OVERTIME: Arizona 61 – Michigan 60
No team has won consecutive post- and pre-season NIT Tournaments, and last night at the Garden the No. 17 Arizona Wildcats made sure that record stands another for another year.
Michigan, winners of the post-season tournament last season, was knocked out of the pre-season NIT by Arizona, 61-60 in overtime, the Wolverines’ first defeat and a loss that will preserve the record for at least another year.
For Arizona, its dominance on the Garden floor took center stage as the Wildcats improved to 10-0 at the World’s Most Famous Arena under Lute Olson. The win also raised their NIT record under him to a gaudy 15-1.
The Wildcats have won three NIT tournaments, and will be looking for No. 4 tomorrow against top-ranked Wake Forest.
Michigan scored the first basket in overtime on a Chris Hunter dunk, but Arizona went on a 5-0 run, propelling them past the Wolverines and silencing the boisterous Maize Rage student section.
Philly’s Mustafa Shakur led Arizona with 13 points and six assists and Jawann McClellan added 11 off the bench, including some big shots in the closing minutes of both halves.
“It was certainly not a pretty game to watch,” Olson said. “There was some serious defense played on both ends.”
Despite shooting a lowly 23.7-precent from the field in the first half, Arizona still managed to remain close enough to make a game of it, getting crucial points off turnovers and hitting clutch foul shots down the stretch. Michigan hit the final shot of regulation, a Harris layup to tie it, 55-55, with just under a minute to go.
Arizona improved to 6-2 in the lifetime series between the two schools, avenging their last loss, a 73-71 defeat at Ann Arbor Dec. 21, 1996.
Michigan led by as many as 10 early on, riding their stingy D and Daniel Horton, who was the best player on the floor in the game’s first 20 minutes, scoring 10 points, registering three steals and four assists.