Loyola's magical ride comes to end with loss to Michigan
SAN ANTONIO - Once Loyola finished re-establishing on Saturday that its surge to the Final Four had happened because of polished, airtight merit, Michigan finished chasing down Loyola. When the height and might of the Wolverines finally found its way to outflank the Ramblers, the NCAA tournament bracket that kept Loyola snugly in its midst for three giddy weeks finally went ahead and let it go.
It became Michigan, the No. 3 seed that brought to the Alamodome its 13-game winning streak, which finally would see off a Ramblers team, its oft-gorgeous offense and its rock-star 98-year-old chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt. The Wolverines saved their surge for the closing eight minutes, gaining a 69-57 win in their program's ninth Final Four and their second under 11-season Coach John Beilein. They earned date for the closing Monday night opposite either Villanova or Kansas.
As the Ramblers aimed to become the first No. 11 seed to reach a national title game, and as they looked like that No. 11 seeding had been some sort of mirage, Michigan tried to whack away at a 32-22 deficit that struck it early in the second half. At moments, it seemed like it might keep whacking fruitlessly as its shot persistently banged off the rim. Finally, with the deficit at 47-42 with 7:44 left, the dam broke.
When the 6-foot-11, multifaceted German import Moritz Wagner took the ball reasonably close to the basket with seven minutes left, then backed up into 3-point range on the right, then drained the shot that tied the score at last at 47-47, he had just made Michigan's 19th field goal in 51 tries.
The scoring would ease from there, while the defense on Loyola's blissfully structured offense would do hard business. While it plucked turnovers repeatedly through the key stretch, it ensured that Loyola's textbook passing kept amounting to nothing.
Jordan Poole, whose audacious closing shot in the second round against Houston kept Michigan in the tournament, found himself open low on the right. That spawned two free throws and a 49-47 lead. Things started rolling. Wagner, who must have decided he'd need an assist to accompany his 24 points and 15 rebounds, would ship a beaut of a pass low to Charles Matthews for a reverse layup. Poole would miss a 3-point shot from the left corner, but, with 4:59 left, Wagner would direct it back downward into the basket, drawing a foul.
When he hit, it was 54-47, and it was all different. Openings kept coming. Wagner barged in from the right to take Zavier Simpson's pass for a layup. Wagner, whose low-post battles with very-big boy Cameron Krutwig helped define the game, rained in a 3-pointer from the top for a 59-51 lead with 2:59 left, and as Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman made a drive built on superior talent to score with 2:13 left, the last of Loyola's month of fetching resistance seemed to fade.
March had ended.
While it was still going, and the Ramblers had an unplanned meeting when Coach Porter Moser had to take a timeout just past seven minutes into the game, they had trailed 12-4. They had made shooting in a dome look like ... shooting in a dome. They had made two shots out of 10, had seen three layups in traffic roll off the rim and had six rebounds to Michigan's gathering collection of 12. Already, Wagner had done twice what would become Michigan's best, yet makeshift, offensive method of the first half: taking a missed shot and putting it back in.
From there to halftime, the game made itself a hairpin turn, Loyola playing the last duration of the first half while crafting a 25-10 scoring advantage in that last 12:38. Loyola Chicago would make eight of its final 14 first-half shots. Michigan would make clangs from the clunky to the clunkier, winding up 9 for 31, or 29 percent. It made two of 13 3-point attempts.
The Ramblers, meanwhile, tried only three such shots, so that it mattered little that they made none. They got an Aundre Jackson drive that earned him two free throws, then one of their trademark pretty bounce passes, from Clayton Custer to Jackson for an uncontested layup, then a swish on the run from the left of the key from Marques Townes.
They were back in it, back demonstrating how their No. 11 seeding had been a mirage. Krutwig kept fielding the ball down low to tussle with Wagner, and Krutwig came out of it with a rattle-in layup on a pass from Custer, a delicious left hook from the lane and some free throws. Clearly under the impression it belonged squarely alongside a Big Ten tournament champion with a 13-game winning streak and a humongous name.
Pretty soon, when Krutwig had opened the second half muscling in a shot through a Wagner foul, then let out some kind of guttural scream, Loyola Chicago led by 10, looking like it might have a big name itself.
Maybe it did already.