The Michigan Wolverines topped the Syracuse Orange, 61-56, on Saturday to advance to the national championship game of the NCAA Tournament against the Louisville Cardinals on Monday. The Wolverines had to hold on at the end, as the Orange trimmed the lead to one point with less than a minute to play, but U-M scored four unanswered points to claim the win.
Mitch McGary continued his stellar play for the Maize and Blue, as the freshman had 10 points, 12 rebounds, and a career-high six assists. Michigan also enjoyed key contributions from bench players Spike Albrecht, Caris LeVert, Jon Horford, and Jordan Morgan -- whose thunderous dunk with two seconds left sealed the victory -- as star guard Trey Burke (seven points) struggled on offense, and Nik Stauskas was held scoreless. Tim Hardaway Jr. and Glenn Robinson III were solid for U-M, with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
In the earlier tournament semifinal on Saturday, the Louisville Cardinals had a tough battle of their own, but slipped past a scrappy Wichita State team, 72-68, to set up the matchup against the Wolverines, who will be playing in their first national championship game since 1993. CBS will televise the contest on Monday, with tipoff slated for 9:23 p.m. ET.
Read more about Michigan's win over Syracuse in a thorough recap on the school's official athletic website, MGoBlue.com, which also has an NCAA Tournament 2013 Central page filled with information about the team and individual players, news updates, and more.
Track the U-M 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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