Never in doubt, right?
Eighth-seeded Michigan Basketball took down the nine-seed Northwestern Wildcats by a score of 72-70 in overtime on Thursday afternoon.
Duncan Robinson led the Wolverines with 21 points and four-for-six shooting from beyond the arc, while Zak Irvin and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman chipped in with 19 and 14 points, respectively.
Tre Demps and Alex Olah led the charge for the Wildcats with 21 and 20 points.
Michigan started the game off hot, leading 16-3 early on in the first half. Northwestern was able to tighten things up before the Wolverines stretched the halftime lead out to 34-25.
Olah was a no-show for much of the first half in this game, but came alive in the second half and hit the shot right before the end of regulation buzzer that tied the game at 60 and sent it to overtime.
The Wolverines were able to survive and advance despite only 2 points from Derrick Walton on the day, who was 0-for-7 from the field. Still, he played a key role down the stretch on defense. On an in-bounds pass at the end of overtime, Walton intercepted it and dribbled along the baseline to kill the clock. Replays showed that he stepped out of bounds with 0.6 seconds to play, giving the Wildcats one last chance to extended the game.
They were unable to do so.
Michigan now will take on top-seeded Indiana on Friday at noon needing a win to punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament. Despite the win over Northwestern they are still very much on the bubble and need their best game on Friday to get in.