Michigan Basketball wins at Maryland, keeps hope alive in Big Ten

Michigan basketball needed a win at Maryland to have any hope of winning the Big Ten regular season championship and the Wolverines delivered a road win.

The Michigan basketball team may not win the Big Ten regular-season championship when it’s all said and done, but in a key road win at Maryland Sunday, the Wolverines certainly looked the part.

Without Charles Matthews and playing on the road against the No. 17 team in the country, a team that had won seven straight games at home in the Big Ten, Michigan basketball never blinked and with some clutch 3-pointers in the second half, the Wolverines beat Maryland 69-62.

For the game, the Wolverines finished just 6-of-20 from 3-point range. However, Michigan got some key makes down the stretch, with one each from Ignas Brazdeikis, Jon Teske and Isaiah Livers, who scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds starting in place of Matthews.

Livers finished 3-of-8 from deep in the win and knocked down a clutch trey with just over a minute left to put Michigan basketball up eight. That came on the heels of a 3-pointer by Iggy that put the Wolverines up 51-45 and another key triple from Teske.

Without Matthews attacking the basket, Brazdeikis took on more of a scoring role and put together one of his best games this season with 21 points. He made 2-of-4 shots from three and hit 7-of-8 free throws.

Zavier Simpson was also one of five Wolverines to score in double figures and he finished with 12 points to go along with 10 assists. Jordan Poole also contributed with 12 points. Teske also did his part with another double-double as he had 11 points and 10 boards in the win.

As far as the Big Ten title race is concerned, it puts Michigan alone in second for the time being at 15-4. The Wolverines are a half-game behind Purdue which is 15-3 and a half game ahead of Michigan State, which is 14-4 after a loss to Indiana Saturday.

The Boilermakers are still in the driver’s seat for the Big Ten championship but have two road games ahead of them this week. Purdue will play at Northwestern and then at Minnesota.

Michigan will need Purdue to lose at least one of those games and if that happens, Michigan will be playing for a share of the championship next Saturday night at Michigan State.

At the very least, the Wolverines have clinched a double-bye in the Big Ten tournament and the win over Maryland, which was Michigan’s third on the road against a top-25 team, should help them maintain a position as a No. 2 seed with the NCAA tournament right around the corner.