Yaxel Lendeborg punctuated his 25-point outing with a massive dunk in transition, and the Midwest Region’s top-seeded Michigan advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 95-72 victory over Saint Louis in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
Morez Johnson Jr had 15 and eight rebounds for Michigan (33-3), who matched a program record for victories set during their seventh and most recent Final Four appearance in 2018.
The Wolverines’ 7ft 3in center Aday Mara had 16 points, five rebounds and four blocks to increase his season blocks total to 96, one short of matching Michigan’s single-season record set by Roy Tarpley in 1985-86.
The Wolverines advanced to the round of 16 for the second consecutive year and seventh time since 2017. They’ll play the winner of Texas Tech and Alabama at Chicago on Friday.
Amari McCottry had 14 points and five rebounds for Saint Louis (29-6), who saw their season end after setting a single-season record for wins with its 102-77 first-round win over Georgia.
The Wolverines’ size and depth proved too much for the ninth-seeded Billikens, who dropped to 0-6 in second-round games.
Michigan particularly took away the Billikens’ primary strength, their outside shooting game, limiting Saint Louis to 5 of 17 three-point attempts through the first half, and 10 of 32 overall.
Billikens senior Robbie Avila, who entered ranking third among NCAA centers with 211 career 3-point baskets, struggled to find his range, finishing 3 of 13 – including 3 of 10 three-pointers.
After trading leads six times through the first 10 minutes, Michigan went ahead for good on Trey McKenney’s three-pointer with 9:37 left in the first half. The basket sparked a 9-0 run. And the Wolverines put the game away midway through the second half with their transition game and a pressure defense.
Lendeborg had a highlight-reel dunk by bullying his way through two defenders and finishing his transition drive with a dunk to put Michigan up 66-57. A little over a minute later, Michigan’s press cashed in, with Nimari Burnett intercepting Brady Dunlap’s pass and taking it the other way for a layup to make it 73-58.
No 3 Michigan State 77, No 6 Louisville 69
Coen Carr recorded his first career double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Jeremy Fears Jr had 16 assists as Michigan State advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 17th time under coach Tom Izzo, beating Louisville 77-69 on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Fears added 12 points on 3-of-13 shooting but did the most damage for Michigan State with his precision passing. The country’s assists leader, who came in averaging 9.2 per game, became the first Big Ten player with 10 or more assists in each of the first two games of an NCAA tourney. He had 11 in the Spartans’ first-round win over North Dakota State.
Magic Johnson had double-digit assists in four NCAA Tournament games during the Spartans’ run to the 1979 national title, before assists became an official stat.
Third-seeded Michigan State will play the winner of Sunday’s game between No 2 seed UConn and No 7 seed UCLA in the East Region semi-finals on Friday night in Washington.
Carr, a high-jumping, 6ft 6in junior forward, reached double-digit rebounds for the first time and came within one point of his best scoring game.
Trey Fort contributed 12 points off the bench for Michigan State, and Jaxon Kohler had 10 points.
