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Michigan basketball beats Tennessee, heads to Final Four

· Yahoo Sports

Everything that Michigan basketball has played for all year hinged on what would transpire on Sunday, as the Wolverines took on the Tennessee Volunteers in the Elite Eight.

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The plan, all year, had been to play well enough to end up in Chicago, for a moment such as this, and that's precisely where the maize and blue had ended up. On Friday, they had taken care of Alabama, but now another SEC school loomed, this time the 6-seed Vols, who had vanquished 2-seed Iowa State after Michigan's win over the Tide on Friday night.

A Final Four was on the line. Here's what happened between Michigan and Tennessee.

Opening foray

Michigan opened up with a possession that went nowhere, with Nimari Burnett attempting a 3. Tennessee responded with a made 3, and then a turnover that ended up back with the Wolverines. The maize and blue got on the board with an Aday Mara one-handed jam, Vols lead, 3-2.

After taking up most of the shot clock, Burnett's shot didn't fall, but he was sent to the line, where he drained two, giving the Wolverines the lead. Felix Okpara found himself in the same situation, but missed both his free throw attempts. However, Tennessee collected the rebound, and they got another opportunity. Nate Ament scored a layup, and the Wolverines turned the ball over with an errant pass, allowing Bishop Boswell to lay it back up on a putback. Michigan drove quickly, with Elliot Cadeau laying it up off the high glass. J.P. Estrella's shot was blocked by Mara, leading to the under-16 media timeout.

All knotted up

Roddy Gayle picked up a quick foul coming out of the timeout, Michigan's third. Ament's shot was errant, and Morez Johnson Jr. found himself fouled by Okpara, and thus drained both free throw attempts to give Michigan back the lead, 8-7. Ament missed another jumper, but the Vols continued to dominate the offensive glass, with Ament getting his own rebound, the seventh thus far for UT. Then Mara picked up his second foul (with 15:05 remaining in the first half), relegating him to the bench for likely the rest of the half -- a huge loss for the Wolverines. Ament drained both foul shots, giving Tennessee the 9-8 lead.

On the other end, Yaxel Lendeborg missed a 3, but Michigan got the ball back with Ja'Kobi Gillespie turning the ball over. After Cadeau drove the lane and missed his floater attempt, Gayle sailed over the basket to collect the rebound, which he threw down in an aggressive dunk to swing the game back in favor of the maize and blue.

Meanwhile, on the ensuing possession, Okpara picked up his second foul. Lendeborg finally got on the board with a jumper just outside the lane. Both teams missed their next shots, with Michigan's attempt coming from Trey McKenney beyond the arc. Jaylen Carey picked up a foul, evening the infraction score at four apiece (it had been four-to-one, with Michigan being called for more, previously). Johnson missed a jumper, which led to a Gillespie 3, and then a McKenney jumper to knot things at 14-all. After Burnett committed a foul, the Vols would be going to the line for two free throws with 11:22 remaining in the first half.

The stalemate breaks in favor of the Wolverines

Carey hit both free throws to untie the game. Ethan Burg and Carey (his second) picked up fouls on Michigan's offensive possession, with the latter putting Johnson on the line, where he hit the front end, but missed the back -- 16-15, UT. McKenney stole the ball on a block, but missed his layup attempt after DeWayne Brown II blocked it off the backboard. Tennessee got it back, and Ament missed his attempt, but Johnson picked up his second foul moments later. After Mara (who had come back in) stole the inbound, Evans picked up a foul, sending Lendeborg to the line, where he regained the lead for the Wolverines. Gillespie missed yet another 3 attempt, and Brown picked up a foul (the, this time on Mara -- who drained both free throws to extend the Michigan lead to three.

Estrella and Okpara both missed their shots, while Lendeborg had an emphatic reverse layup that went up and in, all while he was being fouled by Okpara (his third) in the process.

He hit the free throw to give the Wolverines a six-point lead. Boswell missed a 3, but Gayle didn't, and it was an 11-0 run for the maize and blue, a nine-point lead, all while the Vols hadn't scored in two and a half minutes.

