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The Michigan basketball team narrowly avoided a disastrous home loss to Penn State on Monday night thanks to some late-game heroics from Tre Donaldson. The Wolverines led for most of the game and there were a couple points in the second half where it looked like they were going to pull away. However, Penn State wouldn't back down, and the Nittany Lions ended up leading by five points with under two minutes to go. That's when Donaldson took over, and Michigan escaped with a 76-72 win.
With a little under seven minutes remaining in the game, Michigan held a 64-57 advantage and they were in good shape to get a win. Then, Penn State went on a 15-3 run and led 72-67 with under two minutes remaining.
Tre Donaldson was the hero for the Michigan basketball team as he orchestrated the improbable comeback. Donaldson first found Roddy Gayle Jr. for an open dunk to cut the lead to three, and then he hit a nice mid-range jumper to pull the Wolverines with one. His next shot was the big one, however.
Michigan's defense down the stretch was suffocating and it led to the Wolverines having a chance to take the lead in the final minute. Michigan only needed a two, but Donaldson saw an opportunity from beyond the arc, and he took it. He drained the triple, and that put the Wolverines up for good.
Michigan got another defensive stop after Donaldson's huge three, and then he iced the game at the free throw line as he put the Wolverines up 76-72.
When all was said and done, Tre Donaldson finished with 21 points on 8-13 shooting, and he was 3-7 from deep. He also added three rebounds and seven assists. Donaldson has had some situations late in games where his big shot didn't fall, but he got them all to drop on Monday.
“Well Tre's had a couple end of game situations. I think it was the last game, overtime game here where he got to the rim and it just didn't drop,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said after the game, according to an article from Rivals. “Made a really nice play, three or four footer hung on the rim and it didn't drop, so for him to still have the confidence to want to take the big shots. I mean his pull up off the sideline out of bounds was a high level shot. He elevated, raised up, knocked it in and then the crowd really got into it when he made that shot, and I thought defensively, because of the energy in the building, it elevated our defense, it distracted them and they made a turnover.”
Everything went right for Tre Donaldson down the stretch, and May was proud of his effort and overall performance.
“We had some success with the outside step up ball screens and so Danny [Wolf] in transition gave Tre a good hit and they were pushing back on him,” May continued. “They were forcing him to take the jump shots and he made a good decision, got to his go to move and knocked it down and then went up in traffic and made a real rebound and then came down and knocked down two huge free throws with four seconds left. Anything could happen so very, very proud of his confidence, his belief, his ability to stay the course.”
The Michigan basketball team needed that win as they were coming off of a blowout defeat at Purdue and had lost two out of their last three games. The Wolverines are now 15-5 on the year and they are 7-2 in Big Ten play, keeping up with the top teams in the conference.
Tre Donaldson and Michigan will be back in action on Saturday as they will hit the road to take on Rutgers. The Wolverines and Scarlet Knights will tip at 3:30 ET from Jersey Mike's Arena in Piscataway, New Jersey, and the game will be airing on Fox.
