Michigan
15-1,5-1Big Ten
Washington
10-7,2-4Big Ten
Wolverines Bounce Back With West Coast Win Over Washington
1/15/2026 3:14:00 AM | Men's Basketball
SEATTLE, Wash. -- The fourth-ranked University of Michigan men's basketball team defeated Washington 82-72 on Wednesday night (Jan. 14) at Alaska Airlines Arena to open its two-game stretch on the West Coast. The Wolverines shot 60 percent from the field, and Washington got no closer than five points in the second half.
Leaders and Best
Aday Mara led Michigan in scoring, finishing with 20 points on 10-of-11 shooting with three blocks. Morez Johnson Jr. had his third double-double of the season with 16 points and a 4-for-4 performance from the free-throw line and a career-high 16 rebounds. Yaxel Lendeborg contributed 14 points with two made three-pointers and seven rebounds. The trio combined for 50 of the team's 82 points in addition to 40 of 50 team paint points.
First Half
Michigan (15-1, 5-1 Big Ten) fell behind early after a pair of missed Washington shots, and after multiple missed U-M shot attempts to start the game, Mara scored on a hook layup. The U-M offense started 1-for-8 from the field, but the defense made up for it, forcing seven straight scoreless UW possessions over a span of 3:42 while pulling down eight rebounds. Roddy Gayle Jr. scored four straight points off a pair of free throws before assisting on a Johnson layup on the fast break as part of a 10-0 run to take a 12-3 lead with 13:13 left in the first half. Michigan's first five field goals came from inside the paint, while the Wolverines defense held Washington scoreless for six and a half minutes.
Trey McKenney hit the game's first three-pointer at the 10:28 mark, and on the following possession, Will Tschetter hit another triple after two offensive rebounds. The Wolverines' next bucket came courtesy of a Tschetter layup, which forced Washington to call a timeout with 8:41 remaining in the half to put the Maize and Blue up 11 at 22-11. Michigan's bench was responsible for 12 of those 22 points and outscored the Huskies to that point.
Johnson corralled 10 rebounds with 5:54 to go in the first half, highlighted by a putback dunk. The Washington offense continued to struggle, going 2-for-7 during a two-minute stretch during which Michigan scored on four free throws from Johnson. Lendeborg hit a 27-footer and two layups for seven straight points in 51 seconds. Michigan took a nine-point lead, 39-30, at halftime.
Second Half
Like he did to start the game, Mara scored the first U-M basket of the second half after grabbing an offensive rebound and converting on a hook shot. Nimari Burnett passed the 1,000-career point mark on a driving layup off a pass from Mara. Burnett hit the next Wolverine basket on a three-point shot from the left slot, but the Wolverines were unable to string together consecutive baskets through the first four minutes, which brought the U-M lead down to just five points, 46-41, with 15:53 remaining.
Lendeborg's triple from the right corner at the 15:53 mark gave Michigan its fifth three-pointer in 11 attempts after starting the 0-for-10 to start the first half. Mara followed the Lendeborg basket with three straight buckets, matching his first-half point output after just five minutes to start the second half. Lendeborg and Mara then each scored another basket to push U-M's lead to 59-50. The teams combined for 12 makes on 16 attempts over the next 4:30 before Michigan forced four Washington misses over three minutes until a Washington basket came with 9:08 to play. The Wolverines hit the bonus with 8:55 remaining in the contest, but had not attempted a free throw for the first 11:05 of the second half.
Michigan's lead did not reach double-digits again until 5:16, when a Mara block and rebound ignited a fast-break score from Gayle to go up 11, 74-63. Lendeborg then made a shifty layup and avoided an offensive foul, assisted by Gayle, as part of a 7-0 run over 2:20 to go up 13, 76-63, and force a Huskies timeout. A Johnson layup with 2:03 remaining capped the Wolverines' scoring and after a pair of late Washington baskets, Michigan secured the 10-point road win.
What's Next
Michigan will head south to Eugene to face Oregon at 1 p.m. on Saturday (Jan. 17) at Matthew Knight Arena. The game will be broadcast live on NBC.
Notes
• This is Michigan's first time playing in Seattle since the arena was dubbed the Alaska Airlines Arena. The last contest between the teams in Seattle was Dec. 30, 1994, when the arena was known as Edmundson Pavilion.
• Michigan is the only team in the Big Ten to have three players averaging 6.5 rebounds per game. Mara is now averaging 7.5, followed by Johnson's 7.1 and Lendeborg's 6.9.
• U-M entered the night averaging 43.1 paint points per game, which led the Big Ten and was tied for ninth in the country. They had 50 paint points tonight.
• It took Burnett 124 career games to pass the 1,000-point mark. He scored 64 in 12 games for Texas Tech his freshman year and scored 151 in 27 games in nine starts for Alabama. With his seven points against Washington, Burnett brought his U-M point total to 789 points in three seasons, with a scoring average of 9.3..
• Johnson set a career high in rebounds with 16, but he also reached 300 career rebounds. He has 314 rebounds in 46 games across two seasons, averaging 6.8 rebounds per game in his career. L.J. Cason now sits at 250 career points after his six against Washington, taking 45 games to reach the mark (5.6 ppg).
