Badgers' Big Ten Tournament Run Ends to Michigan, 68-65
Wisconsin’s incredible Big Ten Tournament run came to an end on Saturday against Michigan in the semifinal, 68-65. A thrilling match came down to the wire, but unfortunately, the Cardiac Badgers couldn’t pull this one off against the Big Ten regular-season champions.
The Badgers came in as heavy underdogs, but after a miraculous road win in Ann Arbor just over two months ago, there was legitimate hope and momentum after a clutch win over Illinois on Friday. They took that momentum into Saturday and made it as close as it could have been against the Wolverines.
Sloppy Starts Led to an Even Ball Game
For Wisconsin, it was probably the fact that it had played a game in each of the previous two days. Michigan may have been hindered due to its tight contest against Ohio State yesterday. Either way, both sides came out extremely sloppy. Through the first five minutes, they were a combined 2-for-14 with five turnovers.
They’d pick things up from there, but the Badgers’ mission was clear: live and die by the three. A 15-5 scoring run through the middle of the period put them up by as many as seven points. But the Big Ten regular-season champions were always going to respond.
Just as he did in early January, Aleksas Bieliauskas was the hero of the half. The Latvian freshman notched a team-high nine points on 3-for-5 shooting in 17 minutes, all of his makes being from beyond the arc.
The score ended up tied at 28 going into the break. It was Michigan’s lowest-scoring half of the season, as the Wolverines shot 8-for-30 from the field. Meanwhile, Wisconsin actually shot 41.7% from three-point range, but went 3-for-14 on two-pointers and 1-for-2 from the charity stripe.
Cardiac Badgers Made Another Comeback
The Wolverines’ solid play continued into the second half to total a 23-5 run to push the lead to double digits five minutes into the half. The Badgers started the half 1-for-8 with just three points, as Elliot Cadeau led the way for Michigan early in the period.
Wisconsin got it going midway through the half, but the Wolverines had already built a lead and major momentum to keep it in check. Off the bench, Trey McKenney was a major contributor, finishing with 10 points on 3-for-9 shooting from the field.
But the Cardiac Badgers love it when the target is on their back. They went on a 17-2 run to tie it up with just over five minutes to play, led by back-to-back-to-back triples from Austin Rapp. Aussie scored 12 of those 17 with four three-pointers to make it another clutch game for Wisconsin.
The legend of Rapp continued into clutch time, as he nailed an unprecedented six threes to end up with 18 points. A team that looked dead in the water had the lead with two minutes to play.
Cadeau’s three-pointer with 46 seconds to go broke the tie for Michigan. Nick Boyd responded with a big-time triple, but Yaxel Lendeborg showed why he’s the Big Ten Player of the Year. The NBA Draft prospect nailed a catch-and-shoot three with 0.4 seconds to go to give the Wolverines the victory.
