Michigan Basketball survives Minnesota in Overtime: 3 takeaways for UM

Michigan basketball found a way to beat Minnesota, but it wasn’t pretty. Here are three takeaways from a troubling performance against the Gophers.

When you get into conference play, style points aren’t the most important thing and it’s a good thing for Michigan basketball, because the Wolverines were sloppy in a 76-73 overtime win over Minnesota.

Heading into Saturday’s game, the Golden Gophers had won one of seven games. They were also without two of their best players. Yet, Minnesota didn’t back down and Michigan basketball didn’t look ready.

After a poor shooting first half, the Wolverines found themselves trailing 34-32 at the break. Michigan shot 39 percent in the first 20 minutes and was 5-of-17 from 3-point range. In the second half, it wouldn’t get much better and the free throw line, would turn into a nightmare.

The Gophers jumped out to a 50-40 lead at around the midway point of the second half and things started to look dire for the Wolverines. It didn’t help that Michigan basketball wound up going 7-of-21 from the free throw line in the second half and overtime.

However, Michigan was finally able to take the lead back in the last minute and after a dunk by Charles Matthews, UM was up 63-58 with under 30 to go. Minnesota scored and got it down to three. Then, Duncan Robinson traveled and the Wolverines allowed a wide-open three to tie the game.

In overtime, the two teams went back-and-forth. Despite free-throw struggles, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman took over and notched a 3-point play with just seconds to go to win the game. Minnesota missed a game-tying triple and the game was over.

Michigan won the game despite shooting 42 percent from the line and 25 percent from 3-point range. Rahkman had 17. Wagner had 16 and 11 rebounds, while Matthews finished with 13 points and 11 boards. Simpson had 15 points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal.

Here are three takeaways from the Wolverines win.