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In their first action since Jan. 22, a 23-day span, the No. 3 Michigan Wolverines topped the No. 21 Wisconsin Badgers, 67-59, on Sunday at the Kohl Center in Madison.
Senior Isaiah Livers led the way for the Wolverines with a game-high 20 points, his third-straight outing reaching the 20-point benchmark, while sophomore swingman Franz Wagner finished with 14, and standout freshman center Hunter Dickinson recorded his fourth career double-double, tallying 11 points and 15 rebounds.
With the win, Michigan improved to 14-1 (9-1 Big Ten), but this triumph did not come as easy as many in 2020-21 have, as the Wolverines trailed by 14 points with 27 seconds left in the first half and were faced with a 12-point deficit, 39-27, at the halftime break.
Despite the tall task ahead of them, Michigan’s confidence remained unshaken.
“Our leader, our boss, Coach (Juwan) Howard walked in clapping his hands, he’s smiling, he’s talking about where this is where we want to be,” Livers said. “We’ve been in this situation before. If not in a game, then in a practice, in a scrimmage, find some way to put yourself in this situation, like you’ve already been there, and we did that exactly. Nobody was pointing fingers, nobody was upset, we just knew we were down 12, and we were in a great spot.
“We weren’t going to make any excuses, we wanted to come back out and play our basketball, and that’s what we did. We stayed true to the system and it blessed us, we came out with a big road (win).”
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While the Wolverines picked it up on the offensive end in the second half, scoring 40 points in the game’s final 20 minutes, it was the defensive end where the team suffocated the Badgers, holding them to just 20 points after the break, including only eight in the final 10:56.
“We kind of thought about who wants it more, not saying they didn’t want it, but, obviously, the team that comes out with the victory is the team that wants it more,” Livers said.
“You could see it in our eyes, you could see it in our expression, our body language, we were just really excited, we were grateful. Coach (Howard) talked about just being grateful because the game could be taken away from us again, so, we try to take it game-by-game.
“I thought we were super locked-in, guys were flying around, and playing that Michigan basketball defense that we know how to play.”
Livers’ 20 points came on 50 percent shooting (8-of-16) and 57 percent (4-of-7) from 3-point range. The only blemish on his statistical line was his 0-for-1 effort from the free throw line, which was the first thing he brought up during his postgame media availability.
Even with the miss from the charity stripe, Livers remains among the conference’s best in this department at 91.8 percent (34-of-37).
Seemingly picking up where he left off before the state-mandated pause, the senior talked about the mindset he kept during the layoff.
“That pause, I knew what was going to happen, everybody was going to talk about rusty, tired, I knew,” he said. “That’s why I was outside, I was doing jump ropes, I was doing everything necessary to stay in shape and a lot of other guys were, too. We had a program, we stayed true to it, and, obviously, the outcome, we’re getting back in our rhythm, that Michigan basketball rhythm, but, at the end of the day, it was a great performance, I’m really proud of our guys for staying locked in, rising to adversity.”
Fortunately, Wolverine fans will not have to wait nearly as long between games this time around, as Michigan will return to the Crisler Center to battle the No. 25 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (12-7, 8-7) on Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on FS1.
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