Trey McKenney drops 21 points to propel Michigan Wolverines past Oakland Golden Grizzlies in debut
The Michigan Wolverines blew past the Oakland Golden Grizzlies 121-78 after setting a program-record with 69 points in the first half to tip off the regular season on a positive note at the Crisler Center on Monday. Here’s how it all went down. Michigan got the scoring started early on as Elliot Cadeau found Aday Mara for back-to-back dunks on the first two possessions to jump out to a 4-0 lead. Nimari Burnett had a slam of his own just moments later to extend the lead to 12-5. The Wolverines’ offense continued to operate at a high level, putting together a 20-0 run to push the lead to 34-10 — highlighted by Morez Johnson Jr. scoring 12 points during that span, as well as 3-pointers from Burnett and Yaxel Lendeborg. Trey McKenney got into the action, scoring the first bucket of his Michigan career to put the Wolverines up 49-27. Meanwhile, Johnson Jr. and Mara continued to dominate near the basket — pouring in a combined 30 points in the first half. It was as good of a start as Michigan could have imagined, scoring the most first half points in school history to take a 69-38 halftime lead. The Wolverines shot a blistering 71.1 percent from the field, while recording 1.64 points per possession. Predictably, the offense wasn’t able to keep up the torrid pace in the second half but Michigan certainly didn’t let up on either end of the floor as the lead ballooned to 99-57 following an and-1 layup from McKenney with 9:32 left in the game. Most of the starters checked out midway through the second half, which gave McKenney an opportunity to take over more on-ball responsibility and he took full advantage, finishing with 21 points on 6-of-8 shooting from 3-point territory. Despite scoring just five points in his Michigan debut, Cadeau was the straw that stirred the drink for the Wolverines’ up-tempo offense all night long — recording a game-high 12 assists to go with just one turnover in 25 minutes of action. Michigan finished the 121-78 season-opening win with seven scorers in double figures including Johnson Jr. racking up a game-high 24 points. Dusty May’s team totaled 46 points in the paint, while committing just eight turnovers in the win. The Wolverines will take just over a week off before returning to the court against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on November 11 at 6:30 PM at Little Caesars Arena. Wake Forest defeated Michigan 72-70 in non-conference play last season.
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