For most of the month of December, Michigan’s been a little underwhelming, but the Wolverines got back on track today, pulling away from Air Force in the second half for their most comfortable win in a few weeks. Ignas Brazdeikis scored 19 points after a tough performance against Western last week; Charles Matthews was aggressive and finished with 17. Michigan’s defense keyed the victory, allowing just 0.78 points per possession and harassing a turnover-prone Air Force squad into 20 turnovers.

It looked like one of Michigan’s early-season slogs early on. The Wolverines attempted eight of their first nine shots from behind the arc against the Falcons’ zone looks — and missed seven. Jordan Poole missed three of those from the corner; Zavier Simpson’s hesitant attempt and bad miss from the wing capped the stretch of poor shooting before Michigan made more of an effort to get to the rim. In the meantime, Air Force was unable to generate easy looks, and only led 10-5 seven minutes into the game despite Michigan’s inability to connect from behind the arc.

One of Air Force’s many turnovers was what sparked the Wolverine offense: Simpson intercepted a pass in the backcourt, pushed the pace, and hit a streaking Eli Brooks for a layup. On the next trip, Iggy was uncharacteristically patient, passing up a borderline three, posting up a wing, and finding Poole for a reverse layup. Michigan’s defense also stiffened, with a long sequence of strong possessions. Jon Teske had a few blocks after Air Force was leveraged into attempts with the shot clock ticking down; Brooks was briefly beaten backdoor but recovered and blocked a shot; most of all, the Falcons continued to turn it over.

With a little over seven minutes left in the half and the Wolverines leading 16-12, Michigan subbed in Brandon Johns at the five, and he fouled a three-point shooter on a pick-and-pop. That shooter, Ryan Swan, missed two of his three free throws, and then Michigan went on a little run to open up a decisive lead. The Wolverines scored on three straight possessions: a strong Brooks drive and finish, an open Matthews three, and then a possession with nice ball movement that ended in an Isaiah Livers three, which prompted an Air Force timeout.

[Barron]

At that point, Michigan led 24-13, and they wound up taking a seven-point lead into the halftime break. Air Force scored on the first possession of the second half (with Lavelle Scottie getting past Matthews following an offensive rebound on a badly-missed shot), but Matthews responded with consecutive free throw line jumpers off the dribble. Michigan wound up scoring on five straight possessions — following those Matthews buckets, Iggy got to his left for a layup, he assisted Poole on a three, and then he grabbed a steal and thew down a two-handed reverse dunk. From there, Michigan controlled the game.

The Wolverine offense was only able to manage 0.88 points per possession in first half, but in the second, they scored 1.30. The three-point shooting was better, if still not particularly great, but Iggy, Poole, and Livers each hit two in the second half. Looks with Livers at the five opened up the Air Force defense, especially with pick-and-pop action to the top of the key. More importantly, the Wolverines turned it over just thrice in the second half after a sloppy start. A set of late-game possessions nicely illustrate how this game unfolded: on the first, a Matthews-to-Simpson lob turned into a biffed layup and empty possession; on the second, a Simpson-to-Livers lob connected for an emphatic dunk.

A strong defensive effort and efficient scoring from its top two scorers is a good sign for Michigan following a stretch of relatively poor form. Air Force hit a high percentage of its twos and Scottie played well (with 16 points), but the Wolverines took advantage of the Falcons’ propensity to turn it over. On the other end, Michigan took more than half its shots from three against the zone, but only hit 31%. Despite not getting to the free throw line much, the Wolverine offense still reached 1.11 points per possession, a solid rate. Compared to the Western game, this one went much more according to expectations.

Michigan has one of its weakest opponents, Binghamton, next weekend, and is very likely to carry a 13-0 record into the New Year and Big Ten play.

[Box score after the JUMP]