CHICAGO – Big Ten Player of the Year, Yaxel Lendeborg, drained a three-pointer with 0.04 seconds remaining to help the No. 1-seeded Michigan Wolverines take a 68-65 victory to move on to championship Sunday in the Big Ten Tournament.
Lendeborg finished the game with 12 points, five rebounds, and three assists.
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Elliot Cadeau played huge in the second half, as he hit timely shots to help put Michigan in a position to lead them to victory.
He finished with 15 points and four rebounds.
Aday Mara was aggressive as well, as he finished with 16 points, eight rebounds, and two assists in the victory.
Saturday’s (March 14) victory was important for Michigan as Wisconsin stunned them in Ann Arbor on Jan. 17, giving the Wolverines their first loss of the season and their lone loss inside Crisler Arena during the 2025-26 season.
In that matchup, Bloomfield Hills native John Blackwell dropped 26 points to help lead the Badgers to victory.
Blackwell was seen after the game yelling into the camera “This is my s***” as he still holds a grudge against the men in maize and the Michigan State Spartans for not recruiting him to their programs.
On Saturday, Blackwell finished with 13 points while Austin Rapp caught fire in the second half as he hit six three-pointers while accumulating 16 points to help Wisconsin overcome a 15-point deficit.
Prior to that matchup, both teams met in the Big Ten Tournament title game when Dusty May, in his first season as head coach, led Wisconsin to a 59-53 victory in Indianapolis.
Following today’s victory, Michigan has an overall record of 31-2, marking the sixth time in program history that they have hit the 30-win mark.
Of the previous five teams to win 30 or more games in a season, four of them have reached the national title game.
POSTGAME SOUND COMING
1st half
Michigan won the toss and fed Morez Johnson Jr. in the post, but he got stripped.
They went back to him down low, and he put the ball in the basket for the game’s first basket.
Andrew Rohde drained a three-pointer before Aday Mara blocked Blackwell at the rim.
Michigan got three turnovers in the fames first four minutes.
Mara got his second block on a three-point attempt.
Elliot Cadeau drove to the paint but bricked a floater, then picked up his first foul of the game while trying to get an offensive rebound.
Aleksas Bieliauskas threw a bad pass to Nick Boyd, which went out of bounds, leading to a timeout with 15:29 to play as Wisconsin led 3-2 in the fast-paced first few minutes of the game.
Michigan came out of the timeout running a set play, but Nimari Burnett missed a wide-open three-pointer, leading to a foul on Mara, who tried to clean up the glass.
Trey McKenney entered the game and drained a contested jump shot in the paint to take a 4-3 lead.
Yaxel Lendeborg had active hands and deflected a pass, leading to a fast break pass to Burnett, who got fouled at the rim.
Burnett went to the line and drained both to take a 6-3 lead.
Mara grabbed a defensive rebound but got stripped, leading to a Boyd three-pointer to tie the game at 6.
Lendeborg got called for a foul while going after an offensive rebound, his first of the game.
Mara got caught in the paint on a screen-and-roll, leaving Blackwell open for a three-pointer.
Cadeau came back with a three-pointer of his own, but Blackwell found Bielauskas at the top of the key for a wide-open three-pointer as Wisconsin took a 12-9 lead.
McKenney shot a deep three but airballed out of bounds, leading to a timeout with 11:53 to play.
Both teams turned the ball over: Michigan had 4, Wisconsin had 3, but the Badgers were 4-7 from beyond the arc while the Wolverines shot 1-7.
Cadeau picked up is second foul of the half while guarding Braeden Carrington who went down in pain on the play.
Carrington went to the line and split the pair, taking a 13-9 lead.
Roddy Gayle Jr. drove to the paint for a contested layup but missed, leading to a Carrington foul on Mara, who tried to get the offensive rebound.
Gayle Jr. threw a turnover on the inbounds, leading to a Mara blocked three-point shot attempt on Boyd.
He came back with another drive and score, but Bieliauskas drained another three-pointer.
Boyd got a steal and went coast to coast for the layup before Will Tschetter drained a three-pointer to stop the bleeding.
Gayle Jr. had active hands and poked the ball away at the top of the key, going coast to coast, but got fouled at the rim, sending him to the line for two, making both.
Leading 18-16, Wisconsin guard Boyd traveled on the following possession.
They got back on defense, forced a Gayle Jr. turnover, leading to a Bieliauskas three-pointer.
Gayle Jr. lost control of the ball, leading to a Rhode dive to the floor for the ball, but he rolled up on the Michigan guard’s ankle, resulting in a foul.
Michigan’s lackluster defense resembled what they did in Crisler Center back in January as Bieliauskas drained three deep shots for nine points in the first half.
He had 17 in that matchup.
Burnett got called for a foul on defense out of the timeout after bricking a wide-open three-point attempt.
He missed two more three-pointers as they left his hands flat on both attempts.
Johnson Jr. bricked a wide-open three-point attempt, leading to a Carrington lay-up that got blocked by Lendeborg.
Blackwell entered the game and hit a floater on Mara before picking up his second foul while guarding McKenney on defense.
McKenney got sent to the line for a one-in-one and drained the first one before making the second as Michigan trailed 23-17 with under five minutes to play.
Blackwell was left wide open for another three-pointer, taking a 26-18 lead before Austin Rapp fouled Johnson Jr. on a drive attempt, sending him to the line as officials called a timeout with 3:52 to play.
The Wolverines’ poor shooting in the first half continued, as they were 5-24 from the field and 2-13 from deep, trailing 26-18.
In the first matchup, Wisconsin made 15 three-pointers, and in the first half of the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, they were 7-14 with 3:52 left.
After the timeout, Johnson Jr. stepped to the line and made both to cut the deficit to six.
