The Wisconsin Badgers suffered a tough loss to the Michigan Wolverines in the Big Ten tournament championship game 59-53. The Badgers held an 11-point lead in the second half but could not put away the Wolverines down the stretch.

Like their previous matchup in December, the Badgers were not good enough on offense, this time shooting an awful 22.1 percent for the game.

With the loss, the Badgers have now lost their last three conference tournament championship games, with this one being the toughest loss.

On the other hand, we must give the Badgers credit for getting to this game, despite playing three games in three days. Now, the Badgers must put this heartbreaking loss behind them and focus on their first-round matchup against Montana in Denver.

Here are three things that stood out in Wisconsin’s 59-53 loss to Michigan on Sunday.

Defensive Effort

The Badgers’ defense was superb throughout their contest with the Wolverines. Michigan finished the game shooting 32.2% from the floor, including hitting 9-of-33 three points in their win over Wisconsin. Throughout the game, the Badgers got Michigan to take tough shots and box out the Wolverines for rebounds. As a result, Wisconsin won the rebounding battle 46-40.

One of the keys to the game was to hold Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf in check, and for the most part, the Badgers were successful. Goldin and Wolf were held to a combined 19 points on the day, an improvement from the two teams’ previous matchup, where both Wolverine big men went off for 44 combined points.

If you’re Greg Gard, you have to be pleased with how well Wisconsin played on the defensive side of the ball, especially since this was the Badgers’ fourth game in four days.

John Blackwell

Wisconsin’s offense was stuck in the mud throughout the whole game. John Tonje had an uncharacteristically poor game by going a ghastly 1-for-14 from the floor and missing all five of his three-point attempts. Max Klesmit finished 4-of-14 shooting as well.

The best offensive production the Badgers got this game came from Blackwell. While hitting only six of 17 shot attempts isn’t great, Blackwell led Wisconsin with 18 points.

Tre Donaldson

Donaldson seems to have found the clutch gene at the right time for the Michigan Wolverines. Against Maryland, Donaldson hit the game-winning layup to send the Wolverines to the conference championship game.

While he was held scoreless in the first half, Donaldson scored all of his 11 points in the second half, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 1:54 left in the game.

His two free throws with 14 seconds remaining helped Michigan win their first conference tournament championship since 2018.