Michigan beats Rutgers with Nimari Burnett’s buzzer beater, keep Big Ten title hopes alive

Nimari Burnett knocked down a game-winning three-pointer as time expired to lift the Wolverines past Rutgers 84-82 on Thursday. Michigan trailed by as much as 13 points before storming back for a thrilling win:

Nimari Burnett knocked down a game-winning three-pointer as time expired to lift the Michigan Wolverines past the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 84-82 on Thursday. Michigan trailed by as much as 13 points before storming back for a last-second win.

The Wolverines were in jeopardy of slipping into second place in the Big Ten standings before Burnett’s buzzer-beating shot saved the day. Burnett finished with 20 points as Michigan remained in a tie atop the Big Ten championship race.

Vlad Goldin led the Wolverines with 22 points and 11 rebounds on 8-of-10 shooting from the field, while Will Tschetter added 16 points off the bench. Dusty May’s team improved to 22-6 and 14-3 in Big Ten play with three games left in the regular season.

FIRST HALF

Michigan jumped out to an 8-5 lead heading into the first media timeout as Wolf found Goldin for a floater to get the scoring started, followed by Goldin returning the favor as he connected with Danny Wolf cutting down the lane for a dunk .

Tschetter checked into the game following the timeout and immediately made an impact, scoring seven straight points to extend the lead to 17-12. Michigan scored 14 of their first 17 points in the paint before Tschetter drilled a three-pointer.

Rutgers responded with an 8-0 run to take a 27-23 lead as the full court pressure caused problems for the Wolverines. The Scarlet Knights continued to shoot the lights out, knocking down five straight shots to extend the lead to 44-39.

Michigan ended the half on a 5-0 run to cut into the deficit as Rutgers took a 57-49 edge going into the locker room. Goldin led all scorers with 17 points in the first half but Rutgers shot 8-of-15 from three-point range to build a lead at halftime.

SECOND HALF

Burnett provided a much-needed spark in the early stages of the second half, scoring nine points in the first six minutes as the Wolverines trimmed the deficit to 65-60, but Rutgers quickly responded with a 7-0 spurt to regain momentum.

Michigan finally started to get some stops as Rutgers missed 12 straight shots and went scoreless for over five minutes. The Wolverines went on a 10-0 run in that span as Wolf finished a layup to cut the deficit to 74-72 with just 5:54 to go.

Just over a minute later, Wolf slipped a pass to Tschetter for a game-tying layup as Michigan erased a 13-point deficit. Dylan Harper regained the lead for Rutgers but Goldin answered on the other end, throwing down a dunk to tie it 78-78.

Tre Donaldson snuck into the lane for a layup to take an 81-80 edge in the final minute but the Wolverines point guard made a critical defensive mistake, fouling Darius Acuff on a three-point shot as Rutgers went up 82-81 with 12 seconds left.

It appeared the Wolverines were dead in the water, trailing by one point with only 3.6 seconds to go until Burnett drilled a buzzer-beating triple as time expired to complete the thrilling comeback and keep the Big Ten title hopes alive.

UP NEXT

With just three games remaining in the regular season, the Wolverines will look to keep the momentum going against the Illinois Fighting Illini on Sunday at the Crisler Center. Illinois currently sits at 18-11 and 10-8 in conference play.