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Talk about a tale of two halves. And a heart attack inducing finish.
Michigan has had an emotion-filled last week or so of basketball, which tends to be the case in the Big Ten conference. It was apparent that it wore on them early on in the showdown with Maryland on Monday night at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, which resulted in a 68-67 win.
They were down big, then went up by a decent margin, blew a late lead and trailed in the final seconds before Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman got to the free throw line for his 999th and 1000th career points to give the Wolverines a one-point win.
Moritz Wagner followed up a career day in East Lansing to lead the Wolverines with another double-double. He finished the game with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
A second-half surge that led the team to victory was sparked by freshman microwave Jordan Poole, who hit three three-pointers in the game and finished with 11 points.
Coming off their upset win at Michigan State Saturday afternoon, the Wolverines came out of the gates about as cold as they have been all season long, shooting 9-for-29 in the first half and heading into the locker room down 30-20.
Michigan came out on fire in the second half, scoring the first 10 points of the half to tie the game at 30 before Maryland went on a 6-0 run to take a 36-30 lead at the 15:02 mark of the second half.
The Wolverines were not to be phased, however. Michigan would make five three-pointers in five possessions as they continued to trade blows with Maryland and would hold a 45-44 lead at the 11:48 point left in the game.
At one point in the second half, Michigan made 8-of-10 of its shots from beyond the arc.
However, the Wolverines did cool down in the second half and Maryland was able to get back into the game, trailing only 59-54 with under three minutes to play.
The Terrapin would take the lead on a Kevin Hueter three-pointer to give them a 67-66 lead before the free throws from MAAR iced the game for the Wolverines.
With the win, U-M is now 16-4 overall and 5-2 in the Big Ten conference. Their next test comes in the form of a road trip to take on Nebraska on Thursday night.