MILWAUKEE — Nik Stauskas and Michigan figured out the best way to overcome Texas’ advantage inside.
One sweet shooting performance.
Stauskas made four of Michigan’s 14 3-pointers, and the Wolverines beat the Longhorns 79-65 on Saturday to advance to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 for the second straight year.
“Huge win for us,” coach John Beilein said. “These guys believe and they did a great job.”
Stauskas had 17 points and matched a career high with eight assists as Michigan (27-8) moved on to next week’s Midwest Regional semifinals in Indianapolis. The second-seeded Wolverines will face the winner of Sunday’s Mercer-Tennessee game.
Michigan lost to Louisville in the national championship game a year ago. But the Wolverines are rolling again, thanks to strong outside shooting and Jordan Morgan’s work inside.
“What I do like about this team is they’ve never lost two in a row. They’ve been resilient,” Beilein said. “They get better in both victory and defeat.”
Isaiah Taylor scored 22 points for the seventh-seeded Longhorns on 8-for-22 shooting. Texas (24-11) outrebounded Michigan 41-30, including 21 on the offensive glass, but the Longhorns got off to a slow start and never recovered.
Michigan shot 14-for-28 from 3-point range and 17-for-21 at the free throw line in its ninth win in the last 10 games. Morgan had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Caris LeVert and Glenn Robinson III had 14 points apiece.
“It wasn’t the 14 3s that beat us. It wasn’t,” Texas coach Rick Barnes said. “It was not finishing a couple times defensively and the shots in close that we didn’t get to go down.”