ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan men’s basketball team returned from its holiday break to close out its nonconference season with a 76-51 victory over Jacksonville on Saturday (Dec. 30) at Crisler Center.
Michigan had a trio of starters score in double figures as it improved to 8-0 at home and 12-3 overall. The Wolverines finished the nonconference portion of the season with an 11-2 mark.
Senior Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman posted a season-high 18 points on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting. Junior Charles Matthews followed up his 31-point performance against Alabama A&M nine days ago with 18 points and seven rebounds. Senior Duncan Robinson added 12 points and six rebounds.
U-M’s defense carried them in the first half as it held Jacksonville to just 18 points. The Dolphins were scoreless for the first 4:33 minutes and didn’t reach double digits until over 15 minutes had gone by. Michigan has limited three opponents to under 20 points in the first half of games this year as UC Riverside scored just 17 on Nov. 26 and Detroit-Mercy had 19 on Dec. 16.
Offensively, the Wolverines had an uncharacteristic 10 turnovers in the first half, but shot 48 percent from the field and led by as many as 17 points at the 5:30 mark. Michigan held a 14-point lead (32-18) at the break.
U-M cut down on its turnovers in the second half to finish with 14 overall. Meanwhile, the offense clicked on all cylinders as the team shot 63.3 percent from the field and had 11 assists on 19 made field goals. Michigan also held a strong rebounding advantage over Jacksonville in the game, 41-23.
Junior forward Moritz Wagner returned to the starting lineup after missing two games with a right ankle injury to contribute seven points and six rebounds.
Michigan will return to conference play on Tuesday (Jan. 2) when they travel to Iowa City to face Iowa at 6 p.m. CST on ESPN2.