Yaxel Lendeborg scored 18 points and had nine rebounds when No. 3 Michigan pulled away for a 74-62 victory over Ohio State in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Friday.
The Wolverines (18-1, 8-1 Big Ten) trailed by six in the second half and led by only one, 52-51, with eight minutes left but dominated from there for their fourth straight win.
Trey McKenney scored 12, as did Morez Johnson Jr., who made 6 of 6 shots. Aday Mara chipped in with 11 points and four blocks.
John Mobley Jr. had 22 points for the Buckeyes (13-6, 5-4 Big Ten) and Christoph Tilly added 17 while team leading scorer Bruce Thornton (20.7 average) had 10.
Elliott Cadeau’s 3-pointer for his first points of the game with 7:52 to play gave the Wolverines a 55-51 lead. A pair of free throws by Mara and a second-chance 3-pointer from Cadeau made it 60-51.
Later, an emphatic dunk by Mara and a layup through the gut of the defense by Lendeborg on the break extended the lead to 66-56 with 4:52 left. That was part of a 9-0 run that pushed the margin to 71-56.
After Ohio State went up 40-34 early in the second half, the Wolverines reeled off 11 straight points for a 45-40 lead before Amare Bynum hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc.
Earlier, Michigan overcame a six-point deficit with a 19-10 run to end the half to take a 33-30 lead.
It was tied at 30 with 45 seconds left when Mara made the first of two free throws. He missed the second but Lendeborg grabbed the rebound and L.J Cason scored on a goaltending call for the three-point margin.
The Wolverines at halftime raised the No. 3 jersey of 2013 national player of the year Trey Burke in the rafters, the sixth jersey to receive the honor.
The timing was no coincidence. Burke played at Columbus Northland High School, about 15 minutes from the Ohio State campus.
Donovan “Puff” Johnson had no points in five minutes in his Ohio State debut. The 25-year-old sixth-year forward received a temporary restraining order against the NCAA on Jan. 16 allowing him eligibility to play for the Buckeyes this season.
He had previously been denied a medical hardship waiver after missing 54 games in his career at Penn State and North Carolina.
–Field Level Media
