Michigan basketball uses balanced attack to roll past Washington

James Hawkins, The Detroit News on Jan 12, 2025

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan coach Dusty May and the Wolverines made it a goal to fill up Crisler Center.

Consider it mission accomplished.

Off to its best start in Big Ten play in four seasons, No. 24 Michigan gave fans more reason to keep packing the stands with a 91-75 win over Washington on Sunday.

Vlad Goldin had 19 points to lead five double-digit scorers for Michigan (13-3, 5-0 Big Ten), while Nimari Burnett scored 16 on 6-for-6 shooting and made four of the team’s 11 3-pointers to push the win streak to five games.

Even though the Wolverines had to deal with foul trouble in their frontcourt much of the way, it didn’t prove detrimental. They built on a 10-point halftime lead and used a three-point play from Roddy Gayle Jr. to make it 55-42 early in the second half.

Michigan waded through a stagnant stretch where it had a four-minute scoring drought and Danny Wolf headed to the bench with his third foul. The Huskies (10-7, 1-5) couldn’t put a serious dent in the deficit, as they could only muster two free throws during a six-minute stretch.

Once Wolf checked back in, the Wolverines blew the game open. Wolf whipped a pass to Sam Walters for a corner 3-pointer. Two possessions later, Wolf knocked down a deep ball of his own during a 7-0 burst. Michigan pulled ahead 79-60 with 7:45 to go.

The Wolverines led by at least 13 points the rest of the way as they continued their best start to conference play since the 2020-21 campaign, when Michigan won the Big Ten regular-season title.

Gayle finished with 15 points, Walters scored 12 and Wolf had 11 points and eight rebounds for Michigan, which shot 52.7% from the field (29-for-55) but missed 10 free throws.

Great Osobor had 21 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out in the final minute for Washington. The Huskies shot 41.3% from the field (26-for-63) and finished with more turnovers (12) than Michigan (11).

Just like it did during its West Coast sweep of USC and UCLA, Michigan got off to a strong offensive start against new Big Ten member Washington.

Goldin capped a string of seven unanswered points by draining a 3-pointer on an out-of-bounds play. Wolf scored on a driving layup and backed down a defender for a finish at the rim. The Wolverines made six of their first nine shots as they jumped out to a 15-7 lead with 15:01 left in the first half.

Osobor kept Washington in striking distance and gave Michigan fits after Goldin picked up his second foul at the 13:44 mark. With Goldin on the bench, Osobor scored made four consecutive shots and scored 10 straight points for the Huskies.

Osobor stripped the ball away from Walters and scored in transition. He took advantage of a mismatch in the post and threw down an uncontested dunk. He even drained a 3-pointer to pull Washington within 23-20 midway through the half.

The Wolverines shrugged off Osobor’s hot stretch and extended the lead, even after Wolf joined Goldin with two fouls at the 8:23 mark. Gayle pulled down a rebound and went coast-to-coast for a layup to cap a stretch of six unanswered points. Burnett canned three 3-pointers over the final six minutes.

Michigan navigated the foul trouble with its big men down the stretch — including an alley-oop slam by Goldin off a half-court pass from Tre Donaldson — and took a 48-38 lead into the break.

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