J.P. Estrella Scores 18 as No. 20 Michigan Pulls Away From Marquette 84-70

For about 11 minutes on Wednesday night, Crisler Center had the look of a building waiting for something to happen. Michigan could not find the bottom of the net from deep, Marquette was winning the early exchanges, and the Golden Eagles led by seven. Then J.P. Estrella went to work around the rim, and the defending national champions never really looked back. No. 20 Michigan beat Marquette 84-70 on Military Appreciation Night in Ann Arbor, the first meeting between the programs in nearly a decade.

Estrella led the Wolverines with 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting, eight rebounds and two blocks. Elliot Cadeau flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 17 points, seven rebounds and 10 assists. Trey McKenney and freshman Quinn Costello added 15 apiece, with Costello making all five of his field goals from 3. Michigan moves to 2-1 after its loss to UConn in Boston last Friday. Marquette, which had won its first two games by a combined 96 points, falls to 2-1.

The margin came from the places Michigan wanted it to come from. The Wolverines shot 50.8 percent, assisted on 21 of their 32 baskets, won the glass 45-33 and owned the paint 36-22. They also ran, scoring 15 fast-break points to Marquette's two.

A Slow Start and a 13-0 Answer

Marquette came out with energy. Royce Parham scored the first basket of the night on a putback, and the Golden Eagles spent the opening minutes trading empty trips with a Michigan team that missed its first two shots. Roddy Gayle Jr. got the Wolverines moving, scoring on a layup and a midrange jumper after back-to-back Marquette turnovers, and McKenney added a pull-up.

Marquette kept answering. Joshua Clark finished a three-point play off the bench, and when Costello buried a 3 off a Kenny Noland feed at the 12:06 mark, Michigan only led 13-11. The Golden Eagles then strung together an 8-0 run and led 22-15 with just under nine minutes left in the half. Michigan was shooting the ball terribly from the perimeter, eventually going 2-of-11 from 3 in the first half, and the crowd could feel it.

That is when Estrella took over. The Tennessee transfer scored the first nine points of a 13-0 Michigan run, getting three straight buckets at the rim, then kicked the ball out to Costello for a 3. The defense started taking the ball away too, and the whole thing took about two and a half minutes. Just like that, a seven-point deficit was a 28-22 lead. Michigan went to the locker room up 35-27.

Three Straight From Deep

Whatever was said at halftime, Michigan's shooters heard it. The Wolverines made 3s on each of their first three offensive possessions of the second half, turning an eight-point cushion into something much sturdier. After that 2-of-11 first half from behind the arc, Michigan went 9-of-16 from deep after the break.

Costello was the headliner there. A freshman who went 1-of-5 from 3 against UConn, Costello came off the bench and went 5-of-6 from the field, all from distance, for 15 points in 25 minutes. Estrella also found shooters, with two kick-out passes that led to 3s, which is exactly the kind of inside-out balance Mike Boynton Jr. has been trying to build with a roster that lost three first-round picks from last year's title team.

The lead reached 22 at its peak. Michigan made its final five field goals, McKenney hit back-to-back 3s down the stretch, and Michigan led for 80 percent of the night by ESPN's count. All five Michigan starters played at least 25 minutes, and none of them had more than three fouls.

Estrella Keeps Stacking Big Nights

Three games into his Michigan career, Estrella has been the most reliable thing on the roster. Estrella had 15 points and 12 rebounds against Oakland and 19 points on 6-of-7 shooting against UConn. Wednesday's 18 points pushed his scoring average to 17.3 points per game. Estrella had four of Michigan's nine offensive rebounds and made seven shots in the paint.

The bigger story is how Michigan's frontcourt fits together. Moustapha Thiam, the 7-foot-2 Cincinnati transfer who missed the opener with an illness and played only 15 minutes against UConn, gave Michigan 27 minutes on Wednesday. Thiam finished with nine points, a game-high 12 rebounds and three blocks. Michigan blocked seven shots as a team, and Marquette shot just 35.2 percent from the field.

