CHICAGO (AP) — Yaxel Lendeborg yelled and pumped his right arm in celebration before he was mobbed by the rest of his Michigan teammates.
The 6-foot-9 forward turned a halftime message from coach Dusty May into one of his best moments in a huge season.
Lendeborg made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds remaining, sending No. 3 Michigan to a 68-65 victory over No. 23 Wisconsin in Saturday's first semifinal at the Big Ten Tournament. He scored nine
of his 12 points in the second half.
The game was tied at 62 when Lendeborg grabbed an offensive rebound and passed to Elliot Cadeau for a 3 with 45 seconds left. But Nick Boyd responded with a tying 3 for Wisconsin.
With the United Center crowd standing in anticipation, Michigan tried to find Lendeborg inside on its last possession. But the Big Ten player of the year ended up making his way back outside before getting a pass from Cadeau and drilling the winning 3, leading to his emphatic celebration.
“The play call was for me to get the ball down low in the post,” Lendeborg said. “I didn’t do a good job sealing. (Cadeau) had a driving angle. I tried to clear it out for him, and he kept his composure. Didn’t force up a bad shot, made the one more to the open guy, and I happened to be there to make the shot.”
Lendeborg played for UAB for two seasons before transferring to Michigan. He powered the Wolverines to the program's first regular-season Big Ten championship since 2021, averaging 14.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.
But he was pretty quiet during Friday’s quarterfinal victory over Ohio State, finishing with six points and six assists. Then he managed just three points in the first half against Wisconsin on a tying 3 with 11 seconds left.
“This has been the best year of my life honestly. I’ve had so much fun,” Lendeborg said. "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. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”
Asked about his halftime conversation with Lendeborg, May said he talked to his staff before delivering the message in his own words.
“The gist was that, look, we’re big boys here. We can live with whatever the results are, but we’re not going out like that,” May said. “We’re going to be aggressive. ... We’re going to let it rip, being us.”
Lendeborg started to assert himself right after the break. He converted a layup to give Michigan a 37-31 lead with 15:56 left. He jammed one home for a 52-39 advantage with 10:19 remaining.
Lendeborg was 4 for 4 from the field in the second half. He also had three assists, two rebounds and a steal down the stretch.
“He’s a complete player at 6-9,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “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. ... The skill set is one thing, but when you combine that with his size, it obviously makes it a very unique matchup.”
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