U-M Dominates No. 2 Arizona, Advances to First NCAA Tournament Title Game Since 2018

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Midwest Region top seed and No. 3-ranked University of Michigan men’s basketball team reached the 90-point plateau in its title run against the West’s top seed Arizona, defeating the Wildcats 91-71 on Saturday (April 4) at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Wolverines led by 16 at halftime, shot 57.1 percent from the field — including 63.6 percent in the second half — to hold on to the large lead.

Leaders and Best

Aday Mara scored 26 points, his third game of 20 points or more this season, and added nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Trey McKenney scored 16 points on four three-pointers. Elliot Cadeau recorded his third double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 assists, along with four steals. Yaxel Lendeborg contributed 11 points with three three-pointers in as many attempts. Morez Johnson Jr. was the final double-digit scorer with 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Turning Point

A Roddy Gayle Jr. dunk with 6:22 remaining in the first half ended a 9-0 Arizona run and pushed the Michigan advantage to three possessions and sparked a 7-0 U-M run. U-M then used a second 7-0 run, all thanks to Mara from the 2:36 mark to the 1:47 mark, to go up 45-27.

First Half

Michigan (36-3) struck first with a tip-in layup from Mara, then scored three straight baskets for seven more points in 46 seconds. A free throw from Johnson made it an 8-0 U-M run with four Arizona (36-3) misses in the same timeframe for an early 10-1 lead. Arizona used a 4-0 run with buckets on both ends of the under-16 timeout and cut the lead to 10-5, but consecutive baskets from Mara and a McKenney slam put the Wolverines ahead 16-5 with 14:29 to go in the first half.

Cadeau and Lendeborg made three pointers and helped build a 12-point advantage, 22-10, with 12:17 on the clock.

Neither team scored for the next two minutes, until Johnson and Mara scored on consecutive possessions for a 26-10 lead at the halfway mark of the stanza. Lendeborg left for the locker room due to injury during an 11-2 Arizona run that lasted until the 7:21 mark.

Gayle ended the streak of nine unanswered Arizona points with a slam. A layup from Nimari Burnett and a triple from McKenney forced another Arizona timeout at the 4:54 mark, with the lead back at double digits, 35-23. Mara scored seven consecutive Wolverine points and Johnson scored through contact for a putback dunk on the Maize and Blue’s final first-half bucket and a 48-32 lead through 20 minutes.

Second Half

Mara again scored first for Michigan and Lendeborg returned to the game, draining a triple from the left wing. He made a second shot from deep, and McKenney followed with two triples of his own for a 59-39 advantage with 14:35 remaining. Michigan continued its streak of baskets and finished with seven without a miss. From Lendeborg’s second three until the 8:38 mark, Michigan made 11 of 13 shot attempts and held an 81-55 lead.

Michigan made three field goals in the final seven and a half minutes, but Arizona made just one more while attempting twice as many shots. The largest point run by either team in the final minutes was a 5-0 Wildcat run in 25 seconds until the 1:55 mark, when the lead was at its lowest (17 points).

What’s Next

The Wolverines will make their eighth national title game appearance on Monday (April 6), when they face No. 7-ranked and the East’s No. 2 seed, UConn, at 8:50 p.m. inside Lucas Oil Stadium. The game will be broadcast live on TBS.

Notes

• Michigan is now tied with North Carolina for the second most national championship appearances since 2013 (three). UConn leads the country in this category with four.

• U-M is the first in NCAA Tournament history to score 90 points or more in five straight games in a single tournament.

• Michigan’s 18-point win is tied for the largest between No. 1 seeds in an NCAA men’s tournament game since seeding began in 1979.

• With tonight’s win, Michigan picked up its third win over Arizona and the first since the teams met as AP Top 10 opponents in overtime on Dec. 21, 1996. Michigan also won in the first-ever matchup between the teams on Dec. 30, 1957.

• Cadeau has recorded the program’s first point-assist double-double in the NCAA Tournament since Derrick Walton Jr. in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. It is also the second U-M point-assist double-double in a Final Four game (Rumeal Robinson in 1989).

• Cadeau now has the second most assists for the Wolverines in an NCAA Tournament (43). He also joins U-M legend Gary Grant for the most games in a single tournament with 10+ assists (three). Grant also holds the program record for most assists in a tournament with 56.

• At the 14:05 mark, Cadeau broke his single-season career best for assists (232).

• The 19-point final margin is Arizona’s worst NCAA Tournament loss since 2018, which was also U-M’s last title game appearance.

• A Wolverine has now scored 20 points in the last six games. The longest streak had been three games, recorded Jan. 30-Feb. 8.

• U-M is now 22-0 when McKenney makes multiple three-pointers in a game. This is tied for the second most without a loss, behind only Duke’s Isaiah Evans (26-0).

• UConn’s roster features big man Tarris Reed Jr., who was a member of the Wolverines during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.