Michigan wins back-to-back Big Ten Tournament Championships

After falling to Purdue in both regular season meetings by a combined five points, it was Michigan finding a nine-point win under the biggest spotlight possible.

U-M defeated the Boilermakers 75-66 to become the 2017-18 and back-to-back Big Ten Tournament Champions.

With the win, the Wolverines have won nine straight games this year and eight consecutive Big Ten Tournament wins.

Summary

Purdue sent Isaac Haas to the bench after making the Boilermakers first three field goals, and U-M made them pay with an 11-2 run to put together a 16-9 lead with 13:42 left in the first half.

Haas would return to the floor though and find a couple more buckets to help even the score up at 22-19 UM ahead nearing the seven minute mark.

Jon Teske would continue his huge first half, scoring 12 points and helping U-M shoot 53 percent from the field in the opening half. At the break U-M led 38-33.

The Wolverines committed zero turnovers and forced four of them from the Boilermakers in the first half. Purdue out-rebounded the Wolverines 7-2 on the offensive glass and added seven second chance points.

To start the second half, the Wolverines didn’t waste any time to get going.

Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman and Zavier Simpson both hit a pair of transition triples to guide U-M on a 8-0 run for a 48-37 lead at the 15:49 mark.

The Wolverines grew the lead to 12 points following a Moritz Wagner turn-around 3-pointer from the corner. U-M led 56-44 with 11:04 remaining in the second half.

The Wolverines just kept rolling as Teske threw down a thunderous slam dunk plus the foul and U-M led 68-52 with 3:32 to go.

The Boilermakers would fight back, as Haas put in a put-back to make it 73-63 in favor of the Wolverines with 2:01 remaining.

However, time simply ran out on PU as they couldn’t muster up enough offense in the closing minutes.

Wagner led the team with 17 points while adding two rebounds. Abdur-Rahkman had 15 points while Simpson added 10 points. Teske had 14 points off the bench with a pair of assists.

The Wolverines forced 11 turnovers and only committed five themselves. U-M’s bench scored 23 points and were out-rebounded 38-26.

Game notes

• U-M went 15-of-25 (60 percent) from the charity stripe, which is still a haunting stat.
• Moritz Wagner earned the Most Valuable Player of the Big Ten Tournament.
• U-M had 18 assists and shot 50 percent from the field.
• Simpson had two of the Wolverines six steals. He only allowed Vincent Edwards to score four points.
• Abdur-Rahkman and Wagner both made the All-Tournament team.