Michigan basketball upsets No. 9 Wisconsin, 72-68, ends skid on Juwan Howard's birthday

For the eighth time since Christmas, Michigan basketball led by nine points or more in the first half of a game.

For just the second time in that span, U-M was able to hold on — against No. 9 Wisconsin, no less.

The Wolverines fell behind by four early in the second half before their two big men, Tarris Reed Jr. and Will Tschetter, sparked a 19-6 surge that helped them flip the tide and upset the Badgers, 72-68, to snap a five-game losing streak and a skid that saw them lose 10 of their past 11 games dating back to mid-December.

It was about all coach Juwan Howard could ask for, on this, his 51st birthday.

"Very nice gift that the fellas said after in the locker room, basically said 'this is a birthday gift for you,'" Howard smiled postgame. "It's nice to know that our guys, with a smile on their face, get a chance to sleep on their pillow. Hopefully the food tastes a lot better than it did some other nights."

Dug McDaniel scored 16, Reed scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds; Tschetter scored 11 and when his 3-pointer with 5:45 to go rolled all the way around the rim and dropped, it felt like U-M's losing streak might finally end. Terrance Williams added 10 points and five rebounds, including key free throws late and Oliver Nkamhoua ended with eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Michigan (8-15, 3-9 Big Ten) remains at the bottom of the Big Ten, but picks up a Quad 1 win and will have five more opportunities to do so the next three weeks, including Saturday at Nebraska.

"Great man, it's great, that's all I can really say right now," Williams said. "Feels great to get in that win column. The second half lulls, it sucked that it kept happening, but this one felt great, I can't lie."

Wouldn't come easy

Tschetter held up three fingers as he ran back down the court with less than 6 minutes to play when his long ball gave Michigan a 63-54 lead.

"Rolled in, and all the way around the rim," Howard laughed. "That was a big 3."

But after Wisconsin had made just one of its previous 10 long balls, Max Klesmit and Chucky Hepburn made consecutive 3-pointers to chip away, while Williams made a tough fall away and a pair of free throws for Michigan to make it 67-60 with less than 3 minutes to play.

After an AJ Storr (game-high 20 points) layup made it a five-point game, he got an offensive rebound off a missed free throw and made the putback to get Wisconsin within three with 2:08 to play. After Nkamhoua turned the ball over on the offensive end, he made up for it with a block on defense before Howard called a timeout.

Out of the stoppage in play, McDaniel made a floater with 1:14 to play.

"I just wanted to get him in an area where he was alone," Howard said. "With his athletic ability, speed, it's important that Dug has space to be able to get that ball received to him where it doesn't cause a turnover."

Klesmit answered with a pair of free throws to make it a three-point game, before McDaniel's next try at a layup didn't fall and Wisconsin called timeout with 43.6 ticks left to draw up another play.

Hepburn, who finished with 17, got a look at an open three from the top of the key, it went half way down and rattled out. After McDaniel made one free throw, Hepburn made a pair to make it 70-68 with 11.2 seconds left.

This time, McDaniel would make two free throws before a Wisconsin miss finished the game.

Down but not out

For a time, the game felt like another typical Michigan collapse. Burnett drilled a 3-pointer for a five-point lead early in the half, before Wisconsin's predictable 13-4 push gave it a lead. Klesmit got it started with a layup, followed by two bunnies from Tyler Wahl, another by Hepburn and then Storr who caught a weak-side lob for the one-point lead.

When Hepburn completed a three-point play and Storr finished in the paint to give the Badgers a 48-44 lead, it felt like the beginning of yet another familiar story as the Badgers ultimately outscored U-M in the paint, 40-20.

However as Howard has asked of his team for so many weeks, the body language did not change. This time, U-M got off the mat.

"It was more about the mental stability part and I have to commend our guys," Howard said. "When teams make runs, there's times where trust is lost, times where doubt creeps in. But we talked about it over and over.

"Practice sessions, showed on film, but tonight was a different story and it was great that our guys responded when we needed them to."

Williams hit a mid-range jumper, Nkamhoua made scored three straight points, then after Tschetter drew a charge for Steven Crowl's fourth foul with 11:36 to play, he stepped up and knocked down a 3-pointer to give U-M a 52-48 lead and cap an 8-0 run.

"You know what you’re going to get out of Will," Reed said of his fellow center. "He’s going as hard as he can, so if fhe makes a mistake, you know it's okay, he's probably going to get it back on defense."

Though Wahl would answer with a layup to cut the lead in half, Michigan would continue its offensive push thanks to the big man, Reed.

He calmly knocked down a pair of free throws, then after a Tschetter layup, Reed threw down a ferocious slam and made a pair of free throws to give U-M a 60-52 lead.

Classic first half

Michigan’s hot shooting start in the first half was punctuated when Williams hit a mid-range jumper, Burnett drilled a 3-pointer then Nkamhoua knocked down a 3-pointer of his own to cap a 9-4 Michigan run and take a 19-15 lead with 11:42 in the half.

Consecutive buckets by Crowl knotted the game, only for McDaniel to spark the Wolverines' best run of the half.

The sophomore point guard made two straight slashing layups before he drilled a heat-check three pointer from the right wing to score seven straight U-M points and build a six-point cushion. Jaelin Llewellyn followed suit when he drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key to force a Badgers timeout, then after a Wisconsin bucket, a pair of Tray Jackson free throws capped a 12-3 run and gave Michigan a 31-22 lead.

The margin didn't last long. Wisconsin immediately answered with an 11-3 run and got the game back within a point when Wahl made a spinning layup from the right block, but Tschetter scored the final points of the half to go into the break up 37-33.

The Wolverines shot well in the first half, going 14 of 26 (54%) from the floor and 4 of 11 from long range (36%); but perhaps more importantly were the hustle stats — even if the margins were tight — like rebounds (17-11).

Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @realtonygarcia.

Next up: Cornhuskers

Matchup: Michigan (8-15, 3-10 Big Ten) at Nebraska (16-7, 6-6 entering Wednesday).

Tipoff: 6:30 p.m. Saturday; Pinnacle Bank Arena, Lincoln, Nebraska.

TV/radio: Big Ten Network; WWJ-AM (950).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball reverses trend, tops No. 9 Wisconsin, 72-68