Wolverines claw back, advance to title game
SAN ANTONIO >> Staring down a 10-point deficit against an underdog that seemed nothing short of blessed during the madness of March, Moe Wagner and Michigan clamped down on LoyolaChicago and ended one of the most memorable NCAA Tournament runs ever.
Wagner, Charles Matthews and the Wolverines erased that margin to help Michigan beat the Ramblers 69-57 Saturday night in the Final Four.
The third-seeded Wolverines (33-7) will take a 14-game winning streak into their first national championship game appearance since 2013, and second under coach Jon Beilein. They will play Villanova for their first NCAA title since 1989 on Monday night at the Alamodome.
Loyola (32-6), with superfan Sister Jean courtside and their fans behind the bench standing for most of the game, couldn’t conjure another upset. The Ramblers were the fourth 11th-seeded
team to make it this far and, like the previous three, the semifinals were the end of the road.
Coach Porter Moser said he was proud of players Ben Richardson, Aundre Jackson and Donte Ingram for holding it together during a postgame news conference, answering questions with red eyes and long faces.
“It was as tough a locker room as I’ve seen,” Moser said. “They believed that they belong. They believed, they wanted to advance.”
Wagner scored 24 points, had 15 rebounds and was 10 for 16 from the field. Matthews, the Kentucky transfer and Chicago native, added 17 points, including a run-out dunk with 1:33 left that made it 63-53. And that was that.
“I just tried to go in the game, take what the opponent is giving me, what the game is giving me, stay emotionally solid and don’t get emotionally drunk, and it worked out today,” said Wagner, who became the third player in the last 40 years with a 20 and 15 game in the Final Four, joining Hakeem Olajuwon of Houston in 1983 and Larry Bird of Indiana State in 1979.
Cameron Krutwig scored 17 points for Loyola, and Clayton Custer had 13 of his 15 after halftime. But facing one of the best defensive teams in the country, the Ramblers scored just 16 points in the final 14 minutes.
Clayton Custer scored seven straight points for Loyola at one point to put the Ramblers up 41-31 with 14:08 remaining. Michigan refused to fade, however, even though point guard Zavier Simpson didn’t score and had four turnovers.
Back-up point guard Jaaron Simmons made a 3 and Duncan Robinson hit another a few minutes later and the deficit was down to 45-42 with 10 minutes left.
“We haven’t been down in a game for a long time,” Simmons said. “So not dropping our heads was one of the main adjustments we had to make.”
Wagner hit a 3 with 6:50 left to tie it, and moments later the Wolverines were back on top, 49-47, when Jordan Poole made two free throws.
Loyola turned it over on three straight possessions and Wagner tipped in a miss by Poole, was fouled and converted the threepoint play to put Michigan up 54-47 with just under five minutes left.
Despite the loss, the Missouri Valley Conference champions, making their first NCAA appearance since 1985, will return to Chicago as heroes.
“It’s special to see kind of what stage we were able to get to,” said Richardson, a senior who grew up in Kansas with Custer and then convinced his friend to transfer from Iowa State to Loyola. “Despite going out this way, were going to never forget this. I think a lot of people will remember this run for a long time.”