Ann Arbor — The Wolverines entered the holiday break on a cheerful note.
No. 24 Michigan turned in a dominant performance and snapped a two-game skid by steamrolling Purdue Fort Wayne, 89-58, in a matinee matchup on Sunday at Crisler Center.
Following four consecutive games that went down to the wire and were decided by three points or fewer, including back-to-back painful losses to Arkansas and Oklahoma, Sunday was a relatively stress-free affair.
The Wolverines (9-3) took a double-digit lead less than six minutes into the game, were up 25 points at halftime, led by as much as 38 and never let the lead dip below 30 over the final 19 minutes against the Horizon League foe.
“Games like this, it’s easy to lose track of what you’re trying to build on as a team. A big Power Five playing a lower-major team, it’s easy to lose focus,” said guard Tre Donaldson, who had 16 points to lead a balanced effort that saw 10 Wolverines score.
“Our biggest thing this week is understanding what we want to do as a team, and that’s win big games and the Big Ten. We focused on the little things coming into this game and I feel like we’ve gotten a lot better this week.”
BOX SCORE: No. 24 Michigan 89, Purdue Fort Wayne 58
Simply put, Michigan overpowered the undersized Mastodons from start to finish. After a lights-out shooting performance gave Michigan a commanding halftime lead — one that could’ve been larger if not for 11 first-half turnovers — the Wolverines continued to pour it on.
They scored the first seven points out of the break as part of a 15-2 surge. Vlad Goldin scored three times at the rim. Roddy Gayle Jr. scored six straight and threw down a pair of dunks. Michigan’s lead swelled to 69-31 five minutes into the second half.
The massive cushion allowed the Wolverines to give their starters some rest and the bench extended action, with Big Ten play looming after the new year. Freshman Justin Pippen, for example, took advantage of the extra playing time and chipped in a season-high 10 points.
“They need the game reps,” Donaldson said. “You never know when your number is going to be called. For them to be able to get out there for a longer time, get their feet wet and actually be comfortable out there, not all antsy, is good for them.”
All of Michigan’s starters checked out by the 6:11 mark, as the Wolverines coasted to their ninth win of the season, topping last season’s win total during a miserable eight-win campaign.
Goldin finished with 13 points, Gayle had 12 and Nimari Burnett 10. The Wolverines shot 62.7% from the floor (37-for-59) — their second-best mark this season — and made 10 3-pointers to offset their 18 turnovers.
Jalen Jackson scored 27 for Fort Wayne (9-5). The Mastodons shot 32.3% from the field (21-for-65), finished with just six assists and were outrebounded by a 48-17 margin.
“At this point of the season, we’re relatively happy to be 9-3, despite leaving a couple on the table that were winnable games,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “This was a game I thought would be a real challenge. They spread you out. They’re small. … They’re a team a lot of people picked to win the Horizon League.
“Then after the two heartbreaking losses, you never know how your guys are going to respond. Our guys came back with great spirit in practice. We were intentional about working and continuing to develop our chemistry. We saw a lot of carryover from what we’ve been focused on to what we did in the game, other than the turnovers.”
Michigan’s size and shooting gave Fort Wayne — a team whose tallest starter was 6-foot-8 and shortest was 5-8 — problems from the get-go, as the Wolverines raced out to a 19-point lead.
On one possession, Fort Wayne’s Deangelo Elisee was swallowed up under the basket by 7-footers Danny Wolf and Goldin and had nowhere to go. Elisee turned the ball over and the Wolverines scored the other way on a driving layup by Donaldson during a string of seven unanswered points.
Michigan used a 13-0 burst to extend the lead, with Rubin Jones, Will Tschetter and LJ Cason each making a 3-pointer. During one sequence, Cason contested a 3-pointer in the corner was airballed and drained a deep ball on the other end to make it 23-4 at the 12:11 mark.
Fort Wayne chipped into the deficit after a 2-for-12 shooting start during a sloppy stretch where Michigan committed five of its 11 first-half turnovers in nine possessions. The Mastodons could only cut it to 13 before the Wolverines pulled away.
Donaldson canned two 3-pointers during a string of eight unanswered points. Sam Walters found Pippen for a deep ball in transition that led to a rare five-point possession when Michigan was fouled under the basket on the shot. Pippen returned the favor on the ensuing out-of-bounds play and found Walters, who knocked down a deep jumper to make it 45-20 at the 3:17 mark.
The Wolverines made 21 of their first 25 shots, including nine straight at one point, before missing twice on the final possession of the half. Michigan entered the break with a 54-29 advantage after shooting a blistering 77.8% from the field, including a 9-for-12 mark from 3-point range, and bounced back in a big way after a pair of crushing losses.
“It was head down and back to work. It’s simple,” Donaldson said. “We’re just trying to build on everything and continue to get better to make this team a great team. We’re a good team right now, but continuing to focus on the little things is going to take us from good to great.”
jhawkins@detroitnews.com
@jamesbhawkins