Tennessee called a timeout to stem the bleeding, with the score Wolverines 25, Volunteers 16, 8:45 remaining in the first half.

Coming out of the timeout, Carey missed a jumper, but Cadeau drained his first longball, a corner 3, and Michigan would take the 12-point lead into the under-12 media timeout. The 14-0 run had the Wolverines up, 28-16.

Michigan piles on in a big way

The Vols missed their opportunity to score on the first possession out of the timeout, with Estella missing down low, leading to a Mara sky-hook, putting up 14. UT turned it over on the ensuing possession, leading to a Lendeborg 3. Gillespie missed yet another 3 (his sixth attempt, with one make), and Burnett got a layup, and the 19-0 run by Michigan led to a 19-point lead. Tennessee hadn't scored in over five minutes.

Estrella missed a bunny, Lendeborg missed a 3, got a steal before throwing it out of bounds, leading to Carey finally breaking the massive scoring drought. Gillespie fouled Cadeau, who only hit the front end, but after Ament missed a jumper, Cadeau didn't miss his, and it was a 20-point Michigan lead.

Estrella continued to be abysmal from the field, with another miss (he was now 2-for-7), and Gayle missed his 3 attempt, before Gillespie picked up his second foul, leading to the under-four media timeout, Michigan up, 38-18.

Michigan survives Tennessee's mini-run

Lendeborg was set to go to the line coming out of the timeout. Michigan wasn't just outscoring Tennessee 54.5% to 20% from the floor, it had made up what had started as a massive rebound disparity, and it was also winning the turnover battle. The 24-2 run over a seven-minute period had given the Wolverines a massive advantage, but they would have to hold on.

The Michigan star forward missed both his free throws, and Carey scored to cut it to 18. But it was a short-lived respite, as Lendeborg drained a 3 on the other end, to give the Wolverines a 21-point lead.

Tschetter picked up a foul, but Ament missed the front-end of the one-and-one, and Brown picked up his second foul on the rebound, sending Gayle to the line. He missed both shots, and Carey appeared to have scored (on a Gayle goaltend), but a Michigan review negated the call, as Gayle got to it before it hit the backboard. However, it was detrimental, as Gillespie hit a 3, cutting the lead to 18. Cadeau missed a layup and picked up a foul on the rebound. Carey missed the free throw, but Gayle picked up his second on his rebound. Estrella hit the front end, and with 2:18 remaining in the half, Michigan was up 41-24.

Lendeborg, Gillespie, and McKenney all missed their shots, but Carey scored again, and the 6-0 run by the Vols cut the lead to 15. Lendeborg missed a 3, and Michigan was on a two-minute scoring drought. Gillespie, now 2-for-11, missed another 3 attempt, and Estrella picked up his first foul, putting Tschetter on the line. He scored on both, 43-26, Michigan.

A Cadeau block on Estrella led to a Lendeborg layup. Michigan called a timeout with 33 seconds left.

Tennessee didn't try to hold the ball with the three-second differential. It proved to be unwise. Estrella missed a dunk with 14 seconds left, but McKenney didn't miss his longball to put Michigan up 48-26 at the half.

Michigan extends the lead coming out of the half.

Michigan opened up with the basketball, and Mara missed his shot, but so did the Vols. Lendeborg managed to putback his own miss, and Estrella scored on a hook down low. Mara got a dunk, Tennessee missed, and then Mara drained 3 to put Michigan up 27. Gillespie answered with two consecutive 3s to get UT back within 21. Burnett missed a 3, Okpara missed a jumper, and then Lendeborg had a dunk to put Michigan up by 23.

Ament missed a jumper, but Burnett finally got a deep ball to fall, putting the Wolverines up by 26. Carey's shot was blocked by Mara, and Carey picked up his third foul moments later, leading to the under-16 media timeout.

Continued dominance, and a mini-run by the Vols

Burnett missed a 3 coming out of the timeout, as did Gillespie. But Lendeborg didn't, and it was a 29-point game. The Vols got nothing doing on the other end, but neither could Cadeau, attempting a longball. The two teams got into a bit of a tussel, with Johnson needing to be separated from Amari Evans by Dusty May. Amid the skirmish, Carey was given a technical foul after coming in unabated to bump Johnson. Lendeborg made the first technical free throw, but missed the back-end. Michigan retained possession, and Johnson was fouled by Estrella. He also hit one of two. Michigan up by 31.

