BUFFALO, N.Y. — 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), which matched a program record for victories set during its seventh and most recent Final Four appearance in 2018.
The Wolverines' 7-foot-3 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), which saw its season end after setting a single-season record for wins with its 102-77 first-round victory 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 3-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 3-pointers.
After trading leads six times through the first 10 minutes, Michigan went ahead for good on Trey McKenney’s 3-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 saw Michigan show signs of overcoming its issues of slow second-half starts — something that cost the Wolverines the Big Ten Tournament title in a 80-72 loss to Purdue last weekend.
“We’re just learning from our mistakes against Purdue. We let them step away,” Lendeborg said. “We’re going to start coming out more aggressively in the second half from now on. When they started going on their run, it went back to leaning on each other and playing poised and believing we can compete with anybody.”
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.
“Dominican LeBron,” Burnett said, referring to Lendeborg's nickname when asked about the dunk. “At that point in the game, we were up 10 or so, but it gave us another boost to extend the lead.”
Lendeborg, who signed with Michigan after spending the previous two seasons at UAB, was born in Puerto Rico, but his parents are from the Dominican Republic.
Billikens coach Josh Schertz was wowed by the Wolverines.
“They're so gifted," he said. “They'll be a tough out, not just for Saint Louis, but for anybody. You've got to make them play bad, and we weren't able to make them play bad enough."
Saint Louis can't grow overnight
Schertz said he came up with what he thought was a good game plan to contend with Michigan, before joking there was a limitation to how much he could do.
“You can't grow in 24 hours,” Schertz said, referring to the Billikens' height disadvantage against a Wolverines team that boasts Mara and includes two 6-9 forwards in Lendeborg and Johnson. Avila, at 6-10, is Saint Louis' tallest regular.
“We knew there was going to be some limitations,” he said, with the plan being to force Wolverines to take shots late in their possessions. The Billikens succeeded in doing that, with only one problem. “To their credit, they beat us with late contested 3s,” the coach said.
Double-digit scoring
The Wolverines had all five starters score 11 or more points, with the team finishing 34 of 61.
The Wolverines' 55.7% field-goal percentage came against a Saint Louis team that entered the day allowing opponents to hit an NCAA-low 37.7% of their attempts. Before Saturday, the Billikens had not allowed an opponent to convert 48% of their field goals this season.
Another 20-point win for the Wolverines
Of Michigan's 33 wins, 26 have been decided by 10 or more points, and 16 by 20 or more. The Wolverines fell five points short of their 10th 100-point outing of the season.
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