Michigan 68, Wisconsin 65: Yaxel Lendeborg's Buzzer-Beater 3 Sends Wolverines to Big Ten Championship
Big Ten Tournament Semifinals — United Center, Chicago
Michigan 68, Wisconsin 65: Yaxel Lendeborg’s Last-Second 3 Sends Wolverines to Big Ten Championship
Published: March 14, 2026 | Team10Sports | Big Ten Tournament
Final Score — Big Ten Tournament Semifinal — March 14, 2026
#3 Michigan Wolverines
No. 1 seed — 31–2 overall, 19–1 Big Ten
68–65
FINAL
#23 Wisconsin Badgers
No. 5 seed — 24–10 overall, 14–6 Big Ten
Lendeborg Delivers the Dagger
CHICAGO — Yaxel Lendeborg yelled and pumped his right arm in celebration before being mobbed by his Michigan teammates. The Big Ten Player of the Year had spent most of Saturday afternoon as a passenger — quiet in the first half, invisible early in the second — until the final second of the game put everything on his shoulders.
With the score tied at 65 and 0.4 seconds remaining, Elliot Cadeau swung the ball to Lendeborg at the top of the key. The 6-foot-9 forward set his feet, launched from long range, and watched the ball drop through the net. Final score: No. 1 seed Michigan 68, No. 5 seed Wisconsin 65. The Wolverines are heading to the Big Ten Tournament championship game for the second straight year.
“This has been the best year of my life honestly. I’ve had so much fun,” Lendeborg said after the game. “I’ve had a lot of learning points as well. There’s been times where I had a really bad game that I couldn’t really get out of my head. Today, for example, I was really down on myself first half because I felt like I was letting my team down. Coach was really letting me know he has my back regardless. He wants me to be more aggressive.”
Michigan coach Dusty May delivered that message at halftime. His star forward responded by going 4-for-4 from the field in the second half — including the shot that will be replayed on highlight reels all weekend.
Box Score
Key Performers
| Player | Team | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aday Mara | Michigan | 16 | 8 | 2 | — | 5 |
| Elliot Cadeau | Michigan | 15 | 4 | — | — | — |
| Y. Lendeborg 🏆 | Michigan | 12 | 5 | 3 | 2 | — |
| Austin Rapp | Wisconsin | 18 | — | — | — | — |
| Nick Boyd | Wisconsin | 14 | 5 | 6 | 3 | — |
🏆 = game-winning shot | Rapp scored all 18 pts in 2nd half, 6-for-9 from 3-point range.
First Half
Michigan Stumbles to a 28–28 Halftime Tie
Neither team looked like it belonged in a Big Ten semifinal for much of the opening 20 minutes. Both sides struggled to score inside, with Michigan’s feared interior defense swatting away six attempts at the rim in the first half alone. Wisconsin’s approach — flooding the paint and daring Michigan to shoot — worked early.
The Wolverines were a dismal 8-for-30 from the field (26.7%) at the break, including 4-for-15 from three-point range. They also turned the ball over eight times. Wisconsin, meanwhile, attempted to live from three-point range and went 7-for-17 behind the arc — hardly efficient, but enough to keep pace.
Michigan faced an 18-point drought midway through the half before a 10-2 run to close the period. Lendeborg, who had been invisible to that point, buried a corner three with 11 seconds left to tie the score at 28. It was his first field goal of the game and offered a hint of what was to come.
Second Half
Mara Takes Over — Then Austin Rapp Catches Fire
Michigan came out of the locker room a completely different team. Against Wisconsin’s increased half-court trapping, the Badgers missed their first six shots of the second half. Aday Mara — the 7-foot-2 center who had gone largely unnoticed early on — asserted his size, scoring three straight points before Cadeau took over the playmaking. The Wolverines went on a 9-3 run to open the half, stretching the lead to 11.
By the 10-minute mark, Michigan appeared to have the game in hand. Mara found Lendeborg on a backdoor cut for a two-handed dunk, and the Wolverines held a 52-39 lead. The United Center crowd began to exhale.
Then, Wisconsin’s Austin Rapp happened. The Badgers’ reserve guard, who had been quiet all game, suddenly erupted from beyond the arc. Rapp made three consecutive three-pointers to pull Wisconsin back to 56-56 with 5:19 remaining. He wasn’t done. Consecutive triples gave the Badgers a 62-58 lead with about four minutes to go — a stunning turnaround that silenced Michigan’s momentum completely.
Final Minutes
Mara Ties It Up, Cadeau Connects — Then the Dagger
Michigan did not panic. With Wisconsin holding a 62-58 edge and about four minutes to play, the Wolverines went back to what they do best: Mara on the interior. He converted a mid-range jumper and then finished a layup to tie the game at 62-62 with 1:41 remaining.
