Michigan’s final game in Europe delivered the kind of comeback win teams like to hang onto - but it also came with the kind of early scare that can overshadow everything else.
The Wolverines beat Mega Superbet 84-81 on Thursday, Aug. 27, in Igalo, Montenegro, closing out their three-game exhibition trip overseas with a second-half rally at Sports Center Igalo. Trey McKenney led the way with 25 points, J.P. Estrella scored 16 in just 16 minutes before fouling out, and Elliot Cadeau added 15.
But the biggest moment of the night happened almost immediately.
Five-star freshman guard Brandon McCoy Jr. went down in the first minute on a fastbreak near the basket, grabbed at his right knee and had to be carried off the floor. He covered his face after the injury, tried to stand, and could not put weight on the leg. He never returned to the bench for the rest of the game, and Michigan has not announced the severity of the injury.
That’s the concern hanging over an otherwise encouraging finish for a team that showed plenty of fight after a rough start. Michigan trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and went into halftime down 49-38 before flipping the game with a sharp opening to the second half.
Oscar Goodman, Quinn Costello and McKenney each knocked down 3-pointers during a 12-4 run that cut the deficit to three. Later in the quarter, Marcus Moller hit a 3 to tie it at 59.
The Wolverines were still down 67-64 early in the fourth when they put together the decisive burst. Cadeau sank five straight free throws to give Michigan the lead, then fired a cross-court pass from the top of the key to Costello in the corner for a 3. McKenney followed with a layup, Cadeau buried a 3 to push the margin to 10, and McKenney added a slashing and-one layup to make it 83-74.
Mega Superbet answered with seven straight points, and McKenney split a free throw before a last-second heave missed, allowing Michigan to escape.
The trip ended with Michigan at 1-2, but the team said the experience served its purpose. In a statement after the game, coach Mike Boynton Jr. thanked the administration for the chance to spend time together and play overseas, calling the program one built on “high character, hard work, improvement and development.”
“We are really grateful and thankful for the opportunity to come out here and represent Michigan," Boynton said. "Thank you to our administration for giving us this chance to be out here for a week or so, bonding as a team, but also playing basketball and representing what our program has built us up to be.
"This is a program of high character, hard work, improvement and development. I think our guys really got better over this week, and we look forward to getting back and seeing how we can build off it.”
McKenney also said the group made progress during the trip, adding in a release by the team: "We had a meeting a couple days ago just talking about Michigan culture and Michigan basketball," McKenney said in a release by the team. "I think we really showed tonight what we could be throughout the season. I’m excited to get back to Ann Arbor, get the group under one arena, practice for a couple months and get ready for the season.”
McCoy, a McDonald’s All-American, is ranked by 247 Sports’ composite rankings as the No. 2 shooting guard in the country, the No. 3 player in California and the No. 10 overall player in the 2026 recruiting class. He headlines Michigan’s six-man recruiting class, which is rated No. 4 in the nation behind Arkansas, Kansas and Duke.
There was another injury note from the trip as well. Moustapha Thiam played only the first six minutes of the first game and then did not appear again after what looked like a lower-body injury to his right leg. A person within the program told the Free Press it was not a major injury.
Michigan is scheduled to return home Saturday.
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