Michigan basketball stuns Wisconsin, 87-79, in OT behind Hunter Dickinson's miracle 3

There's wasn't much hope left for Michigan basketball.

Up by as much as 11 in the first half, the Wolverines' lead had crumbled into a three-point deficit with 2.1 seconds to play and the ball under the Wisconsin basket.

Terrance Williams II in-bounded it to Hunter Dickinson, but it was tipped away. The 7-foot-1 junior chased it down in mid-air, took a dribble, turned from 30 feet out and heaved the ball as the clock expired.

Swish.

The Crisler Center crowd jumped up and overtime followed, in which Michigan knocked off Wisconsin, 87-79, on Sunday.

"Win the damn game," Dickinson said of his mentality after the ball went through the net. "That was the message. I celebrated for a good five to 10 seconds, I feel like I deserved that, but after that I was like 'we've got to win this game'."

From there, it was never in doubt.

Wisconsin sandwiched four free throws in the first two minutes around a Dug McDaniel bucket to take a 72-70 lead before Joey Baker, who was honored pregame for his senior day, buried a 3-pointer from the corner. Max Klesmit responded with a deep ball of his own for Wisconsin but Michigan had more left.

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Kobe Bufkin hit a slashing layup, then converted the free throw to take the lead. Dickinson followed with a floater before McDaniel hit a running layup to put Michigan up five. U-M finished the game from the free throw line.

"We were owed that one," laughed coach Juwan Howard after the game. "We've been through a lot of pain down the stretch early on in the season with some of the games that we lost.

"But with that, it was nice that our guys dug down deep and stayed the course."

Bufkin scored a career-high 28 points with eight rebounds, Dickinson had 23 points and 10 rebounds — his 10th double-double of the year — and McDaniel had a career-high 20 points as Michigan (17-12, 11-7) tied its longest winning streak of the season at three.

Freshman Connor Essegian scored 24 points for Wisconsin (16-12, 8-10 Big Ten), Klesmit added 19, Steven Crowl had 14 and Tyler Wahl had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

How it got to overtime

Michigan went into the halftime break with a seven-point lead, stretching it to 10 early in the second half.

After a Bufkin 3-pointer at the top of the key made it 40-32 U-M, Wisconsin's Hepburn was called for a flagrant foul for extending his off-arm into McDaniel's face as he brought the ball up the court. McDaniel, who Howard called 'one of the most confident young men I’ve ever been around' made both free throws before the Badgers began to chip away.

Essegian hit a 3 and Hepburn finished an uncontested layup to make it 42-37, followed by a McDaniel jumper with his toe on the 3-point line. Essegian had a tough finish over McDaniel and then Tyler Wahl finished over Williams to get back within three.

A Bufkin offensive board led to two free throws, before he dumped a pass down to Dickinson who finished a lefty hook for a 48-41 lead.

Minutes later, with Wisconsin down 48-43, Howard switched to a lineup with one point guard, two power forwards (Williams and Jace Howard) and two centers (Dickinson and Tarris Reed Jr.). The offense turned the ball over twice, the second of which led to a Klesmit 3-pointer to get back within two.

"They way they don't stop moving, they always have some type of action," Dickinson said of what makes the Badgers tough to guard. "Wisconsin, all five guys are in the play at one time, if you mess up somebody's going to be open.

"They've been running that offense forever and it's obviously super effective for them."

Two Williams free throws gave U-M a 52-49 lead with seven minutes left, but an Essegian mid-range jumper and Crowl left-handed hook over Dickinson gave Wisconsin its first lead, 53-52, since the 6:13 mark of the first half.

The teams traded blows: A Bufkin layup, a Wahl layup and then a Bufkin 3-pointer gave U-M a two-point lead with 6:06 left before Wahl threw a behind-the-back bounce pass to Crowl to tie the score at 57.

"He's just being super aggressive getting downhill," Dickinson said of Bufkin. "He makes crazy shots all the time, look at the Michigan State one, I mean I think he's just really coming into his own."

Klesmit banked in a 3-pointer with 1:53 to play to tie it again. U-M was down one, 65-64, with 20.8 seconds left when Howard called a timeout and drew up a play for Bufkin. The sophomore got to the basket but couldn't finish, though on replay it looked as if there was some contact.

"Oh for sure," Bufkin said when asked if he was fouled. "But they actually reffed a very good game in my opinion."

Wisconsin's Kamari McGee got the loose ball and made two free throws with 7.8 seconds left to go up three. Bufkin's attempted answer from behind the arc was blocked with 2.1 seconds left to set up the Dickinson miracle.

"Just hoping it goes in," Bufkin said "It was my first one in college, buzzer-beater miracle type play."

Michigan's bigs flex their muscle

The afternoon didn't start off the way Michigan had hoped: Wisconsin made four of its first five field goals, three on layups, to take an early 8-4 lead.

The Wolverines punched back with consecutive scores by Bufkin and Baker to take a 9-8 lead of their own.

Wisconsin responded with a 9-0 run when Chucky Hepburn and Klesmit hit consecutive jumpers before layups by Carter Gilmore and Essegian gave Wisconsin a 17-9 lead.

It was at that time Reed checked in and flipped the momentum.

The freshman big man came up with a block 48 seconds in, then had an offensive rebound and put-back a minute later. After he committed a turnover on the next possession, he made up for it when he sprinted down the floor and got a chase-down block on the other end.

After another help-side block on defense a few possessions later, Reed got one last offense rebound, drew a foul and split a pair of free throws to help with U-M's 7-0 run to get back within one, 17-16.

"The players, their mindset and fixing all the extra possessions that we gave away last time we played Wisconsin," Howard said. "A point of emphasis today was we must be the most physical team, we've got to out work them."

A Crowl 3-pointer put the Badgers back up by four, but Michigan — and more specifically Dickinson — took over the rest of the half. Dickinson made a reverse layup on one end, swatted a Crowl layup attempt on the other, then used a pump fake before an up-and-under move past Crowl and tied the game at 20.

Dickinson followed with a hook shot along the baseline, then drew a foul and made two free throws as part of a personal 8-0 run in the midst of Michigan's 16-3 run. In the 9:57 following Essegian's floater, the Badgers went 1-for-13 as U-M got up 26-20.

After Wisconsin got within two, Dickinson caught the ball on the left block; once he got double-teamed, he whipped a two-hand pass cross-court to McDaniel, who made his second 3-pointer of the first half.

Bufkin hit a scooping left-handed layup, Dickinson made a bunny hook shot in the lane and Bufkin turned the corner for one last layup in the final minute of the half for Michigan's eighth consecutive made field goal of the half before a Klesmit 3-pointer seconds before the break made it 35-27, Michigan, heading into the locker room.

Wisconsin shot 4-for-19 over the final 11 minutes of the half while Michigan made 10 of its final 16 shots. The Wolverines, who were out-rebounded 10-5 in the opening nine minutes, also controlled the glass 13-6 over the first half's closing 11 minutes.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball rallies for 87-79 OT win over Wisconsin