Shea’s Saturday
On Saturday, potential
transfer Shea Patterson
became the focal point of
Michigan’s matchup with
UCLA.
» SportsMonday Column,
Page 2B
A potential answer
With his 15-point outing
against the Bruins,
sophomore Zavier Simpson
may have brought clarity
to Michigan’s point guard
battle. » Page 3B
MONDAY
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | December 11, 2017
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Michigan 78
Michigan tops Bruins thanks to 15-point comeback
Blink, and you might have
missed the Michigan men’s
basketball team’s comeback.
Blink
again,
and
you
wouldn’t have seen UCLA
take back control of the game.
If you blinked a third time,
an apology is due.
Despite
lackadaisical
frontcourt
defense
and
inconsistent
shooting
that
resulted in a 15-point deficit,
Michigan used a late run led
by junior forward Moritz
Wagner
and
sophomore
guard Zavier Simpson to
push the game into overtime,
where the Wolverines flew
past the Bruins to win, 78-69.
“These last stretches we
just all looked each other in
the eye and we said we’re
gonna ride or die regardless
of the results,” said redshirt
sophomore
Charles
Matthews. “So when we came
out there we said, ‘Look, if
we lose we lose, but let’s go
out there like some dogs, like
some soldiers. Lay it out on the
line.’ ”
Trailing by six points late
in the second half, Wagner
hit two 3-pointers and added
a fast-break dunk to trim
the deficit to two — UCLA’s
smallest lead since 4:15 in
the first half. Wagner also
brought a defensive intensity
previously unseen in the
contest to stymie the Bruins’
low-post offense.
From there, the undoing
of UCLA’s lead came at the
hands of Simpson. First
came an improbable scoop
off the glass as the shot clock
expired at the 2:35 mark.
Then came a steal and fast-
break layup with 18 seconds
left to reduce the deficit to
one.
“(Simpson)
gave
us
a
spark halfway through the
second half,” Wagner said.
“Just contesting everything,
stealing a lot, deflecting a
lot of the balls. We were
running the heck out of the
ball, too.”
Simpson’s
starting
counterpart,
Eli
Brooks,
had his own career-defining
moment. The freshman hit
two game-tying free throws
with 10 seconds remaining to
send the game to overtime.
“How about that?” John
Beilein asked. “I don’t think,
if you guys checked, that he’d
made two in a row all year
long. He always missed one
of them. … For the freshman
to be in that stage late in the
game. That was huge for
him to go in and knock them
down. It shows a lot about
Eli.”
In the extra period, it
was all Michigan. Simpson’s
career day — he had a career-
best 15 points — continued
immediately with a three
from the top of the key.
Matthews followed suit, and
UCLA could never make up
for the offensive barrage.
The comeback was much-
needed for the Wolverines,
who surrendered a 20-point
lead to Ohio State in their
previous game. The fact that
they were even competitive
in the contest, evidenced by
a poor shooting display from
the free throw line, seemed
improbable.
“I’ve never seen anything
like
this,”
Beilein
said.
“When you go 8-for-22 from
the foul line and you win
a game, it’s really a great
testimony to our kids that we
did everything that we could
to play inefficient basketball,
but when we really needed
to suck it up and get work
done at the end, we got it
done. I’m hoping it’s a huge
benchmark for our team as
we go forward.”
Michigan
should
consider itself lucky to have
been down by just three
points at halftime, given
that the Wolverines were
outrebounded by a lopsided
26-10 margin — 41-30 for the
game — and fared marginally
better with their frontcourt
defense. The line between a
narrow deficit and a blowout
was perimeter defense —
Michigan allowed only one
trey and forced 12 UCLA
turnovers in the half, an effort
spearheaded by Simpson.
Meanwhile, Bruins center
Thomas Welsh had his way
with Wagner down low,
going 5-for-6 with eight
boards in the first 20 minutes.
Wagner almost responded in
kind, with an 11-point, three-
rebound output of his own in
the first half.
Like last year’s matchup
between the two sides, the
Wolverines took a nosedive
to start the second half. They
had as many turnovers in five
minutes as they did in the
first half, and they continued
to have difficulty containing
Welsh.
But
in
a
two-minute
stretch,
Matthews
had
had enough. The redshirt
sophomore
went
on
a
personal 8-0 run to cut
into UCLA’s lead. Just as
Michigan
seemed
to
be
turning a corner, an off-
balance, shot clock-beating
3-pointer from Bruins guard
Aaron Holiday halted its
momentum.
“I felt like I lost these past
two games for us because I
wasn’t really bringing a lot
of energy,” Matthews said. “I
can’t let my teammates down
again. This team looks at me
a lot to step up when we’re
down and I need to do what I
need to do.”
The Wolverines, of course,
didn’t take long to regain
that
momentum.
Their
electrifying late-game run
catapulted them to a win they
badly needed, and offered
a glimpse of what this team
could look like come March.
Two
non-conference
losses and a tough upcoming
date at Texas is about what
Michigan’s
tournament
résumé expected to look like
at this point. But a 15-point
comeback victory over UCLA
surely sweetens the deal for a
team battling inconsistency.
“The
journey
of
this
team,” Beilein said shaking
his head, “and of you all
that happen to be fans (who)
are trying to figure out
what Michigan is going to
show up: get used to it. Our
personality, our identity is
not there yet.
“… Just hang on, I’m
trying to hang on.”
ETHAN WOLFE
Daily Sports Editor
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THE
FACTOR
UCLA 69
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
DESIGN BY JACK SILBERMAN