Roddy Gayle and Trey McKenney each scored 17 points to lead No. 16 and defending national champion Michigan to an 84-68 win over Oakland University in the season opener on Monday in Ann Arbor.
J.P. Estrella, a transfer from Tennessee, had 15 points and 12 rebounds and Quinn Costello added 13 points off of the bench for Michigan, which overcame a 7-of-34 shooting performance from 3-point range.
Michigan went 24-of-37 on 2-point shot attempts.
Chris Fields Jr. had 18 points and 10 rebounds, Nassim Mashhour added 16 points and Ryder Bradley came off the bench to score 12 points in defeat for Oakland, which held a 44-42 rebounding advantage on the strength of 21 offensive rebounds, but went 6-of-26 from 3-point range.
Oakland committed 15 turnovers for the game, while Michigan turned it over just nine times.
Leading 47-36 at halftime, Michigan built its lead to 62-47 with 11:44 remaining in the game before Oakland mounted a rally.
The Golden Grizzlies went on an 8-0 run to cut their deficit to seven at 62-55 with 8:34 left after a basket by Warren Marshall.
But Michigan answered with a run of its own, scoring the next nine points of the game to stretch its lead out to 16 at 71-55 with 6:10 left after a basket by Roddy Gayle.
Oakland couldn’t bring its deficit back to within single digits the rest of the game.
Holding a 21-19 lead with 7:53 remaining in the first half, Michigan went on an 8-0 run to stretch the lead up to 29-19 after a basket by Estrella with 6:22 left until halftime.
Oakland responded by going on a 10-5 spurt to cut Michigan’s lead to 34-29 with 4:09 left in the first half and narrowed Michigan’s lead to 40-36 before Michigan ended the final 2:09 on a 7-0 run to take a 47-36 lead at intermission.