Johnson picked up his third foul, Okpara got a dunk, and Lendeborg followed it up with a layup. Burg missed a 3, but the Vols managed the rebound. Evans missed the 3, Cadeau turned the ball over, Lendeborg blocked Burg's layup, but Brown got the putback. Lendeborg, Gillespie, McKenney, and Gillespie again scored. Gillespie forced a Cadeau turnover, got a dunk, and forced a Lendeborg foul for the and-one. The lead was 71-44 at the under-12 media timeout.

More dominance by the Wolverines

The foul shot was made by UT, and McKenney was fouled on the other end, where he drained all three free throws. Okpara laid it in to cut the Wolverine lead to 27. Lendeborg missed two 3s (he was 3-for-9 beyond the arc at this point), and Okpara scored again to cut it to a 25-point Michigan lead. But Okpara picked up his fourth foul, and Johnson responded with a layup with an and-one (but he missed the free throw). On the other end, Ament had the same scenario, with McKenney picking up the foul. But unlike Johnson, Ament got his foul shot to go, and it was a 24-point game with 8:03 remaining. He picked up his third foul, however, on the inbound, putting Burnett on the line, where he drained both shots.

Gillespie missed a 3, but Estrella corralled the rebound. The ball was stolen by Cadeau, but Tschetter missed his longball attempt. Mara then picked up his third foul, leading to the under-eight media timeout. Michigan 78, Tennessee 52.

Mara picked up his fourth foul, but Okpara missed both his free throws. The next minute sees Tschetter, Lendeborg, Ament, and Okpara all miss shots. Ament picked up his fourth foul, putting Johnson on the line. He hit both free throws to put Michigan back up by 28. Gillespie missed, but Gayle drained a 3 to make it a 31-point game. Johnson picked up his fourth foul, putting Okpara on the line, where he hit both shots. Johnson responded by getting his second field goal of the game, a dunk.

Boswell, Ament, and Gillespie all missed 3s, and now the Vols were on another four-minute scoring drought. Gillespie picked up his third foul, and Johnson put the Wolverines up by 33. Okpara hit a jumper, and Mara turned the ball over, leading to the under-four media timeout; the starters done for the day.

Closing it out

Gillespie scored a layup, Michigan turned it over, and Gillespie missed another layup. Burnett was the only starter still in the game for the Wolverines, and Oscar Goodman scored before blocking a Brown shot on the other end. Ament fouled out, putting Burnett on the line. He missed the front end but hit the back, to increase to 10 points. Troy Henderson's jumper didn't go, and Charlie May collected the rebound. McKenney was fouled and drained both free throws. Goodman stole the ball, though it was stolen right back from him. May picked up a foul, but Brown missed the front end of the one-and-one. Though he followed it up with a dunk to make it a 30-point deficit. However, May, a fan favorite and son of Dusty May, drained a 3 (making the Michigan-heavy crowd and bench erupt) to push the lead to 33. Henderson missed a 3, and Michigan held the ball until 17 seconds left, when Howard Eisley Jr. missed his deep ball.

Evans attempted a 3, but that was it -- Michigan beat Tennessee, 95-62.

Michigan is Final Four-bound!

The Wolverines will play red-hot Arizona, a fellow 1-seed, on Saturday night. The Wildcats are the No. 1 KenPom team (as of this writing), with an offense and defense slightly rated ahead of the maize and blue. But Michigan should have a homefield crowd, with Indianapolis being so much closer to Ann Arbor than Tuscon. The good news is also that Michigan has been more battle-tested during the regular season, and just had its biggest win in the biggest game of the season yet (though it wasn't the Wolverines' best opponent).

10 Michigan players scored in the Elite Eight, led by Yaxel Lendeborg with 27 points. Six were in double digits, with Roddy Gayle and Elliot Cadeau close behind with eight points each.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan basketball dominates Tennessee, advances to Final Four

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