Badgers Roll Past Crimson Tide, 76-62
December 29, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Alando Tucker scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team to a 76-62 upset of No. 13 Alabama Wednesday night at the Kohl Center.
UW (9-2), which committed a season-low five turnovers, improved its school-record and nation-leading home winning streak to 36 consecutive games. The Crimson Tide (10-2), meanwhile, saw their six-game winning streak come to an end.
Mike Wilkinson scored the game's first seven points, including one of the Badgers' six 3-point baskets in the first half. But it was Zach Morley who stole the show in that period, as he collected eight points, four rebounds and the team's only steal.
Morley finished the game with 13 points and seven rebounds, while Wilkinson ended up with 15 points.
Chuck Davis and Kennedy Winston notched 18 points apiece to lead Alabama. Davis also had a team-high seven rebounds.
Backed by an enthusiastic crowd, UW used runs of seven and 10 to build a 19-7 lead 9:53 into the game, then made three 3-pointers to take a 33-23 advantage at the break.
Tucker, who had just five points in the first frame, lit it up in the second half with 5-of-7 shooting to lead Wisconsin in scoring for the sixth time this year.
After Alabama managed to climb back to within five points early in the second half, Tucker and Sharif Chambliss both nailed 3s to give the Badgers a 48-39 lead with about 13 minutes left.
With less than three minutes left on the clock, Tucker scored another 3-pointer to give UW a lead of 17 points (65-48), its largest of the game. In all, the team ended up 11-of-22 (.500) from beyond the arc.
The Badgers now hit the road for their next two games, first taking on Purdue at 8 p.m. CT Jan. 5, 2005 in West Lafayette, Ind.
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Game Notes
The Badgers won their 36th consecutive home game, the longest current streak in Division I '. Wisconsin improved to 1-3 in the all-time series against Alabama and 11-11 against Southeastern Conference teams ' under head coach Bo Ryan, the Badgers are now 7-0 against ranked teams at home ' Wisconsin is 48-1 under Ryan when scoring at least 70 points ' Alabama entered the game averaging 86.5 points per game ' UW is 2-0 this season against teams ranked in the AP top 25 ' the Badgers held an opponent to less than 25 points in the first half for the seventh time this season ' a season-high six Wisconsin players made at least one 3-point basket ' UW concludes its four-game home stand with a 4-0 record and will now play two straight games on the road ' Zach Morley had a team-high two blocks, his first two of the year.
Alabama coach Mark Gottfried
Opening Statement: 'First of all this is a great environment. We played against a very very well coached team tonight and they gave us some trouble early in the game and that is to their credit, their coaching staff and players. They did a nice job, we've been averaging about 85 points a game and getting up and down the floor and all the sudden it was a different tempo for us and we didn't handle that very well and got impatient and we had a really poor first half and I think you have to give their coaching staff credit for that, they were very well prepared. That's what this game is all about. Our second half was a little bit better, scoring a little bit better. We just got ourselves in a hole there but they did a nice job.'
On Wisconsin defense against Ernest Shelton: 'They did a really nice job. That was very uncharacteristic on our end. He didn 't get a lot of good looks at the basket and I think they did a nice job of taking away anything that we were trying to run for Ernest, we haven't had too many nights in his career that he has had two points. They guarded him as good as anyone has. '
On Alando Tucker: 'I really l like him as a player. The thing that's good for Wisconsin for him, especially with Morley or Wilkinson is that he becomes a tough match up for your small guard or power forward. He 's got a great first step so he's hard to guard. With Devin Harris last year'. I think him and Ben Gordon were the best guards in the country last year, so with Tucker its kind of minus one plus one. You lose one but then you gain a pretty good one too. They have a very good basketball team. Nice team.'
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan
On the UW defensive effort/physical play: 'We'll I'd like to say there was a lot different occurrences then last year. But there wasn't that big of a difference with how bodies were colliding and moving and with guys trying to get in sports. Both teams were really, I mean what a game to get you ready for conference play. And everyone was playing for their territory in the post position and trying to get their passing lanes working and things like that. Last year we just got out of sync with Mike picking up a couple early. We didn 't get into a flow even though we hung with them in the first half. It just seemed like Alabama was ready to explode and they got their run in the second half against us. I thought by us getting a little cushion there at half time- we always challenge the guys at times to see if we can catch somebody when we ask them what the score is at half time, and its always 0-0. But by getting the cushion there I figured they were going to make a run, and get their bigs back in there going back inside and we've got to answer that. We didn't answer real well really. But if we can wear them down a little bit- and the fact that Andreas and Brian came in and helped out Zach and Mike-those four did a better job then what our bigs did last year. And defensively, playing a guy like Selton, the job Clay did with help from cam and Ray and whoever else picked up a few minutes on him, that was the difference.'
On Clayton Hanson's defensive effort: Clay 's been doing the same thing since the first day he's walked onto this campus. He's just worked his position, he worked on anticipating. Clayton is a student of the game. He can anticipate things well. To him it's just another day of doing the same things he did in practice yesterday trying to contain Freddie Owens and Boo and whoever else was playing against him-Williams and those guys on the scout team. I thought what the scout team did yesterday in practice with Stiemsma and Chappell and the bigs inside, they gave us a great look at Alabama. So I thought yesterdays practice had as much to do with the names listed there in that statistics sheet. So I think Clay is one of those players- all the players love him, everyone respects him. He's not going to be cheated out of anything in life.'
