Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from win over Minnesota

Michigan basketball survived against Minnesota Tuesday night thanks to a last-second buzzer beater from Charles Matthews. Here are three takeaways.

Charles Matthews ended up being the hero for Michigan basketball against Minnesota, as the senior knocked down a game-winning shot that gave the Wolverines a 59-57 victory.

However, what we should not lose sight of is the fact that the game should have never gotten to that point. Michigan basketball, even after suffering its first loss of the season, came out sluggish.

Minnesota built an early 18-9 lead as the Wolverines connected on just three of their first 20 shot attempts. The cold shooting from beyond the arc would continue all night as Michigan basketball would finish just 3-of-22, which was a good reason why UM failed to 60 points for the second straight game.

What made it even more frustrating was that just minutes before Matthews saved the day, After falling behind 37-30 early in the second half, Michigan went on a 22-2 run, which put the Wolverines in front 52-39.

A Matthews free threw put Michigan ahead 55-45, then Jon Teske made a jumper to make it 57-47 with just under five minutes to go. The Wolverines wouldn’t score again until less than a second remained on the clock.

Minnesota rallied and tied the game with just over 30 seconds left, yet Matthews was able to scoop up the ball after an Ingas Brazdeikis miss and win the game.

Iggy scored 18 points and had a big second half. Teske also had 15, while Matthews only 7. Jordan Murphy had 15 points and 11 boards to pace the Gophers. Michigan is now 18-1 on the season and 7-1 in the Big Ten and here are three takeaways looking at what it all means.