Michigan Rebounds With 79-50 Rout Of Nebraska
NOAH TRISTER, AP Sports Writer
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Freshman Zak Irvin scored all 16 of his points in the first half, and No. 10 Michigan breezed to a 79-50 victory over Nebraska on Wednesday night.
The Wolverines (17-5, 9-1 Big Ten) were coming off their first conference defeat, a 63-52 loss at Indiana on Sunday. They nearly matched that scoring total with a 49-point first half against the Cornhuskers (11-10, 3-6).
Glenn Robinson III led Michigan with 23 points, and Caris LeVert added 16 points with five assists and seven rebounds. Nik Stauskas had nine points, eight assists and five rebounds.
Shavon Shields scored 13 points for Nebraska.
Michigan finished 13 of 31 from 3-point range despite a late dry spell from beyond the arc.
Nebraska had won three of four coming into Wednesday, but the Cornhuskers were overwhelmed from the opening tip against Michigan. Robinson opened the scoring with a dunk off an alley-oop pass, and after two 3-pointers by LeVert, it was 8-0.
Robinson threw down a one-handed dunk off a pass from Stauskas to make it 32-15 — then Irvin took center stage. The 6-foot-6 freshman, who has an odd-looking release on his high-arcing shot, scored nine straight points — all on 3-pointers — to make it 43-15.
Irvin, who was averaging 6.5 points entering the game, seemed to grow more excited with each shot he made. The last one looked short, but it nicked off the front of the rim, bounced up and dropped straight through.
It was 49-21 at halftime, and Michigan led by as many as 41 points in the second half.
Stauskas, Michigan's leading scorer, took only six shots in the loss to Indiana. That led to some concern about whether the Wolverines could adjust to defenses geared to stop the 6-6 sophomore. He took only three shots Wednesday, but this time there were plenty of other scoring options for Michigan.
The Wolverines were nearly flawless offensively for the first 30 minutes. They shot 62.5 percent from the field in the first half, going 9 of 17 from 3-point range. Michigan finished 14 of 14 on free throws.
The Wolverines are in the middle of a five-games-in-13-days stretch, but they were able to ease through the second half in this one. Next up for Michigan: road games against No. 17 Iowa and Ohio State.
Nebraska's Terran Petteway was held to five points, and Ray Gallegos scored only three.
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