[Westside]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 24 University of Michigan men's basketball team trailed for the majority of the first half before coming back to defeat Northwestern, 58-47, on Monday night (Jan. 29) inside Crisler Center. The Wolverines improved to 12-1 at home this season.

Junior Charles Matthews scored a team-high 14 points to go along with seven rebounds and a career-high three steals. Senior Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman added 11 points, followed by eight apiece from senior Duncan Robinson, junior Moritz Wagner and freshman Jordan Poole. Poole also dished out a career-high three assists.

The Maize and Blue committed a season-low five turnovers while forcing 16. The Wolverines were ranked sixth in the nation for turnovers per game (9.9) going into tonight's game.

Despite leading for 17:24 of the first half, Northwestern experienced a 7:06 scoring drought to finish out the half, allowing Michigan to gain a 21-19 edge after 20 minutes. The Wildcats took an early 4-0 lead before Matthews broke up the run with a triple at 18:12 to make it 4-3. Northwestern then used a 10-2 run to take its largest lead of the game, 14-5, at the 13:02 mark. Matthews was the only Wolverine with points on the board until Robinson added a layup with 9:12 remaining and kickstarted a 16-5 run to finish out the half.

After holding Northwestern without a field goal for the final 7:06 of the first half, Michigan grew that number to 10:18 as it held the Wildcats without a bucket until 16:48 of the second. U-M began the second half with a shower of threes -- one each from freshman Isaiah Livers, Poole, Wagner and Matthews -- to give the Wolverines a 35-30 edge with 13:38 remaining.

Michigan then used a 7-0 run, capped by a Wagner jumper, to earn its first double-digit lead, 48-38, at 5:24. Abdur-Rahkman and sophomore Zavier Simpson later combined to go 6-for-6 from the charity stripe to give the Wolverines their largest lead, 56-45, with 1:49 to go. Robinson sank a final pair of free throws with 37 seconds remaining to give U-M the 58-47 win.

Michigan shot 48 percent from the field in the second half (12-for-25).

Overall, Michigan scored 16 points off turnovers while holding the Wildcats to just two. The Wolverines bench continued to make a big impact on the court, adding 18 points in the win to account for 31 percent of U-M's points.

http://mgoblue.com/news/2018/1/29/mens-b...stern.aspx

[E's Army]

Good to see Matthews playing well.