No. 5 seed Michigan men’s basketball came back and beat fourth-seeded Texas A&M Saturday 91-79 in the second round (south region) of the NCAA tournament. The Wolverines will be in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2022 and have now won five games in a row since the end of the regular season.
Michigan moves on to play either No. 9 Creighton or top-seeded Auburn Friday (March 28).
Roddy Gayle Jr. leads Michigan basketball to second-round win over Texas A&M
Michigan guard Tre Donaldson got the game started with a bucket near the rim. Two possessions later, Donaldson found Vladislav Goldin for a short jumper to give the Wolverines a 4-0 lead. The Aggies went on a 7-2 run to follow, capped off by a Pharrel Payne dunk with 16:05 left in the half.
With the game tied at ten a couple minutes later (13:45), Michigan guard Roddy Gayle Jr. found LJ Cason for the first three-pointer of the game for either team. Cason came down the floor on the following possession and made a sneaky baseline pass to Danny Wolf to put the Wolverines up 15-10 with 13:04 left until halftime.
A&M crept back into the game over the next few minutes and took the lead (19-18) after Manny Obaseki hit 2-of-2 free throws at the 9:35 mark. Obaseki made a layup on the next Aggie possession after Michigan guard Nimari Burnett missed a three-pointer, and they stayed ahead until Gayle Jr. tied it at 31 with a deep shot (4:16).
Goldin grabbed the lead back for the Wolverines (35-34) by going 2-for-2 at the free throw line with 2:18 left until halftime. A&M scored five straight points to end the half and take a 39-35 advantage into the break.
Wolf got the scoring started in the second half with a jumper just outside the paint. Andersson Garcia answered for the Aggies two possessions later, and they were back up by four (41-37) with 18:45 left in the game. By the time of the next TV timeout (15:49), Michigan was down 48-41.
Coming out of the timeout, A&M guard CJ Wilcher drained a three-pointer to give his team its largest lead of the game (51-41) with 15:46 to go in the second half. Gayle Jr. cut the Michigan deficit to two (63-61) by going 2-for-2 at the free throw line at the 10:18 mark. Gayle Jr. scored the next five points for the Wolverines and had them within one (67-66) with 8:11 to play. He made it ten straight to grab Michigan its first lead (71-70) since it was up 35-34.
With 5:17 left in the game, Goldin put the Wolverines up five (75-70) with a finish through contact. It was part of a 15-2 Michigan run, which ended with a Donaldson layup at the 3:43 mark (81-72).
Both teams were in the bonus with more than nine minutes left, and free throws became even more relevant. The Aggies went 4-of-4 from the charity stripe in a 6-0 run to bring their deficit to three (82-79) with 1:29 left in the game. On the following Wolverines possession, Donaldson let the shot clock run nearly all the way down before making an acrobatic floater to put them back up by two possessions.
After Taylor IV missed an Aggie three-pointer, Wolf got the rebound and passed to Gayle Jr., who was then sent to the line with 46 seconds left. Gayle Jr. went 2-for-2 and all but ended the game, finishing with a career-high 26 points along with four rebounds.
Goldin posted 23 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks for the Wolverines. Wolf contributed 14 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Michigan went 29-of-36 (80.6%) from the free throw line as a team, compared to 18-of-26 (69.2%) for the Aggies. The Wolverines also won the rebounding battle 48-39.
Payne came off the bench for A&M and scored a game-high 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field.
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