Michigan basketball snaps 3-game skid, dominates Purdue to secure Big Ten Tournament semifinal spot

INDIANAPOLIS – The No. 3 seeded Michigan Wolverines ended their three-game losing streak by taking down the Purdue Boilermakers 86-68 to advance to the Big Ten Tournament semi-finals.

The No. 2 ranked Maryland Terrapins, who boat raced the Illinois Fighting Illini on Friday (March 14) inside the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, are awaiting them.

Wolverines head coach Dusty May said the team’s struggle to make it down the stretch of the season was due to tiredness and a lack of rest.

Brandon Carr: “Danny and Tre, coach has been preaching about rest and how tired you guys were down at the end of the season. How has this past week been, or how has it treated you guys this week heading into this game?”

Tre Donaldson: “I feel like we emphasized it for sure, just taking care of our bodies, the little things matter. That’s something coach always preaches. Just like being in the training room, getting ice, taking our stretching serious, things of that nature. Just making sure we’re focusing on that and not taking that lightly. I feel like we’ve done that as a team, and we really focus on that, and we were able to get our bodies right, and we were able to perform well tonight.”

Danny Wolf: “Obviously the rest part is big, but I think we also had two of our best practices in probably a month, two months. Just didn’t feel like we had the time to do that, and guys were energized, competitive, physical in practice. I think everyone was just in a better mood, and you also just feel better going into games when you have better practices. This past week was huge. Just hope we can carry it over into the weekend.”

However, Friday night’s matchup against the Boilermakers gave the Wolverines a double-bye, which included five days of rest since their last matchup and it showed.

1st half

The Boilermakers jumped out to a 6-0 lead to open the game, led by Trey Kaufman-Renn (4 points) and Braden Smith (2 points).

But Michigan went on a 10-0 run to take the early lead as Nimari Burnett scored seven points.

The Wolverines’ run went extended to 12-0 before Camden Heide drained a three-pointer.

Michigan with contributions from Danny Wolf (9 points), Will Tschetter (8 points), and Vladislav Goldin (5 points) jumped to a 26-16 lead but the Boilermakers backed by their home fans stormed back to cut into the 40-36 lead before halftime.

2nd half

The Wolverines came out of the locker room and opened the second half with a 5-0 run to take a 45-36 lead.

The lead jumped to 63-50 as guard play took over for the Wolverines.

It was a welcoming sight for Tre Donaldson, who could his jump shot after scoring three points in the first half. He knocked down plenty of three-pointers and easy bunnies in the second half to take control of the game.

He scored 10 points in the second half and finished with 13 overall in the victory.

Before getting in foul trouble, Rubin Jones (8 points) and L.J. Cason (6 points) looked like they found a second wind.

Wolf showed why he is a projected first-round pick by playing aggressively against the Boilermakers on both ends of the court.

He finished with another double-double, snagging 10 rebounds while leading the team in points with 18.

Although in foul trouble for most of the game, Goldin finished with 15 points and 8 rebounds in the victory.

Michigan will look to stay hot as they’ll tip-off Saturday afternoon at 3:30 against the Terrapins.