Michigan basketball survives huge push from Penn State to hold on for 76-72 win

Posted by author January 28, 2025 Basketball

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Survive and advance is normally a theme saved for March, but that quickly became the name of the game for Michigan basketball Monday night in late January against Penn State.

The Wolverines were on short rest after getting blown out Friday at Mackey, not to mention short-handed with star center Vlad Goldin limited in minutes due to illness. Faced with a scrappy Penn State team which hasn’t won a league game away from home but has been within two possessions in five of its league losses, Dusty May’s team simply had to find a way.

It did exactly that, thanks to Tre Donaldson’s heroics. Michigan looked as if it was on its way to a third loss in four games, down by five with less than two minutes to play, only to finish the game on a 9-0 run in the final 102 seconds to pull out a thrilling 76-72 win over Penn State

Michigan made 12 3-pointers, none bigger than Donaldson’s game-winner with 24 ticks to go. The Wolverines also finally won the turnover battle (18-9) which proved just enough to defeat the Nittany Lions.

It was never easy as the game was tied six times and lead changed hands 10 times, but U-M’s leaders did enough as Donaldson scored 21 points and had seven assists, Danny Wolf had 11 points and nine rebounds and Nimari Burnett scored 10.

The end result is a massive win for Michigan (15-5, 7-2 Big Ten) which is still flirting with the upper tiers of the league and now enters a February gauntlet that begins Saturday at Rutgers (3:30 p.m., Fox).

Finding a way to win

Penn State led 67-65 when Donaldson finished a contested layup to tie the score.

After both teams traded empty possessions, Zach Hicks kicked the pass out to Freddie Dilione V who made the long ball to go up 70-67 with 3:05 to play.

On the other side of a timeout, Roddy Gayle Jr. slashed down the open lane but missed a slam dunk. Dilione threw up a desperation shot at the end of the clock on Penn State’s next possession, but the Nittany Lions got the rebound, Ace Baldwin Jr. was fouled and he made two free throws to go up five.

After a U-M timeout, Donaldson found Gayle on a back-door cut for the slam, then Baldwin turned it over to give U-M the ball back. After Burnett’s game-tying long ball rattled out, Michigan got the rebound and with 58 seconds left Donaldson hit a mid-range jumper to get within one.

On the ensuing possession, Wolf swatted a Nick Kern Jr. layup attempt, before Donaldson drilled the game-winning long ball with 24 seconds to play.

Baldwin, who finished with 15 points for PSU and played all 40 minutes, missed a go-ahead jumper with seven seconds left and Donaldson closed the game from the stripe.

An opening slog

It was a cleaner start for the Wolverines, who led 12-7 at the first media timeout.

Six of U-M’s points came in the paint while the other six came on a pair of 3s by Wolf and Will Tschetter. All Penn State could manage early was four free throws and a 3-pointer by Baldwin off an offensive rebound.

From there, however, both teams heated up. Michigan made seven of eight shots, which included 3-pointers by Donaldson, Justin Pippen and Burnett, who also added a slam dunk on a full-court outlet pass from Goldin.

Goldin was listed as “questionable,” pregame and didn’t participate in his usual warmup routine to “conserve energy” and it showed. It was his least effective game in nearly two months, scoring just four points and grabbing three rebounds in 17 minutes.

The problem during U-M’s early hot shooting stretch, it also had three giveaways in three minutes — two of which were Baldwin steals for layups — which helped the Nittany Lions keep it close. Penn State tied the game at 17 on a Kern free throw, then again at 23 on a spinning layup by Yanic Konan Niederhauser.

From there both sides would cool. After U-M made five of its first seven long tries, it missed its next six tries until Rubin Jones hit a desperation 3 at the end of the shot clock, ending a game stretch of 5:50 where both sides each scored just five points.

Neither team led by more than two possessions at any point in the opening half, and even though Donaldson found Gayle on a highlight alley-oop late, the teams went into the break tied as Penn State kept it tight by out-rebounding U-M 20-9, which led to a 10-2 advantage on second chance points, and made 8 of 10 free throws compared to 1 of 3 for U-M.

Short in the second half

Penn State punched first in the second half, going up by three early, when U-M finally got going.

Wolf hit Donaldson in the right corner for a transition 3, then after Donaldson missed a shot from the same spot, he got his own rebound and put it back to take the lead. On the next trip, Goldin made a layup on a nice spinning handoff from Gayle, before Wolf made a long ball from the left wing on a swing from Donaldson to cap a 10-0 run and give U-M its largest lead to that point, 47-40.

Michigan appeared to be pulling away when Burnett dropped a 30-foot 3-pointer from the right wing, only for Baldwin to return the favor with Wolf smothering him.

Moments later, Michigan had a possession where Burnett missed a pair of long 3-pointers, then Donaldson missed one of his own, but U-M got all three offensive rebounds and on the fourth try, Jones buried it from the top of the key to go up 55-47 — May clapped from the sideline in approval.

Michigan was up eight when Kern hit a hook in the lane, then Baldwin made a transition 3 after a Jones behind-the-back-pass was picked off, and all of a sudden, it was a three-point game.

U-M got its lead back out to seven when Sam Walters hit a 3 from the right wing, only for Penn State to respond with a 15-3 run before U-M closed the game 9-0.

Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.