What a game, and what a win.
The Wisconsin Badgers went into Ann Arbor and delivered the biggest upset of the college basketball season, knocking off the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines 91-88. It’s Wisconsin’s first Quad 1 win of the season.
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Wisconsin’s three-point shooting was the difference in this game. The Badgers shot 15-of-33 from behind the three-point line, including their first seven three-point shots to start the second half, while the Wolverines finished 8-of-25 from distance. The biggest three-pointer of the game came from Andrew Rohde, who buried a corner three with under three minutes left in the game.
Coming into this game, Wisconsin was 0-5 in Quad 1 games, with all five losses by double digits. I had little optimism that this team could go toe-to-toe with a national championship contender like Michigan, especially on the road at the raucous Crisler Center. I was proven wrong on Saturday.
Now, Greg Gard’s team must not lose focus. Wisconsin travels to Williams Arena next Tuesday to take on an improving Minnesota squad that has two wins over ranked teams this season. The Badgers must maintain that grit and toughness they showed on Saturday because the Gophers would love to dampen Wisconsin’s season.
Here are three standouts from Wisconsin’s massive win over Michigan.
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Braeden Carrington
Carrington brought some grit on Saturday for the Badgers. The senior guard scored 12 points off the bench, finished with a team-high nine rebounds, and shot 9-of-12 from the charity stripe.
Carrington corralled two clutch rebounds late in the second half, including an offensive rebound to set up Rohde’s cold-blooded three-pointer to make it 88-84 Badgers.
John Blackwell
In three seasons at Wisconsin, the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan native never beat Michigan. Blackwell finally earned that elusive win against the Wolverines, scoring a team-high 26 points on 9-of-16 shots from the floor.
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After the game, Blackwell was seen waving goodbye to the Michigan fans and had a message for the team that did not offer him a scholarship out of high school.
Aleksas Bieliauskas
One of the standouts from Wisconsin’s three-point shooting display in Ann Arbor was Bieliauskas, who did a solid job shooting with good form on catch-and-shoot opportunities while Michigan was in drop coverage.
The freshman big man was 5-of-10 from distance, including nailing four of the Badgers’ seven consecutive three-pointers in the second half. Bieliauskas’ 17 points on Saturday were also a new career-high.
