Postgame Notes: Michigan 73, Illinois 65 (OT)
12/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2014
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• Today's contest marked the 165th meeting between Michigan and Illinois. Despite today's win, and eight consecutive victories in the series, U-M trails in the all-time series, 79-85, including a 50-28 mark in Ann Arbor.
• With today's win, U-M improves to 56-43 all-time in Big Ten openers and 32-20 in home conference openers.
• Today's game with Illinois marked the first of five designated home-and-home conference series for the Wolverines. U-M will travel to Champaign, Ill., on Feb. 12 and will also have home-and-home series with Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State and Rutgers.
• Michigan has accumulated double-digit offensive rebounds in five games so far this season, including today (11). Overall, U-M is 7-0 when it out-rebounds its opponents, which it did today by a 39-36 margin.
• The Illini and Wolverines entered today's game tied for seventh in the nation in fewest turnovers per game (10.1); U-M forced 12 turnovers from the Illini while turning the ball over a season-low five times themselves, including just once in the second half.
• The five turnovers by U-M are the team's fewest since posting only four giveaways against Texas last season in the NCAA Tournament (March 22, 2014).
• The Wolverines outscored the Illini 16-4 in the overtime frame to post their first overtime win since Glenn Robinson III's buzzer-beater bested Purdue (Feb. 26, 2014) last season; it is also the team's most-recent overtime contest of any kind.
• U-M averages 6,5 steals per contest and tallied seven today; the team has five players with double-digit steals, led by 25 from Caris LeVert.
• The Maize and Blue recorded assists on 15 of 27 made field goals (56 percent), bringing the season tally to 175 assists on 298 made field goals (58.7 percent).
• Aubrey Dawkins scored a career-high 20 points, including six triples, to pace the Wolverines for the first time in his career; he also added a career-high five rebounds. The six triples hit by Dawkins tie Caris LeVert's 6-of-8 performance for the most threes by any Wolverine in any game so far this season.
• Caris LeVert continues to stuff the stat sheet. Today's performance saw LeVert rack up 19 points, five assists, three rebounds and a pair of steals; he leads U-M in each of those categories.
• Joining Dawkins and LeVert in double-figures were Zak Irvin and Ricky Doyle, who netted 13 points apiece. Irvin added five rebounds, which had been his career high before he pulled down seven in U-M's win over Coppin State (Dec. 22). Doyle scored U-M's final seven points in regulation to help force overtime.
