The Loyola-Chicago Ramblers finally saw their March Madness run come to a close, losing 69-57 to the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday in San Antonio in the first game of the 2018 Final Four. The Wolverines came back to cover the spread as 5-point favorites, and the game was under the total of 129.5.
The Wolverines move on to the national championship game to take on the winner of the Kansas Jayhawks and Villanova Wildcats in the second semifinal. The odds for that matchup will be posted at BetDSI Sportsbook as soon as it is set. Michigan likely would be a slight underdog to Kansas and a sizable underdog to pre-tournament favorite Villanova.
Game recap
Moe Wagner scored 24 points and had 15 rebounds to lead Michigan against Loyola-Chicago, which led by as many as 10 points early in the second half. Charles Matthews added 17 points for the Wolverines. Those two players combined to shoot 17 of 28 from the field. The rest of the team was just 8 for 31.
Cameron Krutwig led Loyola-Chicago with 17 points. Clayton Custer scored 15 and Aundre Jackson added 10.
Michigan shot just 7 of 28 from 3-point range, but that didn’t matter for two reasons: First, Loyola-Chicago was even worse from long range, shooting 1 for 10 from beyond the arc, and second, the Wolverines started just 2 for 15 on 3-pointers before getting hot down the stretch.
Loyola-Chicago, which used a 16-3 run to erase an early 12-4 deficit, led 45-37 with 11:25 remaining. However, Michigan scored 17 of the game’s next 19 points to assume control at 54-47. From that point, Loyola-Chicago never got closer than five points, the game’s opening spread.
Looking ahead
Michigan’s odds to win the Big Dance were the fifth-shortest of any team in the tournament before it started at +1000 according to BetDSI. Loyola-Chicago would have paid +60000 to futures bettors, but that dream died two steps short of completion.
The Wolverines’ finals opponent will be either pre-tournament favorite Villanova at +400 or Kansas, which had odds longer than Michigan’s at +1700 even though the Jayhawks are a No. 1 seed.
