. The freshman whipped a two-hand, overhand skip-pass across the court into the awaiting arms of Baker, who immediately went up with it for a 3-pointer.

The senior transfer from Duke turned to the Crisler Center crowd, hit the side of his head with three fingers and shuffled his way back down the court as Northwestern called a timeout in response to an 8-0 spurt that put the Wolverines ahead by seven midway through the second half en route to an 85-78 win.

"Thought that was a big shot of the game," Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. "Big 3 in transition to push it back to seven."

A ROUGH WEEK:Late collapse vs. Iowa leaves Michigan looking for answers

The Wildcats made one last push to get the game back within three with less than five minutes to play, but an 11-3 Michigan run over the next three minutes proved enough for the Wolverines, who never trailed again.

Kobe Bufkin had a team-high 20 points (on 9-for-11 shooting, including 5-for-6 in the second half) with four rebounds and three assists, McDaniel scored a career-high 17 points with five assists, Jett Howard added 16 points and a career-high seven assists and Hunter Dickinson had his fifth double-double of the season (10 points, 15 rebounds) to end Michigan's (10-7, 4-2 Big Ten) two-game skid.

The all-around effort left the Wolverines pleased.

"Resilient," Howard said. "We understand basketball is a game of runs and if we lay down and are not resilient, we wouldn't have the outcome we wanted.

"I feel like (this win) could help a lot (in March). This is a perfect time to gain momentum, so if we lock in on our next opponent and take each game one at a time, we should be fine."

Boo Buie led all scorers with 22 points, and teammate Robbie Beran added 16 for Northwestern (12-5, 3-3).

The Wolverines shot 52% (29-for-56) against the Wildcats, who entered as the No. 10 team in the nation in field goal defense (37.8%). Michigan also won the rebounding battle, 41-28, and held the Wildcats — who entered averaing better than 11 offensive boards per game — to nine.

Michigan had two offensive rebounds in the first 25 minutes but finished with 11, most of which came after Dickinson and Tarris Reed Jr. took the floor together for much of the game's final 10 minutes.

The rotation wrinkle made its debut in Thursday's loss to Iowa and returned Sunday.

"It was a big game changer for us in the second half, especially on the defensive end," Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. "Tarris is starting to get his feet wet. You’re young in this league, there’s a learning curve, a lot of learning that happens in the game of basketball that Tarris has embraced."

Reed scored six points and grabbed a career-best eight rebounds.

"It was definitely a spark," Reed said. "I said it before, when I come in the game and am playing with (Dickinson) with two bigs on the defensive and offensive side, it’s going to be a lot to take. Especially in the paint, it’[s going to be too much for teams to handle.”

Brunching with the Wildcats

Michigan was hot early, torching the nets against the team that entered play No. 11 in the nation in total defense (59.3 points per game). After the two sides traded layups on their opening possessions, Howard picked up where he left off after his career night in Iowa, knocking down a corner 3-pointer.

Dickinson made a turnaround in the lane and Bufkin made a corner 3 on the next trip down; Howard’s second 3 came two possessions later for a quick 13-4 lead.

On the other side of a media timeout, Bufkin made a layup off an inbound pass, then McDaniel buried a 3-ball from the left wing to make it 18-6 Michigan and force a Northwestern timeout.

"I was extremely pleased with how our guys bounced back from the tough loss at Iowa," Juwan Howard said. "Today, we responded, especially the first six minutes. Defensively, we did a good job knowing Northwestern can shoot the ball extremely well, attack the paint, try to expose you on ball screens."

Some uncharacteristic Michigan turnovers flipped the momentum.

Turnovers turn the game

A Reed travel took an easy layup off the board, followed by an errant pass by Baker and another Reed turnover. The Wolverines' next four possessions didn't go much better: McDaniel missed a 3, Bufkin made a bad pass, Jace Howard missed a 3-pointer off the side of the backboard and Bufkin gave the ball away again.

Despite seven consecutive empty possessions, Michigan kept its lead at 12 after a Baker layup made it 20-8. But Michigan was clearly out of rhythm, giving Northwestern life.

Buie hit consecutive free throws and Beran sandwiched a layup and 3-pointer around another McDaniel 3-ball. Brooks Barnhizer scored four straight including a fast-break slam, and Chase Audige hit consecutive 3-pointers for the Wildcats to tie the game at 27.

Beran scored the next five for the Wildcats, before Barnhizer added a layup and Detroit native Julian Roeper buried a 3-pointer. In all, Northwestern ripped off a 27-10 run over an eight-minute stretch lasting until 1:15 left in the half. Finally, McDaniel scored four straight to cut the deficit to 39-37 at intermission.

"This group has amazed me all year in terms of their fight, their will," Collins said. "We didn't have the energy we needed to start the game and they jumped on us, but then for us to get the lead at half, shows a lot about who our group is and who we've been all year."

'Two big boys' make a difference

With 10 minutes left in the second and the score tied at 54-all, Jett Howard took over. Crashing into the lane with the ball loose in the middle of the paint, the freshman grabbed it, spun counter-clockwise and dropped a pass to Reed for a dunk and a foul.

On the next trip, Howard used a screen to get to the lane, faked a floater, and again dropped the pass off, this time for a Will Tschetter layup. After driving Michigan's offense with his 34 points Thursday, Howard became a facilitator, with seven assists and no turnovers.

"When you have 34 points, the next game you expect to have 30, or go for your numbers to at least get to the 20s, but Jett's not wired that way," Juwan Howard said. "Being a willing passer as he is, his passing is very underrated, his play-making ability has grown, but he of course let the game come to him.

"I was impressed with his maturity."

When Northwestern ripped off a quick 5-0 run to take a 59-58 lead with 9:50 to play, Juwan Howard brought back the Dickinson/Reed combo.

The "two big boys" as Northwestern's Collins called theme, proved to be a deciding factor.

Bufkin opened the stretch with a layup before Dickinson buried a midrange jumper. On the next possession, Dickinson had an offensive rebound and earned a trip to the free throw line. He made the first and missed the second, but Reed got the rebound. The next trip featured McDaniel's pass to Baker, which put Michigan ahead, 66-59.

"Hunter is a willing passer and Tarris is big, strong and on the defensive end; he impacts winning, doing all the little things, whether it's loose balls, rim protection, rebounding" Juwan Howard said. "But offensively, he's also a lob threat. As you can see when Dug gets in the paint, he can make plays."

The freshman pairing did just that when the Wildcats scored six straight to get within three again; McDaniel turned the corner, got to the lane and threw a lob for Reed for the slam, slowing the Northwestern rally and igniting a 9-3 run that made it a 10-point game.

Bufkin, Howard and McDaniel finished the game with 53 points and 15 assists combined, and just eight turnovers.

"If you would've told me before the game that we'd score 78 points, I would've thought that'd be enough," Collins said. "Give Michigan credit, especially their young perimeter. ... Outstanding performance from three young players in a Big Ten game."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball makes 2nd-half plays to top Northwestern