Michigan basketball’s regular season is winding down. The Wolverines had three games left, including Sunday’s rematch against the Wisconsin Badgers.
The maize and blue fell to Wisconsin three games ago by five points. But Michigan was on a two game win streak entering its homestand against the Badgers. In order for Michigan to get its third win in a row, the Wolverines would have to do it without Jett Howard for the second game in a row.
Wisconsin got out to a 17-9 start in the first eight minutes of the game. But behind a strong final 10 minutes of play, Michigan finished off the first half up 35-27. Hunter Dickinson had a strong first half scoring 12 points and Kobe Bufkin was right behind him scoring 10 of his own.
The Wolverines fumbled the second half away. Michigan turned the ball over seven times in the final 20 minutes which led to Wisconsin getting right back into the game. The final five minutes of regulation was back and forth and it appeared Wisconsin was going to take the W until Hunter Dickinson hit an improbable 3 as the clock drained to zero — the game headed to overtime.
But overtime proved to belong to Michigan. The Wolverines — behind a strong overtime performance by Dug McDaniel — outscored Wisconsin 19-11 to take home an 87-79 victory.
Here are our three takeaways.