Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Michigan
Men's Basketball Holds On at Michigan, 58-54
1/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan 16, 2002
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Tavaras Hardy recorded his fourth double-double of the season, with 19 points and 11 rebounds, leading Northwestern to a 58-54 over Michigan at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor Wednesday night.
It was Northwestern's first Big Ten win of the season--the Wildcats are 9-6, 1-3 in the Big Ten--and the second straight victory for the Wildcats in Ann Arbor. The last time that happened was 1959-60.
Winston Blake added 10 points for Northwestern, which committed a season-low seven turnovers on offense and held Michigan (6-8, 2-3 Big Ten) to 39 percent shooting at the other end.
Deviating from their pattern of late, the Wildcats got off to a quick 7-0 lead by holding Michigan scoreless for nearly five minutes to start the contest. A 10-point run pushed the Northwestern to a 21-9 lead, and that advantage held to halftime (31-19) despite the fact the Wildcats did not score for the half's final 4:23.
NU blanketed Michigan again to start the second half, but could only score four points itself before U-M's LaVell Blanchard--the Wolverines' leading scorer with 15.1 ppg entering the contest--hit a pair of free throws for his first two points of the game. Blanchard then rattled off five more points on a 9-0 run that got the Wolverines within seven, 35-28, with 11 minutes left.
Michigan continued chipping into Northwestern's lead, drawing as close as one point when Dommanic Ingerson hit a 3-pointer with 3:21 to play. However, consecutive trips down the floor led to a pair of Hardy buckets, making the score 52-47 with less than two minutes to play.
Collier Drayton hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to make the score 54-47 with 1:10 to play, before Michigan's Avery Queen quickly hit a trey. After a Michigan timeout, Northwestern threw the ball out of bounds trying to inbound, and the Wolverines made the mistake stand up as Bernard Robinson, Jr., hit a jumper that made the score 54-52.
Hardy was immediately fouled, and hit the first of two to up NU's lead to three, then Blanchard put back a missed three-point attempt which made the score 55-54, Northwestern.
In perhaps the most important possession of the game, Northwestern inbounded with 43 seconds left in the game, then ran the shot clock all the way down until just one second was left on it. That was when Vedran Vukusic found Jason Burke on a backdoor cut, making the score 57-54 with 8.8 seconds to play.
NU applied soft pressure coming out of a timeout, then fouled Queen with 3.4 seconds left to set up a 1-and-1 situation. Queen missed the first, and Aaron Jennings grabbed the rebound. He was fouled, and hit one to ice the win.
Blanchard ended the contest with 11 points, while Robinson, Jr., and Queen had 10 apiece.
Northwestern is back in action Saturday, hosting Iowa at 7 p.m. at Welsh-Ryan Arena. It will be the second meeting between these teams in 10 days--on January 9, the Hawkeyes grabbed a 70-60 win in Iowa City.
Excerpts from this story came from the Associated Press story on the game
