Michigan
25-1,15-1Big Ten
Purdue
21-5,11-4Big Ten
Michigan Puts Away No. 7 Purdue to Pass First Test as Nation's Top-Ranked Team
2/17/2026 10:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The top-ranked University of Michigan men's basketball team defeated seventh-ranked Purdue 91-80 on Tuesday night (Feb. 17) at Mackey Arena. The contest featured five lead changes in the first six minutes, but Michigan took the lead and did not give it up for the final 33 minutes of play.
Leaders and Best
Six Wolverines dropped double digits, led by Elliot Cadeau's 17 points while adding four rebounds and seven assists. Yaxel Lendeborg added 13 points (10 in the first half), seven assists and two blocks. Trey McKenney and L.J. Cason each contributed 13 points off the bench, combining for four triples and an 8-for-8 performance from the free-throw line. Morez Johnson Jr. added a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Aday Mara added a double-double with 10 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocks. It was the first time Michigan had six players with double-doubles since Dec. 29 against McNeese.
Turning Point
Down 11-10 with 12:50 remaining in the first half, six Wolverines combined for a 16-0 run over three and a half minutes. Cason and Tschetter led the way, rattling off three-pointers and going 4-for-4 from the charity stripe while missing just two field-goal attempts until the 9:28 mark. In the middle of the run, Cason's triple brought the lead to double digits and did not drop below 10 points for the next 28 minutes, with just over two minutes remaining in the second half.
First Half
Two and a half minutes went by before either team cracked the scoreboard. Purdue (21-5, 11-5 Big Ten) opened the scoring with a jumper and pushed the lead to 5-0 after a Michigan turnover. Mara threw down an alley-oop slam from Cadeau to account for U-M's first points, and the Wolverines grabbed two offensive rebounds on their next possession before a Lendeborg triple cut the Maize and Blue deficit to 7-5, which led to the under-16-minute timeout with 15:13 to play.
Roddy Gayle Jr. made a three-pointer after the timeout in front of the Boilermaker bench, marking the first lead change of the night. Lendeborg ended a nearly three-minute Michigan field-goal drought, a period with four made free throws the sum of its offense. Purdue faced a drought of its own with four consecutive misses, allowing Michigan (25-1, 15-1 Big Ten) to take a 16-11 lead. Two more scores from Gayle and Cason granted the first 10-point lead of the night with 10:10 to go. Purdue was assessed a flagrant foul, and Will Tschetter extended the lead with a three-pointer after being awarded the ball. He capped a 16-0 Wolverine run that took just under four minutes and ended with 9:13 to play.
The Maize and Blue then made three consecutive three-pointers in under two minutes, and a few possessions later, Nimari Burnett knocked down the team's eighth make from behind the arc with 4:23 to go, forcing the Purdue timeout with a 42-22 U-M lead. Mara had back-to-back makes, the second of which was an and-one, for a streak of six Wolverine baskets in seven attempts. The Boilermakers inched back in the final four minutes, but Michigan took a 48-32 lead into halftime.
Second Half
The Wolverine defense forced two Purdue misses on the first possession before Cadeau struck with a three-pointer. Michigan did not score for the next three minutes, a stretch during which Purdue put together a 6-0 run, ending with Cadeau's second triple of the half. The Boilermakers responded with baskets on back-to-back possessions to force a U-M timeout with 14:42 to play.
Cadeau continued his second-half takeover with scores inside the paint on consecutive U-M possessions and scoring 12 of the first 14 points of the second half. Cason converted on consecutive possessions before a McKenney three came from the right wing, and a Purdue timeout followed shortly thereafter with 9:05 to play and Michigan ahead 69-53. The Boilermakers shrank the deficit after a 5-0 run in just over a minute, but McKenney protected the double-digit lead with a three-pointer from the left corner. Cadeau drew three foul shots while Johnson later took two more, which negated the Purdue points.
With 4:16 remaining, U-M held a 16-point lead, 79-63. By the 2:05 mark, Purdue had brought the lead down to eight points to face a single-digit deficit for the first time since the 10:11 mark of the first half. No team scored more than three consecutive points for the remainder of the game, and the Wolverines walked away with an 11-point road victory.
What's Next
The Wolverines will be in Washington, D.C., on Saturday (Feb. 21) for a highly-anticipated matchup against No. 3 Duke at the Duel in the District inside Capital One Arena beginning at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN.
Notes
• Michigan's win marks the first ranked-vs.-ranked matchup victory at Mackey Arena since Feb. 1, 1994. It now holds a head-to-head edge in these games, 11-10.
• Ninety-one points is the fifth most that U-M has scored all-time at Mackey Arena. It is also the most in a game there since 1989.
• For the second time in four weeks, back-to-back Wolverine opponents have been ranked in the AP Top 10, starting with Purdue and ending with Duke on Saturday. The first instance this season came from Jan. 27-30, with wins against No. 5 Nebraska and No. 7 Michigan State.
• Tuesday marked the first time in the 105-year, 171-game series that Michigan was ranked No. 1 against Purdue. Michigan is the first Purdue opponent to be ranked No. 1 and play at Mackey Arena since 2005.
• For the first time in 61 years, Michigan recorded a win as the No. 1-ranked team against an AP Top 10 team. The last time came on March 6, 1965, against No. 5 Vanderbilt in a two-point victory.
• Five Wolverines have had a double-double in the last four games. Tonight's game marks the third contest this season in which multiple players have had a double-double in the same game.
• With 15:45 remaining in the first half, Lendeborg reached the 1,500-point plateau in his three-year Division I career. Entering tonight, he has scored 361 points on the year for a team-leading average of 14.4 points per game.
• By the 4:17 mark in the first half, all nine Wolverines in the rotation had scored. Seven Wolverines had made eight three-pointers, and the Wolverines ended the night 13-for-23 (56.5 percent) from beyond the arc, the best shooting percentage since the start of conference play against Maryland (Dec. 13).
• U-M has now held a halftime lead of 15 points or more in five conference games. It has happened three times in the last six games, including twice against AP Top-10 teams.
