ANN ARBOR, Mich. — No. 2 Michigan fell from the ranks of college basketball’s unbeaten teams with a 91-88 home loss Saturday against unranked Wisconsin.
The Wolverines (14-1, 4-1 Big Ten) led by 14 points in the first half and appeared to be on their way to their 12th double-digit victory of the season. Then the Badgers got hot from 3-point range, led by 26 points from John Blackwell and 17 from Aleksas Bieliauskas, who was 5 of 10 from beyond the 3-point arc.
“Obviously a phenomenal, phenomenal team win against a terrific team that nobody’s been able to come close to, for the most part, all year,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “It just shows the character of our guys, the belief that they have in the program, in the system and most importantly in each other.”
It was the program’s first win against a top-two-ranked team since 2019, when the Badgers beat Michigan in the 2018-19 season.
Aday Mara had a putback dunk that could have tied the game with 35.2 seconds remaining, but officials ruled that Mara grabbed the ball while it was still in the cylinder. Wisconsin’s Braeden Carrington made 1 of 2 free throws to give the Badgers a three-point lead with 9.6 seconds remaining, and Michigan’s Roddy Gayle Jr. couldn’t connect on an off-balance 3-pointer that could have tied the game in the final seconds.
Wisconsin (11-5, 3-2) has had an inconsistent start to the season, but shocked the Wolverines by going 15 of 33 from 3 and shooting 50 percent from the floor. Michigan entered the game with the top field-goal defense in college basketball, allowing opponents to shoot 38.7 percent from 2-point range and 28.8 percent from 3.
Michigan had trouble staying in front of Wisconsin’s Nick Boyd, who scored 22 points with six assists. Boyd’s ability to break down Michigan’s defense off the dribble led to open 3-pointers and exposed some of Michigan’s weaknesses, Wolverines coach Dusty May said.
“We probably underestimated how fast Boyd is to his left hand,” May said. “He’s fast, he’s deceptive, and he’s got game. He got wherever he wanted, and then we came late to make plays.”
Michigan was virtually untouchable during a six-week hot streak that began with blowout wins against San Diego State, Auburn and Gonzaga in the Players Era Festival in late November. From Nov. 19 until Tuesday’s 74-72 victory at Penn State, the Wolverines didn’t have a game decided by fewer than 25 points.
The narrow win at Penn State foreshadowed Michigan’s first loss of the season. After being locked in for several weeks, the Wolverines had begun to slip in their practice habits, May said. The Wolverines had two lackluster practices after the Penn State game, May said, and Saturday’s loss was the result.
“Our processes have been sliding a little bit,” May said. “We haven’t been on it like we were most of this year. Let’s fix those things and feel like we’ve done what we needed to do to deserve to win. The deserving team won this game.”
Nebraska, which rallied from a 16-point deficit to beat Indiana 83-77 on Saturday, is now the only undefeated team in the Big Ten at 16-0.
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