CHICAGO − Thrice is nice for the Wolverines.
It wasn’t easy, but 1-seed Michigan basketball opened its Big Ten Tournament with a 71-67 victory over rival No. 9 Ohio State, completing a three-game sweep of the Buckeyes for the first time ever to move on to the tournament semifinals.
Michigan will play the winner of 4-seed Illinois and 5-seed Wisconsin on Saturday, March 14 (1 p.m., CBS).
It looked like U-M may cruise to a win early, up by 10 just more than five minutes in, before OSU slowly chipped away. The Buckeyes got within two in the final minute of the half and went into the locker room down four. By the first media timeout in the second half, it was tied, 44-44.
Michigan led for the first 34 minutes of the game and was up seven with 9:20 to play when Ohio State put together a 10-1 run, including a 3-pointer by Devin Royal to take the first lead of the day. A Christoph Tilly free throw made it 62-60.
Elliot Cadeau tied the score with a pair of free throws and though Michigan didn’t score a bucket for more than six minutes, by the time it did, it was enough to take a 64-62 lead, even though it technically didn’t go in the bucket, as a Morez Johnson Jr. layup was called for goaltending.
After a Cadeau free throw, OSU got back within one after Bruce Thornton hit a pair, when Michigan finally saw a bucket go through the hoop, after Cadeau spun in the lane and handed a pass to Mara for a layup.
Yaxel Lendeborg made it a two-possession game when he was fouled going for an offensive rebound and hit a free throw with 1:24 to play, before Mara contested a Thornton layup and U-M got the ball up four with a minute to play. OSU got within three on a Royal free throw, but he missed the second.
After Cadeau split from the line, Royal hit a floater to make it 69-67 with 6.3 seconds left. Lendeborg was fouled with six seconds to play and hit both tries from the line to ice it.
By the end, the Buckeyes were out of gas. Ohio State went 2-for-12 from the field after taking their first lead of the game and made just one shot from the floor over the final 5:41 of the game.
Mara led U-M with 17 points and seven boards, Cadeau had 15 points and seven assists, Trey McKenney scored 12 and Morez Johnson Jr. added 11 to lead the Wolverines.
Thornton scored 22 for the Buckeyes, Royal had 13 points and 11 boards and Mobley scored 12.
Unable to pull away
The game was tied at 44 when Ohio Sate went cold. The Buckeyes missed seven straight shots, going five minutes without a point, while Cadeau got cooking. He turned the corner for a layup, threw a lob for an and-one to Mara and then hit a pair of free throws to contribute to a 7-0 run.
Ohio State didn’t go quietly and got back within one on a Thornton 3 as part of an 8-2 run, only for Cadeau to throw up another lefty lob to Mara for a slam to go back up, 55-52. That started a run by Mara where he added a midrange jumper, then two free throws (making it 14 of 15 made free throws over his past seven games) to put Michigan back up seven.
Familiar strengths, weaknesses define first half
Michigan used its depth early on to keep energy on the court and overhwelm the Buckeyes. Most of the punch off the bench came in the form of McKenney, who had a stretch where he scored eight out of 10 Michigan points in just four minutes to go up 20-11.
The Wolverines also did a good job pushing in transition. Michigan went up 7-0 early on a transition Nimari Burnett 3-pointer, then later got back-to-back fastbreak buckets on a Burnett dunk and Cadeau 3 before Lendeorg threw down an emphatic slam on the run to put Michigan up, 29-18, its largest lead of the half.
From there, OSU would chip away. Some of it came on the offensive glass, where a Brandon Noel offensive tip-in sparked a 12-4 run, which included seven points by Thornton, to get within 35-33.
Then, U-M got on the move again, when an OSU fastbreak turned into a giveaway, before Lendeborg got the loose ball, threw an outlet up court to Roddy Gayle Jr., who lobbed it up for a Mara slam.
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball Big Ten Tournament score in win vs Ohio State