Michigan Wolverines beat UCLA Bruins 79-63; Claim 3rd position in Maui Invitational: NCAA Basketball
After failing against the Duke Blue Devils, Michigan Wolverines came back strongly against UCLA Bruins on Wednesday night in the 3rd/4th position playoff spot in the Maui Invitational . Michigan wrapped up
UCLA 79-63 and owed a major share of gratitude to the brilliance of guard Zack Novak and Tim Hardaway Jr.
Novak tallied game-high 22 points together with three boards and one assist while Tim chipped in with 20 points along with four assists and four rebounds.
Michigan displayed a good all round performance, but especially dominated UCLA from the field. Wolverines knocked down 61.7 shots from the floor. In comparison, Bruins shot just 41.8 percent from the field including 23.5 percent
from beyond the arc.
"We are taking probably too many 3-point shots," UCLA coach Ben Howland said after the game. "I don't know how much that was forced by their defence, but we're not shooting the ball well from 3. We're going to have to be more patient
offensively, and we're going to have to pack things in better."
Until the first six minutes of the first half both teams went almost head to head. However, things changed swiftly as Michigan outscored UCLA 11-0 and pushed the score to 19-8.
UCLA managed to cut the deficit down to five points (21-26), however Michigan halted their rally and secured the first half with an advantage of 38-31. Michigan’s Jon Horford scored all his 12 points in the first half of the game.
Wolverines finally broke free in the second half.
They pushed the lead in the double-digits (53-43) once again, with more than 11 minutes to go in the game and then reeled off a 10-3 run, capped by a trey from Hardaway to make it 63-47. With 2:27 remaining, the Wolverines took
their lead to 75-55 and then played through the motion to seal the win, 79-63.
Forward Travis Wear, was the top scorer for UCLA with 16 points. Jerime Anderson and Joshua Smith also had 12 points apiece.
UCLA coach Howland was disappointed at the defeat and said after the game,
"It's really obvious that we have a long way to go to be able to compete against the teams on our schedule that are left. It's going to be a hard fight. Our guys have to be willing to get to work. Nothing's easy. We're going to
have to really, really fight hard to get it together in practice."
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