Yaxel Lendeborg had 25 points and 12 rebounds to lead No. 7 Michigan to an 86-61 home win over Middle Tennessee on Wednesday.
Lendeborg was 9 of 12 from the field and made all five of his free-throw attempts.
Aday Mara had 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Elliot Cadeau scored 10 points for Michigan (4-0) which went 26 of 42 on 2-point shots. That helped the Wolverines overcome a 5-of-25 performance from 3-point range and 13 turnovers.
Michigan went 19 of 26 (73.1%) from the free-throw line and held a 48-40 rebounding advantage.
Jahvin Carter came off the bench to score 18 points and Kamari Lands scored 11 points in defeat for Middle Tennessee, which shot 30.4% from the field overall (21 of 69) and 27% from 3-point range (10 of 37).
Middle Tennessee turned the ball over 15 times and had just eight assists.
Leading 36-30 at halftime, Michigan separated in the first six minutes of the second half.
Michigan scored the first six points of the half to grab a 42-30 lead, and then went on a 10-3 run to take a 57-38 lead with 13:59 remaining in the game after a 3-point play by Lendeborg.
The Wolverines kept growing the lead, going up by 27 points at 69-42 with 9:55 left after a basket hook shot in the post by Mara.
Middle Tennessee (3-1) couldn’t bring its deficit back to less than 20 points the rest of the game in losing for the first time this season.
Michigan had a good surge in the first half, going on a 12-0 run over a span of 5:06 to take a 20-9 lead with 10:34 remaining until halftime.
The Blue Raiders answered, going on a 15-5 run to cut Michigan’s lead to 25-24 with 3:56 to go in the first half.
Michigan held a six-point lead at halftime despite shooting 3 of 14 from 3-point range in the first half.
–Field Level Media
