Badgers Defeat UNLV 91-74; Start season 5-1
December 07, 2002 | Men's Basketball
The Badger men's basketball team is out to a 5-1 start after a 91-74 victory over UNLV Saturday at the Kohl Center. Alando Tucker sparked the Badgers in his first collegiate start, scoring the first four points of the game as the Badgers jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the opening three minutes.
After coming off the bench in the first four games of the season, Tucker scored 24 points and added 18 rebounds his starting debut. Until he missed a shot early in the second half, the freshman had made 12 consecutive field goal attempts going back to Wednesday's game against Wake Forest. His 11 offensive rebounds were the most ever by a Badger and his 18 overall were the most by a UW player since Rashard Griffith had 18 boards against Iowa on Jan. 21, 1995.
After jumping out to the early lead, Wisconsin maintained the advantage for the entire game. After Tucker tipped in a Kirk Penney miss on a fast break, the Badgers extended their lead to a game-high 18 points with 3:40 to go in the first half.
The Runnin' Rebels were held to 40 percent shooting in the first half and shot only 18 percent from three-point range for the contest. UNLV's top scorer, Marcus Banks, came into the game averaging 23 points a game, but on Saturday the Badger defense shut down the senior guard, limiting him to seven points on 2-12 shooting.
Down 47-31 at the half, the Runnin' Rebels scored six straight points coming out of the break to stay in the game. UNLV applied a full-court press and trimmed the UW advantage to single digits midway through the second half. The Runnin' Rebels narrowed the Badger lead to 71-65 with 7:27 remaining in the game after going on an 8-0 run. Dalron Johnson's three-point play at 6:57 was the closest UNLV would get, cutting the Badger lead to five. Johnson finished the game with a team-high 19 points.
The Badgers responded to the UNLV rally by ending the game on a 14-2 run. A Devin Harris breakaway slam dunk with 2:22 remaining brought the crowd to their feet and put the exclamation point on the UW victory. Harris finished the game with 20 points and four rebounds. In addition to Tucker and Harris, all five Wisconsin starters finished with double digits in scoring. Mike Wilkinson had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Kirk Penney finished with 17 and Freddie Owens added 15.
Tucker and Wilkinson ar ethe first Badger teammates to record "double-doubles" in the same game since Osita Nwachukwu had 16 points and 12 rebounds and Sean Daugherty had 10 points and 11 rebounds against Marquette on Dec. 31, 1995. This was also the first game since Dec. 28, 1995 (a 105-70 UW win over Eastern Illinois) that all five Badger starters scored in double figures.
The Badgers next game is Wednesday Dec. 11 against New Hampshire. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m. at the Kohl Center.
