What promised to be a blowout turned into a nail biting, back-and-forth affair that wasn’t decided until the final minutes of Wednesday night's game.

The No. 23 Michigan basketball team has been there plenty of times before, though, and thanks to a dagger of a 3-pointer by senior guard and Hoosier State native Stu Douglass, the Wolverines pulled out a 68-56 victory over visiting Indiana (5-6 Big Ten, 17-6 overall) at the Crisler Center.

Douglass’ 3-pointer with 1:48 left in the game extended a precarious Michigan lead back out to eight points at 58-50. The game turned into a foul-shooting contest from there, with the Hoosiers quickly scoring on each of their ensuing trips down the court.

But freshman point guard Trey Burke and sophomore guard Tim Hardaway Jr. combined to go 8-for-10 from the charity stripe down the stretch to seal the win.

“We shoot on these courts all the time,” said Burke, who finished with 18 points to lead all scorers. “It’s big for us to knock down free throws. It could have been a different turnout if we didn’t hit free throws. That was our mindset going to the free-throw line — that we’re either going to win the game or lose the game for the team. We did a good job of knocking them down.”

The game was reminiscent of the teams’ previous matchup in Bloomington on Jan. 5. That time, then-No. 12 Indiana got out to a scorching start but had to battle for the close win after Michigan came back to make it a game.

It was the same story on Wednesday night, except this time the tables were turned. Led by two 3-pointers by Burke, the Wolverines busted out of the gate, tallying 13 points before the Hoosiers managed to get on the scoreboard. The team went on to make six of its first eight shots, and 11 of its first 18.

And while Michigan (7-3, 17-6) simply couldn’t miss for the first 13 minutes, Indiana appeared out of sorts on the offensive end. A free throw by redshirt sophomore forward Jordan Morgan gave the Wolverines their largest lead of the night at 28-8.

While the Hoosier forward pair of Christian Watford and Cody Zeller combined to decimate Michigan in the teams’ last meeting, the Wolverines did a much better job against the duo this time around. Watford scored just eight points and Zeller went for 11, as Michigan’s defense hassled him in the paint all night.

Indiana, coming off a 103-point performance in its last game against Iowa, has one of the more prolific offenses in the conference, particularly from the 3-point line. The Hoosier attack overwhelmed the Wolverines in the last outing, but Michigan responded well on Wednesday, holding Indiana to a 44.7 field-goal percentage.

“Our transition (defense was better),” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “We were able to practice it, we knew the speed of it. Our guys, (Indiana’s offense) hit them right in the face at Indiana. That was the big thing. … They knew that they had to get (back) right away.”

But Beilein said he still knew a Hoosier run was coming, and though Zeller and Watford were held in check, guard Jordan Hulls had a spectacular game. Hulls hit two 3-pointers in the first half to help cut into the deficit, as Indiana went on a 14-5 run before halftime.

Hulls hit another shortly after halftime, and Indiana tightened defensively and finally started to hit shots on the offensive end. He hit his fourth with just under four minutes left in the game, and a free throw by Watford with 3:20 remaining made the score 52-50.

But that was as close as the Hoosiers would get the rest of the way. Hardaway Jr. answered with a 3-pointer, and then came Douglass’ kill shot.

“(At a timeout), Coach looked at us and was just basically begging for us to hit an open shot,” Douglass said. “He said, ‘Hulls is hitting open shots, why can’t we come back?’ … With (Indiana forward Derek Elston) guarding me, I knew I was going to get open if (Hardaway Jr.) hit me.

“It just felt good.”

Beilein said on Tuesday that he was happy with how positively his team responded in practice to the loss at Ohio State last Sunday. Against Indiana, the Wolverines once again proved their bounce-back ability — they’ve yet to lose back-to-back games so far this season.

“Two in a row can be pretty demoralizing,” Douglass said. “It’s just tough when you can’t get things going. When you drop a game, you’ve got to respond in this league, especially if you want to stay on top.