Shorthanded Michigan basketball gets biggest win of the season, at Rutgers, 58-45

Joey Baker turned the corner and tried to drive the lane, but hit a wall.

Michigan basketball's senior, making his second start of the season in place of the injured Jett Howard, stopped on a dime, spun and kicked the ball out to a trailing Hunter Dickinson. The 7-foot-1 junior center caught and released in one motion before he held the pose as he watched the ball swish through the net.

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It gave Michigan an eight point lead early in the second half, forced a Rutgers timeout and felt like the moment Michigan fully believed it could pull off its most important test of the year.

And Juwan Howard's club did just that.

Down their second leading scorer in Howard, with their backs against the wall desperate for a signature win to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive, the Wolverines put their best defensive performance together of the season and rode their two healthy stars in Dickinson and Kobe Bufkin as well as freshman Dug McDaniel to overcome a horrific start and pick up a critical road win, 58-43, over Rutgers at Jersey Mikes Arena.

McDaniel scored a team-high 15, Bufkin scored 14 and Dickinson tallied his ninth double-double of the year with 13 points and 11 rebounds. It's the Wolverines' (16-12, 10-7 Big Ten) second straight victory and third Quad I win of the season; Rutgers was previously 17-1 the first 18 times it held an opponent this season to fewer than 65 points.

Michigan will host Wisconsin on Sunday for senior day before its final two games of the season, at Illinois next Thursday and at Indiana the following Sunday.

Making timely plays

The aforementioned Dickinson long ball put Michigan up 36-28, before Rutgers got a 3-pointer by Cam Spencer and layup by Omouryi to get within three. Dickinson and Omouryi exchanged another pair of buckets before McDaniel sandwiched a pair of buckets around a Paul Mulcahy And-1 layup to put U-M up four, 42-38.

It would never get closer than that.

Williams, playing for his first time since he missed the past two games with a knee contusion, made a bucket from the free throw line before Bufkin hit a step-back jumper to put U-M back up eight and barked to the U-M bench as he ran back down court.

After Spencer got a floater to fall to stop the run, McDaniel came up with a steal on a McConnell pass and made a jumper to go up 48-40 − Michigan out-scored Rutgers 17-3 on points off turnovers.

From there, the Wolverines used their suffocating defense to close the game. Rutgers went 4-for-17 from the floor over the final 13:10 of the game. The Scarlett Knights, who scored 13 points in the first six minutes, scored only 32 over the final 34 minutes.

The Wolverines closed the game on an 18-7 run.

First half of runs

Early on, it looked as if Michigan wasn't even going to keep it close.

Rutgers went up 6-3 less than three minutes in; a Dug McDaniel 3-pointer got the Wolverines on the board but it was the only time they would see the ball go through the hoop for a while.

The Scarlett Knights then made three straight buckets, consecutive finishes at the rim by Clifford Omoruyi before Caleb McConnell − the team's best perimeter defender who missed Saturday's game at Wisconsin and didn't practice this week − made a transition 3-pointer 16 seconds after he checcked in to put the Scarlett Knights up 13-3 with 14:00 to play.

Michigan, during that stretch, couldn't make a shot. Baker missed four times, Dickinson twice, and McDaniel, Bufkin, Tschetter and Williams − who played for the first time since he missed the past two games with a bruised knee − all missed once.

U-M was 1-for-13 in the first eight-plus minutes of the game and 1-or-8 on 3-pointers.

However Scarlett Knights subbed out their star center Omouryi and the Wolverines countered by getting the ball down low to Dickinson. He hit a turn-around left-handed hook on one possession, before he threw down a slam after a pick-and-roll with Bufkin.

Bufkin hit a corner 3-pointer on the next possession before he turned the corner for a left-handed layup, U-M's fourth consecutive made field goal to go on a 9-0 run and get within 13-12.

Rutgers countered with a 6-0 run of its own when Michigan went more than three minutes without a point, but didn't fully capitalize, going just 1-for-4 from the free throw line on two trips during that stretch. It was a story of the first half for Steve Pikiell's team, which went 3-for-11 from the charity stripe in the first 20 minutes.

Jace Howard knocked down a corner 3 to end the Knights' run, then after an Omoruyi put back dunk the Wolverines made a push.

Bufkin hit a corner 3, Dickinson made a hook shot to give U-M its first lead of the night and Baker knocked down a long ball of his own as Michigan put togeteher a 13-2 run to take a 25-21 lead with just more than two minutes to play.

The Wolverines out-rebounded Rutgers 20-15 in the opening half and took a 26-23 lead into the locker room.

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

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball earns biggest win of season, 58-45, at Rutgers