Michigan Ends Loyola-Chicago’s Long, Wild Ride in the Final Four

SAN ANTONIO — Moritz Wagner — you can call him Moe — patiently held the ball at the 3-point arc. He waited for his Michigan teammate Charles Matthews to make his move, cutting to the basket. Then Wagner sent a gorgeous bounce pass to Matthews, who laid the ball in to give the Wolverines a 4-point lead with less than six minutes to play in their N.C.A.A. tournament semifinal on Saturday.

In addition to that assist, Wagner had 16 points and 14 rebounds at that point. It seemed reasonable to ask: Is there anything he can’t do?

A 6-foot-11 junior from Germany, Wagner all but single-handedly brought an end to one of the wildest long-shot runs in tournament history, leading third-seeded Michigan to a grinding, at times soporific, 69-57 victory over 11th-seeded Loyola-Chicago.

Michigan will meet either Villanova or Kansas, two top seeds who were to play in the other semifinal later Saturday at the Alamodome. Loyola, the enthralling underdog and one of just four teams seeded so low to reach the Final Four, was seeking to become the lowest seed ever in the final.

It will be Michigan’s first appearance in the title game since 2013, when the Wolverines lost to Louisville, whose championship was recently vacated because of N.C.A.A. violations.

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For Loyola, the loss was gutting, because the Ramblers really could have won this one. They led by 7 at halftime, 29-22, despite not scoring over a stretch of more than five minutes early on. They were up by as much as 10 in the second half.

Cameron Krutwig, a freshman center, led Loyola with 17 points, while Clayton Custer, a redshirt junior, had 15 points on nine shots. On defense, the Ramblers limited Michigan’s ordinarily electric shooting through much of the game with their positionless defense.

But Loyola had no answer for Wagner. He had 11 rebounds and 11 points in the first half, for 50 percent of the Wolverines’ scoring. Loyola’s help defense effectively prevented Michigan from getting the ball to him inside, so the Wolverines’ offense consisted largely of shooting 3-pointers (they attempted 13), missing them (they made just two) and letting Wagner get the offensive rebound for the putback.

This was, in its way, part of the plan, Michigan Coach John Beilein revealed after the game. “Because they’re switching, we said, ‘Moe, you’ve just got to roll more, slip more, and get down there and clean up any rebounds you can get, because they’ve got a 6-foot guy on you,’” Beilein said.

Wagner finished the game with monster statistics: 24 points and 15 rebounds.

Michigan slowly clawed its way back in the second half, tying the game, 47-47, with under seven minutes left. Then came the blitz, including a run during which Loyola committed turnovers on six consecutive possessions.

When Wagner hit a 3-pointer (he had three of them) with 2 minutes, 59 seconds left, it put Michigan up by 8, and a clearly exhausted Loyola seemed done for.

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Michigan’s defense has been its calling card this year thanks to a new assistant coach, Luke Yaklich, who was in the high school ranks as recently as 2013. Yaklich reinvigorated the Wolverines’ defense, making it one of the best in the country. In the second half, his influence was especially evident as Michigan forced 11 turnovers from Loyola’s veteran players.

“We made a concerted effort to take away the 3,” Beilein said. The Ramblers made just one 1 of their 10 shots from outside the arc.

Near the end, Wagner hustled out of bounds for the ball, leaping off the Alamodome’s elevated court. The television analyst Grant Hill, who won two N.C.A.A. championships at Duke, high-fived Wagner on his way back, almost as if welcoming him to the club.