Game-Changer! Yaxel Lendeborg Lights Up the Net with an Explosive Shot 🥊🏀
Michigan has advanced to the Big Ten Tournament final after surviving an incredible Wisconsin comeback in the semifinals on Saturday.
CHICAGO − Michigan basketball will play for another championship on Sunday. The Wolverines avenged their lone loss from the Big Ten Regular season, knocking off Wisconsin, 68-65 on Saturday, March 14 , at United Center to advance to the 2026 Big Ten Tournament championship game. The 1-seed Wolverines will play the winner of Saturday's second semifinal, between 7-seed Purdue and 6-seed UCLA, on Sunday at 3:30 p.
m. ET, leading into the Selection Sunday show . The Wolverines couldn't hit a shot early as Wisconsin fired 3-pointer after 3-pointer, hitting shots from deep to help make up for an otherwise poor offensive performance (just 3-for-14 on 2-pointers in the first half).
Michigan's defense cranked up a notch to start the second half as Michigan led by as many as 15 with under 10 minutes to play in the game, but that's when Wisconsin big man Austin Rapp caught fire. He scored 18 points, all in the second half, as the Wolverines had no answer for the stretch-big. In the end, Michigan found a way to win thanks to a big-time 3-pointer by none other than Yaxel Lendeborg at the buzzer.
• Box score Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress. com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia .