Tucker Leads Wisconsin Past Marquette
December 09, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Alando Tucker scored a season-high 28 points as 11th-ranked Wisconsin beat 17th-ranked Marquette 70-66 Saturday at the Bradley Center in front of a sellout crowd of 19,020. It was the largest crowd ever to see a college basketball game in the state of Wisconsin.
Kammron Taylor scored 13 points and Marcus Landry added a season-high 11 for UW, who beat Marquette for the seventh time in the last nine games.
Dominic James scored 17 of his team-high 19 points for Marquette in the second half. Jerel McNeal had 14 points in the second half and finished with 16.
MU (9-2) was held under 40 percent shooting for just the third time this season. The Golden Eagles were 3-of-18 from 3-point range. James, McNeal and Wesley Matthews were a combined 2-of-11.
Wisconsin (9-1) led 28-25 at the half and never trailed in the second half. A jumper by Landry gave UW its largest lead at 51-40 with 7:30 left to play.
That's when Marquette made its run.
Jerel McNeal scored six consecutive points for MU, which scored on eight consecutive possessions down the stretch. James hit his first 3 during the run and Marquette got as close as four points with under two minutes left to play.
But every time the home crowd stood to cheer, Wisconsin answered. Taylor drove and hit a running jumper with the shot clock winding down and six minutes remaining. Tucker hit a jumper on the following possession and Michael Flowers followed with one of three Badger 3-pointers. Joe Krabbenhoft pulled down an offensive rebound moments later and scored to give UW a 60-50 lead with under four minutes remaining.
After Marquette had cut the lead to four, and following a Wisconsin timeout, Tucker brought the ball up the court, drove on his defender and scored an easy layup. His 13th field goal came on the next possession as UW extended its lead to 66-59 with less than a minute remaining.
MU had a chance to cut the lead to three in the closing seconds, but James' 3 from the corner was off the mark and Krabbenhoft came away with the rebound.
Landry, who is married to Marquette women's basketball player, Efueko Osagie, finished 5-of-8 from the floor in his best performance this season. In addition to his point production, he had four rebounds, four blocks, two assists and a steal.
Landry drew a cheer from the Badger bench with his left-handed block of David Cubillan, after Cubillan had reversed his layup on a fast break. Tucker chased the loose ball down and Landry hit a jumper less than a minute later to give UW its 11-point lead.
Marquette's trio of guards had trouble scoring on Wisconsin down low and couldn 't get the outside shot to drop. Flowers was credited with holding James to two points in the first half. Trevon Hughes, who played a season-high 18 minutes for UW, had two points, five rebounds, two assists and a game-high three steals.
Post-Game Notes:
'This was the 113th meeting between the two schools, making Marquette UW 's most played non-conference opponent
'The sellout crowd of 19,020 is the largest to see a college basketball game in the state of Wisconsin
'UW leads the all-time series 62-51
'Wisconsin led 28-25 at the half. That's the ninth time in 10 games UW has led at halftime this season.
'Alando Tucker scored 10 or more points for the 32nd time in his last 33 games. He 's scored 20 or more points 34 times in his career.
'Wisconsin's win ends a five-game win streak for the home team in this series
