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Big Ten Basketball: No. 15 Wolverines advances to conference semifinals

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Moritz Wagner
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Moritz Wagner /
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The Big Ten conference tournament has advanced to the semifinals. And one of the semifinals features a pair of intrastate rivals as Michigan will take on Michigan State.

Arch-rivals Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan Spartans will face off at Madison Square Garden in a Big Ten conference tournament semifinal. This is the first time that the Wolverines and Spartans will face each other in the conference semifinals. The first Big Ten tournament did not occur until 1998.

Overall, this will mark the second match-up between the teams this season. The Wolverines defeated the Spartans 82-72 in Lansing on Jan. 13. MSU has won 25 of the last 36 meetings between the clubs, though UM leads the all-time series 99-81.

No. 15 Michigan (26-7) is in the semis for the third straight season and for the eighth time ever. The defending conference tournament champions, who were seeded fifth this season, defeated fourth seeded Nebraska 77-58 on Friday afternoon.

Mo Wagner picked up his seventh double-double for UM as he finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds. In the meanwhile, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman led the way with 21 points on 7 of 13 shooting, including a perfect 5 of 5 from behind the arc. Duncan Robinson added 16 points off the bench and Zavier Simpson chipped in 12 points to go along with six dimes.

But it was the Wolverines performance on the defensive end that was most impressive. Trailing 9-5 four minutes into the game, UM held Nebraska without a field goal for the next 6 minutes and 2 seconds. As a result, the Wolverines were able to take control of the game (18-12).

Robinson knocked down one of his four triples to extend the Wolverines lead to 33-15 at the three-minute mark. However, the Cornhuskers (22-10) closed the half on a 9-1 run to cut the deficit to 33-24.

Michigan limited Nebraska to just 7 of 30 (23.3%) shooting, including  1 of 6 from beyond the arc, in the first half. The Wolverines held the Huskers to 30.2% (16-53) shooting overall  and just 4 of 16 (25%) from the three-point line.

James Palmer Jr. and Isaiah Roby led Nebraska with 16 points a piece. Palmer, the Huskers leading scorer at 17.4, made only  3 of 9 shots though he was 9 of 11 from the free throw line.

Michigan reached the tournament quarterfinals following a 77-71 overtime victory over Iowa on Thursday. The Wolverines have won seven in a row and nine of 10.

Next: Michigan vs Michigan State, Big Ten Tournament preview

No. 2 Michigan State (28-3) is in the semifinals for the 13th time ever. The Spartans finished with a program best 16-2 conference record this season, earning their eighth regular season title under coach Tom Izzo. The Spartans fended off ninth-seeded Wisconsin earlier on Friday for their 13th straight win.