PISCATAWAY, N.J. _ Survive and advance, even in February.
Staring at a potentially crushing blow, Michigan found its reserve tank.
Losing on the road to Rutgers _ two-win Big Ten Rutgers, never-beaten the Wolverines Rutgers _ U-M talked in a time-out with 6:38 remaining, down by four.
The adrenaline shot worked as the Wolverines ripped off a 10-0 run to take the lead.
That was enough as Michigan held on by its fingernails with a 68-64 win Wednesday over the Scarlet Knights at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
This was a game Michigan needed for its resume, not because Rutgers was good, but actually because the Scarlet Knights are so bad. Their 153 RPI was a loss a bubble team can't afford to take, especially when U-M had nothing even close to that all season.
With only three regular-season games remaining _ and only Saturday hosting Purdue against a top-25 team _ the loss would increase the pressure on Senior Night.
But they made it, improving to 18-10, 8-7 in the Big Ten.
Free throws were again a problem on the road for the usually proficient Wolverines. After missing nine at Minnesota in the overtime loss, U-M missed nine free throws in this game � seven in the second half _ making it far tighter than necessary.
Rutgers (13-16, 2-14) got within three in the final 20 seconds and had a 3-pointer to tie but missed it and the put-back.
Zak Irvin, who led the Wolverines with 16 points but only three in second half, split the final free throws to give the four-point margin.
Michigan had a chance to put the game away early in the second half but couldn't do it.
Rutgers cutting the lead to four, U-M answered with a Derrick Walton Jr. 3 and a Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman three-point play. That pushed the lead to a game-high 10 with 15 minutes to play.
Instead of keeping the pressure on, U-M's defense was attacked repeatedly by Rutgers' Nigel Johnson, who led a 10-2 run to cut the lead to two and make the rest of the game a battle.
With eight minutes to play, after pushing the run to 16-5, Rutgers finally took its first lead since the game's opening minutes.
Michigan led, 35-28 at halftime, but it was hardly a proud performance.
After a sizzling start (10 of 17, 58.8 percent), the Wolverines went ice cold, hitting only two of their final 11 shots of the half, a number of open 3-pointers and didn't score a field goal in the final 4:30.
Even when handed a chance to expand the lead, they refused.
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman was fouled on a bail-out 3 just before the half but hit only 1 of 3 free throws.
They were fortunate to be playing the Big Ten's worst team, which couldn't take advantage, getting within two points with 6{ minutes left before letting the Wolverines answer with a pair of Irvin's 3s.
There were enough long rebounds that U-M ended up launching 18 3s in the half, but many of them were open looks, even if the shots didn't fall.
Though Irvin led the Wolverines with 13 points at the break, he took a few risks on passes, ruining a few possessions.
Rutgers, which entered the game averaging 15 offensive rebounds per game, had just one at halftime.
