They struggled early, but the Michigan Wolverines eventually found their footing and overpowered the South Dakota State Jackrabbits, 71-56, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Seeded No. 4 in the tourney's South Region, the Wolverines went into the break up just four points over the No. 13-seeded Jackrabbits, but rode the hot hands of junior guard Tim Hardaway Jr. and freshman forward Glenn Robinson III in the second half and won going away.
Often the team scoring leader, Trey Burke left the court nine minutes into the second half when he fell underneath his own basket trying to rebound a missed South Dakota State shot. Burke returned soon after but finished the contest with an uncharacteristic tally of six points, his season low. Even so, the sophomore guard and Big Ten Player of the Year managed seven assists and two blocked shots. Burke's counterpart on the Jackrabbits, Nate Wolters, had a subpar outing, as the senior guard ended his SDSU career with 10 points, and shot just 3-14 from the floor.
Hardaway Jr. (5-7 from three-point range) and Robinson III (3-3 on three pointers) were the shooting stars for the Maize and Blue, as each accounted for 21 points. Mitch McGary also had a solid performance, as the freshman forward had 13 points and nine rebounds. Now 27-7 overall for the season, the Wolverines will next face the winner of the VCU/Akron game, which as of this writing, was still in progress. That third-round matchup for Michigan will take place on Saturday, with start time on CBS yet to be determined.
Read more about the win over SDSU on U-M's official athletic website, MGoBlue.com, which has an NCAA Tournament 2013 Central page, filled with information about the team and individual players, news updates, and more.
Track the Michigan men's basketball team through "March Madness®" on Facebook and Twitter, as well as on the Men's Basketball Division I pages of the NCAA website.
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