Gayle was quieter than usual with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting, four rebounds and two steals, though Gayle also had four of Michigan's 15 turnovers. That turnover number is the one blemish in an otherwise clean stat line. Michigan still won the turnover battle on the scoreboard, turning Marquette's 12 giveaways into 18 points while allowing 11 off its own mistakes.

Cadeau Looks Like Cadeau Again

The most encouraging line in the box score might belong to Cadeau. The Final Four Most Outstanding Player from last April had a rough night in Boston, going 3-of-11 with five turnovers, five fouls and a technical. On Wednesday Cadeau was in command, scoring 17 on 6-of-10 shooting, going 2-of-4 from 3 and handing out 10 assists in 34 minutes. Cadeau still had four turnovers, but the pace and the decision-making were back.

McKenney, who came in averaging 19.5 points after a career-high 22 against UConn, had to work for every one of those 15 points. McKenney shot 6-of-18 and 3-of-11 from 3, but still contributed five rebounds and four assists, and the late back-to-back 3s helped put the game away. A night like that from your leading scorer, in a 14-point win, is the kind of problem Boynton will happily take.

Porter Carries Marquette, James Jr. Can't Find It

Shaka Smart's team got a terrific night from Colin Porter. Coming off the bench, Porter scored 21 points in just 20 minutes on 7-of-11 shooting, including 5-of-9 from 3. Adrien Stevens added 16 on 6-of-10 shooting and 4-of-6 from deep, plus three assists. Marquette's bench outscored Michigan's 38-18, and another reserve, Egbuonu, chipped in nine more.

The problem was the rest of the shot chart. Nigel James Jr., a Naismith Trophy preseason watch list pick, went 0-of-11 from the field and 0-of-4 from 3 with four turnovers. Parham scored eight points but needed 13 shots to get there, making only two of them, and grabbed six rebounds. Sananda Fru was limited to three points while dealing with four fouls. As a team, Marquette shot 25-of-71, and everyone other than Porter and Stevens went a combined 12-of-50.

The Golden Eagles did hit 12 3s and made eight of nine free throws, and they grabbed 11 offensive rebounds. But they assisted on only 10 of their 25 baskets, and against a Michigan defense that protected the rim and got out in transition, that kind of isolation offense was never going to hold up for 40 minutes.

What It Means

This was the first meeting between these programs since Michigan beat Marquette 79-61 at the 2K Classic in Madison Square Garden in November 2016, and the first time Marquette had played in Ann Arbor since December 1990. Michigan now leads the all-time series 15-6 and is 9-1 against the Golden Eagles at home. The game opened a home-and-home series, so the Wolverines will make the return trip to Milwaukee next season.

More importantly for Boynton, this was the response a young title defense needed. The UConn loss raised fair questions about Cadeau, about Thiam's role and about where the scoring would come from when McKenney cooled off. Wednesday answered some of them: Estrella is a legitimate interior hub, Costello can swing a game off the bench, and Cadeau's floor game is still elite. It also fits a theme on Michigan's November calendar, with Marquette the second of four Big East opponents the Wolverines will face this month.

Marquette leaves Ann Arbor with a clear to-do list. Porter and Stevens can shoot, and the bench has punch. But the Golden Eagles need James Jr. to look like a watch list guard and need more from Parham on the interior if they want to beat good teams on the road.

Catch up on Michigan's opening win over Oakland and the loss to UConn in Boston. For full stats, see the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab) and Michigan's game center (opens in a new tab).

Sources: ESPN box score and team stats, Michigan Athletics, Marquette Athletics, UM Hoops, VAVEL. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Michigan stays home to host William & Mary on Sunday, Nov. 15, before visiting Villanova on Nov. 21. Marquette faces Missouri in Chicago on Sunday, Nov. 15.

Photo: Michigan Photography (file photo).