Wisconsin had a chance to regain the lead on the ensuing possession but came up empty. Cadeau missed a triple on the other end, but Lendeborg swooped in for the offensive rebound and kicked it back out to Cadeau, who hit the three-pointer to give Michigan a 65-62 lead with 47 seconds to go.
Nick Boyd — who had scored a career-high 38 points the night before against Illinois — answered immediately on the other end, drilling a three-pointer to tie it at 65. Wisconsin’s defense held. Boyd played 6-for-20 from the field on the night, but the tying shot kept the Badgers alive.
Michigan got the ball back with 0.4 seconds remaining. The Wolverines tried to find Lendeborg inside. He wasn’t there. He drifted back outside, caught the inbound from Cadeau at the top of the key, and launched.
Splash.
What It Means: Revenge, Records, and Repeat Chances
With the win, Michigan (31-2) avenged its only conference loss of the regular season — a 91-88 setback at Crisler Center on January 10 that snapped the Wolverines’ 13-game Big Ten winning streak. Before Saturday, Michigan had defeated every other team in the conference at least once this year. Now, it has beaten all 17.
The Wolverines are also chasing back-to-back Big Ten Tournament titles — something the program has not accomplished since 2014-2015. Michigan won last year’s tournament in Indianapolis, knocking off Wisconsin in the final 59-53. The Badgers, for their part, had reached the Big Ten tourney final in each of the past two years and couldn’t get past the Wolverines either time.
On the flip side, Wisconsin’s run ends without a tournament title despite arguably their deepest push in several years. Boyd’s 38-point performance the night before against Illinois had been one of the highlights of the entire week, and the Badgers pushed the Big Ten’s best team to the final seconds.
“He’s a complete player at 6-9,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said of Lendeborg. “So you’ve got a guy that can put the ball on the floor. They can try to post him. He can shoot the 3.”
🏈 Big Ten Championship Game: Michigan vs. Purdue
Michigan will face No. 7 seed Purdue in Sunday’s Big Ten Tournament championship game at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS at the United Center in Chicago. Purdue advanced by defeating No. 6 seed UCLA 73-66 in Saturday’s second semifinal, led by big man Oscar Cluff’s 17-point, 14-rebound double-double.
UCLA was severely shorthanded — already without leading scorer Tyler Bilodeau, the Bruins lost point guard Donovan Dent to a calf injury and he played only 10 minutes.
Michigan vs. Purdue in a Big Ten championship game is the matchup the conference has debated all season. The two programs have been neck-and-neck at the top of the standings since November.
| Matchup | Date & Time | Location | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Michigan vs. #7 Purdue | Sunday, March 15 — 3:30 p.m. ET | United Center, Chicago | CBS / Paramount+ |
2026 Big Ten Tournament — Complete Results
| Round | Game | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Round (Mar. 10) | Game 1 | #17 Maryland 70, #16 Oregon 60 |
| 1st Round (Mar. 10) | Game 2 | #15 Northwestern 76, #18 Penn State 66 |
| 2nd Round (Mar. 11) | Game 3 | #9 Iowa 75, #17 Maryland 64 |
| 2nd Round (Mar. 11) | Game 4 | #12 Washington 83, #13 USC 79 (OT) |
| 2nd Round (Mar. 11) | Game 5 | #15 Northwestern 74, #10 Indiana 61 |
| 2nd Round (Mar. 11) | Game 6 | #14 Rutgers 72, #11 Minnesota 67 |
| 3rd Round (Mar. 12) | Game 7 | #8 Ohio State 72, #9 Iowa 69 |
| 3rd Round (Mar. 12) | Game 8 | #5 Wisconsin 85, #12 Washington 82 |
| 3rd Round (Mar. 12) | Game 9 | #7 Purdue 81, #15 Northwestern 68 |
| 3rd Round (Mar. 12) | Game 10 | #6 UCLA 72, #14 Rutgers 59 |
| Quarterfinals (Mar. 13) | Game 11 | #1 Michigan 71, #8 Ohio State 67 |
| Quarterfinals (Mar. 13) | Game 12 | #5 Wisconsin 91, #4 Illinois 88 (OT) |
| Quarterfinals (Mar. 13) | Game 13 | #7 Purdue 74, #2 Nebraska 58 |
| Quarterfinals (Mar. 13) | Game 14 | #6 UCLA 88, #3 Michigan State 84 |
| Semifinals (Mar. 14) | Game 15 | #1 Michigan 68, #5 Wisconsin 65 🏆 |
| Semifinals (Mar. 14) | Game 16 | #7 Purdue 73, #6 UCLA 66 |
| 🏆 Championship (Mar. 15) | Game 17 | #1 Michigan vs. #7 Purdue — 3:30 PM on CBS |