Rhode turned the ball over, leading to a McKenney contested three-pointer to cut the deficit to three.
Tschetter tried to draw a foul but lost his balance as the ball hit the backboard.
Michigan got a shot-clock violation for good defense, but couldn’t convert.
After getting another stop, Mara took his defender down low and got fouled on a jumphook, sending him to the line for an and-one attempt, which was short.
Boyd drove the ball between Lendeborg and Johnson Jr. for the razzle-dazzle lay-up to take a three-point lead with 36.1 to play in the half, as Wisconsin led 28-25.
Michigan called a timeout to regroup.
After the timeout, McKenney set up the offense, setting up a Lendeborg wide-open three-pointer to tie the game at 28-28 as the Michigan faithful got back into the game.
Both teams entered the half shooting poorly from the field: Wisconsin shot 10-31, while Michigan shot 8-30. The key difference between the two teams was three-pointers: the Badgers went 7-17, while the Wolverines shot 8-15.
Michigan stayed in the game with its free-throw shooting, going 8-9, while Wisconsin shot 1-2, leading to a tied ballgame at the half.
Blackwell and Cadeau were limited in the first half as they both picked up two fouls.
Bieliauskas led the Badgers with nine points while McKenney led Michigan with seven points.
Greg Gard and May went into halftime with two different messages for their struggling teams as Michigan survived the Badgers’ best blow while Wisconsin threw their best punch, leading to the 28-28 score.
Both teams ended with eight turnovers in the half as well.
2nd half
Wisconsin got the ball to start the second half, but Mara got his third block of the game on another three-point attempt.
Michigan fed him inside, leading to a foul of Rapp, his third of the game, sending Mara to the line for two, splitting the pair to take a one-point lead.
Mara got called for his first foul of the game as Bieliauskas pumped-faked and drove to the paint for a layup attempt, splitting the pair to tie the game.
Mara cleaned the offensive boards and made a jump hook to take a two-point lead.
Michigan turned defense to offense, finding Lendeborg running down the floor for a layup, but he missed it as Burnett got the tip-in to take a 33-29 lead.
Rhode got called for his second foul of the game as Cadeau tried to get to the basket.
Cadeau attacked the basket again, making a contested layup before Johnson Jr. lost the defensive rebound out of bounds.
Blackwell got Lendeborg in the air and snuck by him for a wide-open jumper.
Cadeau drew a third foul on Blackwell before Cadeau grabbed a defensive rebound and was leading a three-on-one fastbreak before Boyd got called for a foul at halfcourt.
Timeout was called with 15:26 to play.
Out of the timeout, Cadeau stayed aggressive, attacking the rim for a floater off the glass as Michigan expanded its lead to eight.
Cadeau drained a three-pointer to take a double-digit lead before Boyd made a floater to stop the bleeding.
After back-to-back turnovers from both teams, Blackwell drove to the lane and got an and-one on Johnson Jr. to cut the deficit to six.
Mara followed his own miss and got fouled, making the left-handed push shot. He went to the line to cap off the and-one, and he drilled the free throw as Michigan led 45-36.
Mara got a block, leading to a McKenney dunk attempt, but Carrington blocked it at the rim, and the ball went out of bounds.
Mara found Lendeborg in the paint for a contested layup, but a bad gamble by Gayle Jr. led to a Carrington wide-open three-pointer.
McKenney drilled a contested three-pointer, leading to a Mara touchdown pass that nearly went out of bounds before Gayle Jr. grabbed it, established his feet, and called a timeout with 10:39 to play, as Michigan led 50-39.
Out of the timeout, Mara found a cutting Lendeborg for a monster slam, pushing the lead to 13 before Rapp missed a contested three-point attempt, ricocheting off the rim and out of bounds as an official’s timeout was called.
Mara stayed aggressive as he finished at the rim with a left-handed layup, but Rapp came back and hit a wide-open three-pointer.
Carrington slipped a screen and drained a three-pointer before Mara got called for an offensive foul as the once double-digit lead reached single digits with under nine minutes to play.
Boyd hit a floater as the lead was cut to seven before Cadeau made a push shot off the glass.
Boyd found Rapp for a wide-open three-pointer to cut the deficit to three points.
Rapp hit another wide-open three-pointer to tie the game with 5:29 to play.
Wisconsin overcame a 15-point deficit to tie the game with its three-point shooting as Michigan let off the gas.
Timeout Michigan.
Wisconsin was 13-33 from three, while Michigan was 6-22 at that point, as Badgers fans were back in the game.
Mara stopped the bleeding with a monster jam as Michigan went up by two.
Rapp stayed hot as he hit a contested corner three-pointer to retake the lead as Mara got called for the travel with 4:14 to play.
He came back with another three-pointer as Michigan trailed by four, but Mara drained a jumper to cut the deficit to two.
After a defensive stop, Johnson Jr. got called for an offensive foul with 2:28 to play.
Wisconsin tried to go for the dagger, but Bieliauskas missed a three-pointer that bounced off the rim and out of bounds.
Cadeau threw a lob pass that got deflected in the direction of Johnson.
Rapp turned the ball over, leading to a Mara layup to tie the game.
Michigan got a defensive stop leading to a Cadeau wide-open three-pointer that hit every part of the rim before rolling in as the Wolverines took a 65-62 lead with 45.6 seconds to play in the game.
Timeout Wisconsin.
Boyd drained a three-pointer to tie the game with under 30 seconds to play.
But Big Ten Player of the Year, Yaxel Lendeborg, drained a three-pointer with 0.04 seconds remaining to help the No. 1-seeded Michigan Wolverines take a 68-64 victory to move on to championship Sunday in the Big Ten Tournament.