CHICAGO (AP) — Yaxel Lendeborg made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds remaining, and No. 3 Michigan beat Nick Boyd and No. 23 Wisconsin 68-65 on Saturday to advance to the Big Ten Tournament championship.
Aday Mara scored 16 points and Elliot Cadeau had 15 as top-seeded Michigan (31-2) avenged its only conference loss from the regular season, a 91-88 setback against Wisconsin on Jan. 10. Mara also grabbed eight rebounds and blocked five shots.
Michigan is going for its second straight Big Ten Tournament title and fifth overall. It will play No. 18 Purdue on Sunday after the Boilermakers eliminated UCLA with a 73-66 win.
Lendeborg got off to another slow start after he had just six points in Friday’s quarterfinal victory over Ohio State. But the Big Ten player of the year began to assert himself right before halftime, and he connected on the biggest shot of the game.
Lendeborg grabbed an offensive rebound and passed to Cadeau for a 3 with 45 seconds left, giving Michigan a 65-62 lead. But 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 he ended up making his way back outside before getting a pass from Cadeau and drilling the winning 3.
Wisconsin’s Austin Rapp made six 3-pointers while scoring each of his 18 points in the second half. Boyd had 14 points on 6-for-20 shooting a day after he scored a career-high 38 points in a wild overtime victory over No. 9 Illinois.
The Badgers (24-10) had reached the Big Ten tourney final in each of the past two years, losing to the Wolverines in 2025.
Shaking off a sluggish start, Michigan closed the first half with a 10-2 run. Lendeborg made a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left, tying it at 28. It was his first basket of the game.
The Wolverines were shooting 26.7% (8 for 30) from the field at the break, but the Badgers weren’t much better at 32.3% (10 for 31).
Michigan beat Purdue 91-80 on Feb. 17. Cadeau scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half of the road win.
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Michigan guard Roddy Gayle Jr., right, battles for a loose ball with Wisconsin guard Andrew Rohde during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Big 10 Conference tournament, Saturday, March 14, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — This time last week observers were questioning what was wrong with Joe Gibbs Racing as the team stumbled out of NASCAR's opening gate and parked in the back end of the garage as a team struggling in the Cup Series rankings.
Then three JGR drivers finished in the top-five in Phoenix and rolled that momentum into Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where their trucks were repositioned with the rest of the title contenders. The team didn't slow down and Christopher Bell led a Toyota qualifying march that saw JGR drivers sweep the top three starting positions.
Bell took the pole for Sunday's race with a lap at 187.156 mph to put the No. 20 Toyota on the pole ahead of JGR teammate Denny Hamlin, who turned a lap at 186.188.
Ty Gibbs qualified third as JGR swept the top three spots and Toyota dominated the session: Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing was fourth in a Toyota, which had five drivers in the top seven. Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick, winner of the first three races this season, was seventh for 23XI.
It is the fourth time since 2007 that Toyota has swept the top four spots in a qualifying session.
Bell, runner-up to winner Ryan Blaney last week in Phoenix, is hoping to maintain his speed and finally get a win at Las Vegas. He now has won the pole at the 1.5-mile speedway three previous times, but only has a pair of runner-ups and a third-place finish to show for his work.
“It’s a really competitive track for my group and my team. Hopefully one of these days we’re going to get to victory lane," Bell said. "It’s a great race track for me, so I enjoy coming out here and competing at Las Vegas.”
The hardest part of recovering from a broken leg for Brad Keselowski has been the physical therapy and not driving a race car.
Keselowski broke his right femur in December when he slipped on ice during a family ski trip and needed a can at the start of the season to get around the track. He found the most relief he gets is when he climbs inside the No. 6 Ford, and then when he gets out of the car, the pain returns.
“I’m just jamming in all the PT work with some of the best professionals you could hope to work with, and I’m building stronger every week, but not as fast as I want to," Keselowski said. "Driving the race car is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because it provides the motivation for me to really push my rehab and do things faster, which is not a bad thing.
"It’s a curse because, yes, when I get in the car, it does hurt. It does pull me backward. When I have the adrenaline and all those things, I don’t notice it. But when it wears off, yeah, I’ve got to recover from that.”
The Cup Series schedule the last three weeks — Austin, Texas, Phoenix and now Las Vegas — have not helped Keselowski, nor did the crash he was in Saturday at Phoenix during practice.
"The long airplane flights to the West Coast and the crash on Saturday were not my friends,” Keselowski said. “I’m trying not to be over the top about it, but I’ve got a lot of hardware in my leg that’s holding it together. If that hardware were to come loose, it would be problematic for me at this time. But the surgeons and everyone did such an incredible job that that hasn’t been the case. I’m knocking on wood right here that stays the case and I’ll keep checking.”
Larson at +475 is the BetMGM odds favorite to win Sunday. ... Bubba Wallace is awaiting the birth of his second child and 23XI Racing will allow him to leave the race early to get back to North Carolina. Wallace missed the birth of his first child in 2024. ... Toyota goes into Sunday with 512 laps led through four races — more than Chevrolet and Ford combined at 366. ... Josh Berry won this race last year and was the only first-time winner of 35 Cup races at Las Vegas. .... Last year's race had a record 32 lead changes.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
23XI Racing's team co-owner Denny Hamlin speaks to media follow a win by his driver Tyler Reddick during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephen Spillman)
Christopher Bell (20) leads during the second stage during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Phoenix Raceway, Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)
