Sports

Burke’s cold-blooded 3 caps Michigan rally in wild OT win

ARLINGTON, Texas — Michigan had not reached the Sweet 16 since the halcyon days of the Fab Five, but last night the Wolverines pulled off a rally those icons would have envied.

Virtuoso sophomore point guard Trey Burke bounced back from one of the worst halves of his career with the shot of his life, a 27-foot 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds remaining to force overtime, where Michigan prevailed, 87-85, over top-seeded Kansas.

After falling behind 72-62 with 2:53 left, the fourth-seeded Wolverines looked destined for a trip back to Ann Arbor. That’s when Burke dribbled around destiny, carrying the Wolverines on his back into tomorrow’s South Region final at Cowboys Stadium.

Scoreless in the first half, Burke scored eight of his 23 points in the final 1:16 of regulation and Michigan’s first five points of overtime. The highlight — of this entire NCAA Tournament — was the last-ditch 3-pointer he launched from well beyond NBA range.

“We fought so hard to come back, it really didn’t matter how far the shot was,” Burke said. “It was all or nothing.”

It was all.

“The season flashed before my eyes,” he said. “I had a lot faith in that shot, and it went in. God is really good. He’s gotten us to this point. We have a lot of work to do, but we’re one step closer.’’

One step from Atlanta, when they appeared to all the world to be two minutes away from a trip home. Center Mitch McGary — one of three freshmen in the Michigan starting lineup — scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to win his battle with Kansas senior Jeff Withey.

“This guy [McGary] was a champ all the way through it,’’ said Michigan coach John Beilein, whose team held Kansas without a field goal for the final 2:53 of regulation.

The Wolverines (29-7) still trailed by five when freshman Tim Hardaway Jr. — son of the NBA great — missed a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left in regulation.

But the Jayhawks failed to retrieve the rebound, though having the possession arrow, they could have just fallen on the ball. Glenn Robinson III — another NBA offspring — got the ball and hit a reverse layup to cut the deficit to three.

Kansas tried to close the game out at the charity stripe. After two Elijah Johnson free throws and a Burke layup, Johnson missed the front end of a one-and-one with 13 seconds remaining.

That gave Michigan hope, and Burke cashed in.

“This will go down as one of the toughest games obviously that we’ve been a part of, and I’ve been a part of,” said Kansas coach Bill Self, who presciently called Burke the best player in the country before the game.

The sophomore did nothing to change his mind.

“The last few minutes of the game we didn’t do a lot of things right, some things we’ll look back on for a long, long time,” Self said.

The Jayhawks (31-6) joined Gonzaga and Indiana as No. 1 seeds that have been bounced.

Kansas freshman Ben McLemore — tabbed as a potential No. 1 pick in June’s NBA Draft — had 20 points, but despite four senior starters with 49 NCAA tourney games under their belts, the Jayhawks could not close.

RIMSHOTS

STARS OF THE DAY

* Louisville junior guard Russ Smith, a Brooklyn native, helped the Cardinals fend off a pesky Oregon team. Smith scored 31 points on 9-of-16 shooting and made the most of his trips to the free-throw line — shooting 12-of-14 from the charity stripe — as top-seeded Louisville prevailed, 77-69.

* Sophomore point guard Trey Burke rode to the rescue for Michigan. He scored eight points in the final 1:16 of regulation, including a memorable game-tying 3-pointer from nearly 30 feet out with 4.3 seconds left, to force overtime. He scored the first five points of overtime for the Wolverines — finishing with 23 on the night, all after halftime — as they held on to knock out top-seeded Kansas, 87-85.

* Duke guard Seth Curry provided most of the fireworks in a rugged 71-61 win over Michigan State. The senior sharpshooter scored 29 points, connecting on six-of-nine attempts from 3-point range and going a perfect 7-of-7 from the free-throw line.

STAT OF THE DAY

19 Turnovers by Florida Gulf Coast, including nine by point guard Brett Comer, the orchestrator of the Dunk City offense. The tourney Cinderellas were eliminated by Florida, 62-50.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We never had the mindset that we were going to lose the game. … It’s March, anything can happen.”

— Burke on Michigan’s rally from a 14-point second-half deficit