Michigan advances to Big Ten Tournament title game with win over Minnesota as incredible run rolls on

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WASHINGTON — Michigan and Minnesota came into the Big Ten Tournament as perhaps the two hottest teams in the conference.

In a test of temperatures in Saturday's semifinal, Michigan proved it's hotter.

The Wolverines, the feel-good story of this week in the nation's capital after their nightmarish aborted takeoff on Wednesday in Ann Arbor, are one win away from a Big Ten Tournament championship and looking like a team no one will want to face in the NCAA tournament after they won for the third time in three days, an 84-77 decision over the Golden Gophers.

Derrick Walton Jr. is playing as good as anyone in the country right now, and he showed Saturday that had the regular season lasted a couple more weeks, he might've mounted a serious threat to Caleb Swanigan for conference player of the year honors. Saturday, he torched the Minnesota defense, scoring 29 points — one off the Big Ten Tournament single-game record — handing out nine assists and grabbing five rebounds. He hit three 3-pointers and went a perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line.

Michigan had a white-hot start to the game and built a 16-point first-half lead only to watch that completely evaporate by early in the second half when Minnesota took advantage of a lengthy cold snap for the Wolverines. The Gophers tied the game with about 13 minutes to play, but the Wolverines responded with a 9-2 burst that gave them a lead they didn't relinquish again.

Walton got plenty of assistance with three of his teammates joining him in double figures: Moe Wagner had 17 points, Zak Irvin scored 13 points and Duncan Robinson finished with 10 points.

Michigan advanced to Sunday's Big Ten Tournament championship game, where it will face off against the winner of Saturday's second semifinal between second-seeded Wisconsin and sixth-seeded Northwestern.

Michigan stormed out of the gates with a sensational start at the offensive end. The Wolverines made eight of their first 10 shots and went on a 29-13 run to start the game, a stretch that at one point featured 10 straight points. Wagner scored 14 of those 29 points, making his first five shots, two of which came from 3-point range, and Walton dazzled with some highlight-reel passes.

Michigan stretched its lead out to 16 at one point, but Minnesota made its own charge from there, scoring 16 of the next 22 points to chop that big lead down to six around the four-minute mark. For as incredibly hot as the Wolverines were to start the game, the Gophers shot well in the first half, too. Michigan responded, scoring six straight and 10 of the last 15 points of the half to hold a double-digit lead at halftime.

The Wolverine shot a stunning 63.3 percent from the field over the opening 20 minutes Wagner and Walton combined for 24 points as Michigan scored 15 points off Minnesota's eight turnovers, compared to the Gophers getting just three points from the Wolverines' five giveaways. Michigan hit four 3s in the first half. Minnesota hit zero.

But it was Minnesota that had a hot start to the second half, doing work in the paint before getting three straight triples from Dupree McBrayer and Nate Mason to cap a 15-4 run and tie the game at 55 with about 13 minutes remaining. Michigan was ice cold shooting the ball after its red-hot first half, at one point going more than six minutes without a basket. Robinson and Walton hit a couple 3s to answer the tie with a 9-2 run for the Wolverines, and after the Gophers whittled that lead down to three a couple times, Walton splashed in back-to-back triples to make it a nine-point Michigan lead with five minutes to go. The Wolverines held on from there, the margin never getting smaller than three as Walton iced the game with free throws.

Michigan finished shooting 53.7 percent from the field, hitting eight 3s, scoring 20 points off 11 Minnesota turnovers and getting 16 points from its bench.

It's been a phenomenal run here in D.C. for Michigan, but don't let that No. 8 seed fool you. The Wolverines entered having won six of their final eight regular-season games and clobbered Nebraska by 36 in the regular-season finale. Wednesday's frightening situation involving the team plane sliding off a runway in Ann Arbor has been the story of the week, but surely Michigan was playing well enough already to make this run a possibility. Still, winning three games in three days is no easy feat, especially when the emotional toll of what happened Wednesday added to that challenge.

Minnesota's turnaround becomes no less remarkable despite its Big Ten Tournament stay ending Saturday. Richard Pitino's team won just eight games a season ago but has captured 24 wins this season and will have a chance to add to that total when next week's NCAA tournament begins.

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