MINNEAPOLIS — With one minute and 38 seconds remaining in the game, the ball hung in the air — and Michigan’s season hung in the balance.

The Wolverines found themselves down a point to Minnesota on the road, staring down the distinct possibility that their NCAA Tournament dreams were about to potentially be shattered.

Junior guard/forward Zack Novak set up for a 3-pointer from the right wing with the shot clock winding down. He let fly, as the Williams Arena crowd fell silent in nervous anticipation.

The fans were so quiet, in fact, that you could almost hear the basketball fall through the net.

Novak’s shot put Michigan ahead, 64-62, and the team went on to collect a huge 70-63 victory.

“I guess I picked a good time to knock one down,” Novak said.

The co-captain then stole the ball on the Golden Gophers’ next possession and lofted it ahead to a wide-open Darius Morris.

One “And-1” from the sophomore point guard later, and an ensuing collapse by Minnesota (6-10 Big Ten, 17-11 overall), gave the Wolverines a key 70-63 win, keeping them near the NCAA Tournament bubble just days after a heartbreaking last-second loss to Wisconsin.

“For us, we were down (after the Wisconsin loss), but we weren’t down for long,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “We bounced back. When you have a bunch of young men that really believe in what we’re doing, they just pick up each other.”

The teams traded baskets most of the second half, as each point guard took over. With redshirt freshman Jordan Morgan struggling to finish on pick-and-rolls and the Michigan shooters cold from deep, Morris controlled the ball himself.

Morris consistently drove the lane and frustrated the opposing defense by twisting for a variety of shots in the paint. He finished with 17 points and seven assists.

“It was a conscious thing,” Morris said of his increased aggressiveness. “I saw the game was kind of getting out of hand, and I just knew that this game was really important for us. I was just trying to do my part to help the team.”

Meanwhile, Gopher Blake Hoffarber shot from everywhere on the court, scoring 12 second-half points and repeatedly answering Wolverine buckets. The back-and-forth contest was anyone’s game at the end — but instead of the younger road team, it was the home team that couldn’t finish.

Michigan’s strategy to attack Minnesota’s tough 2-3 zone defense became clear very early in Saturday’s contest: shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. The Wolverines’ first six shots of the afternoon were all 3-pointers — and they made all of them.

Freshman guard Tim Hardaway Jr. had 20 points to lead all scorers in the team’s last matchup on Jan. 15 at Crisler Arena, and carried that over into the first half Saturday.

He had four of those first-half 3-pointers, and would hit another to finish the first frame with 15 points. Hardaway Jr. had 22 points for the game to lead the scoring once again.

Michigan (8-9 Big Ten, 18-12 overall) was so successful from the perimeter early on — especially in transition — that the Golden Gophers changed out of their zone and into man-to-man to try and slow the Wolverines down.

“(Beilein) told us before the game, he said, ‘You guys are going to play so well against that zone that they’re going to have to come out of it, and then we’re going to run our stuff and still be successful,’” Morris said. “Coach called it, and those balls were going in today. We’ll just take that.”

But while Michigan nailed its three’s from deep, Minnesota’s Trevor Mbakwe got his the old-fashioned way. Mbawke had two And-1 plays in the frame, as the Wolverines had no answer for him down low.

And after starting the half 9-for-16 from long range, Michigan missed its next six 3-pointers. Minnesota took advantage by going on a 10-0 run and trailed by just two points, 35-33, at halftime.

“I told them at halftime, that’s the way you want it to go,” Beilein said. “You don’t want that run to happen at the end of the second half … We got time to go in, five minutes to get rest, five minutes to talk them back, (and) say, ‘You’re up by two on the road. This is great.

“ ‘You took a great shot from them, you’re still up, let’s go out and play.’ And that way, (Minnesota) couldn’t get separation in the second half.”

Beilein’s team won here two seasons ago to effectively clinch an NCAA Tournament berth.