FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Roddy Gayle Jr. was 6-for-6 from the free throw line and scored 20 points as Michigan pulled away from Virginia Tech late to earn a 75-63 win Monday to advance to the championship game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off.
Michigan (5-1) converted 13 of 18 at the line in the second half and 15 of 20 overall.
Jaydon Young’s 3 with 14:30 left gave Virginia Tech a 49-46 lead but Tre Donaldson, who hit back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 46-46, sparked a 7-0 Michigan run with a layup that L.J. Cason followed with a jumper and a trey to put the Wolverines up 53-49 with under 13 minutes left. Gayle hit four straight free throws and Vladislav Goldin knocked down a jumper to push the Michigan lead to 61-52. Rubin Jones turned a three-point play to push the lead to 13, 70-57 with 3:21 to go and Gayle hit from beyond the arc a minute later to go up 73-57.
Gayle hit 6 of 13 from the field, including 2 of 6 from deep, adding four rebounds and four assists. Will Tschetter added 10 points off the bench and Danny Wolf pulled down 11 rebounds.
Toibu Lawal hit 9 of 10 at the line to lead the Hokies (3-3) with 14 points. Young hit 2 of 6 from deep and added 12 points off the bench.
Michigan will face the winner of the South Carolina-Xavier game in Wednesday’s tournament championship game. Virginia Tech will play the loser of that game in the consolation game.
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Will play the winner of the South Carolina-Xavier game Wednesday.
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