With the Big Ten now including west coast teams, four plus hour flights and three hour time zone changes for road games might be a little challenging. Michigan Basketball’s team seemed to adjust well as they spent several days out in California this week for games against USC and UCLA and came out winners in both of them.
Last night’s contest against the UCLA Bruins was the second game of the leg. With a 7 pm local time start (10 pm EST), Michigan was battling the No. 22 team in the land and looking to keep their Big Ten record perfect heading back home. Down a player, as Rubin Jones started in place of Roddy Gayle Jr. for Michigan to rest a sore knee, the Wolverines came out the gate and quickly went up 13-2 over the two and half point favorite Bruins. During that opening run, the Wolverines’ two 7-footers, Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf, combined for 10 of the first 13 points to give the maize and blue that early lead.
UCLA fell behind by 15 points midway through the first half after Wolf found Goldin for the dunk which he was fouled on. He converted the free throw putting the team ahead by that margin. Not much later, the Wolverines increased their lead to 18 points, their biggest of the first half and looked to be in control.
Michigan’s defense forced UCLA to start 0-8 from three point range but the Bruins went on a 10-2 run to close out the first half to keep the game interesting. Behind Goldin’s first half high of 21 points, the Wolverines were up ten going into the break. Michigan’s biggest challenge in many games this season has been taking care of the ball and if it weren’t for committing 11 (turnovers) in the first half of play against UCLA, the game would have probably been much more out of reach.
The home team Bruins started the second half strong, coming up with the first four points and cutting the deficit down to six. UCLA continued to fight back and chip away at the lead and with just about six minutes gone by in the second half, they found themselves with their first lead in the game after putting together a 15-4 run. The Bruins weren’t done, as their lead over the Wolverines increased to four when Eric Dailey Jr. was fouled after making a layup and completing the three point play at the foul line.
With Wolf, one of Michigan’s key big men, having to sit after getting his third personal foul, who would the Wolverines turn to. Fortunately Goldin stayed hot scoring five straight Wolverine’s points on his way to a 15 second half point effort and new career high of 36 points. Add to that, a spectacular performance by Michigan guards Nimari Burnett and Tre Donaldson, scoring 10 and 14 second half points respectively and the Wolverines were running away again. Up 16 points with three minutes left in the game, the “Lets Go Blue” chants that came from the Michigan fans in attendance signaled victory was in sight.
The Wolverines played more in control and cut their turnovers in half with just five in the second half of play to help them beat the favored Bruins. The win gives them a 12-3 record and 4-0 start in the Big Ten conference. Michigan shot 62% from the field including 15 of 28 from behind the arc (54%) for three in the game. A career high for Goldin of 36 points led all scorers in the game and the Wolverines also had Donaldson, Burnett and Wolf score in double figures (20, 17, and 12 points). Tyler Bilodeau contributed 17 points to lead the Bruins.
When asked about what he’s learned about his team in the trip playing the two games out West (USC and UCLA), Coach May stated “We have a lot of different weapons”, referring to other players stepping up with Gayle out with injury along with Goldin and Wolf in foul trouble against UCLA.
No. 24 Michigan (12-3) will return back to Ann Arbor and host the Washington Huskies (10-5) at home on Sunday. No. 22 UCLA (11-4) travels to take on the Maryland Terrapins (11-4) in College Park on Friday.
Final Score: Michigan 94 – UCLA 75
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