Anything you can do, I can do, too.

Michigan basketball, one night after rival Michigan State took a half-game Big Ten lead on a buzzer-beating win over Maryland, won on a heartstopper of its own.

With 3.3 seconds left and the Wolverines trailing by one, head coach Dusty May drew up one final play — on the inbounds, Danny Wolf was trapped but swung the ball to Nimari Burnett. The veteran then canned a 25-footer as time expired to give U-M an improbable 84-82 win over Rutgers.

The Wolverines were down as much as 12 with 11:14 to play when they flipped a switch defensively. Michigan had allowed 74 points in the first 29 minutes of the game, then allowed just eight the rest of the way. In the meantime, the Wolverines chipped away on the other end and ultimately ended the month of February the same way they began: By beating Rutgers.

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Vlad Goldin finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds while the hero of the game, Burnett, scored a season-high 20 points, Will Tschetter added 16 and Wolf finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.

As a result, No. 13 Michigan (22-6, 14-3 Big Ten) pulled back into a tie atop the Big Ten with Michigan State with three games to play. U-M has home games against Illinois (3:45 p.m. Sunday, CBS) and Maryland (Wednesday) before its regular-season finale in East Lansing on March 9.

The final minute

The game was tied at 76 when Rutgers freshman Dylan Harper hit a reverse to go up two. Then, after a timeout, Goldin threw down a slam to knot the game at 78. Wolf split a pair from the line to give the Wolverines a one-point led, but freshman Ace Bailey, who finished 13, drilled a baseline fadeaway to go up one with 44 seconds left.

U-M didn’t call timeout on the other end and Tre Donaldson hit a go-ahead layup with 31.1 seconds left. After Rutgers drew up a play, Tyson Acuff (a Detroit Cass Tech alumnus and Eastern Michigan transfer) was fouled on a 3; he hit two of the free throws to put the Scarlet Knights up, 82-81, with 12 seconds left.

Michigan had one last possession, but it was getting out of sorts, so May called a halt to the action and drew up the game-winner for Burnett.

The key run

Michigan was down eight at the half, but Burnett started hot out of the break, making a 3-pointer from the left wing and later a tough and-1 on the block as well as a fadeaway from the right elbow to get Michigan within five, 65-60.

From there, Rutgers went on a 9-2 run and, after a Harper layup, May called timeout down 12 with 11:14 left. 

That’s when Michigan slowly started chipping away. Wolf made a layup, then L.J. Cason got an offensive rebound and putback before Goldin swatted the ball at the rim and Roddy Gayle Jr. got a run-out the other way to cap a 6-0 run in less than a minute to get U-M within six.

Simultaneously, Rutgers went cold, making just one of 10 shots. When Goldin hit a pair from the line with 7:49 left, U-M’s deficit was only 74-70. Michigan then forced a shot clock violation and after Wolf made a layup, Burnett added a pair of free throws and Tschetter a floater from the baseline to tie the game at 76 with 4:17 to play.

Frantic first half

Michigan allowed 46 points at Nebraska on Monday night. It allowed 57 to Rutgers in just the first 20 minutes Thursday.

From the 14:26 mark of the half when Bailey made a layup, to the 1:50 point when Harper finished with a slam, the Scarlett Knights were seemingly unstoppable from the field. Steve Pikell’s team made an unfathomable 16 of 18 shots from the floor. (Nebraska made 16 of 62 all night on Monday.)

Even when the Scarlet Knights finally did miss, twice, they got offensive rebounds, ending in Acuff canning a 3 to go up, 57-44, with 1:11 left in the half.

U-M was only that close because Goldin led the way with 17 at the break, including the final five of the half to pull May’s team within eight at the break, while Tschetter had 12 including a pair of 3-pointers.

While Michigan shot well from the floor (17-for-30) in the first half, it again struggled beyond the arc (3-for-13) before the intermission.

Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.