Senior guard Kammron Taylor paced the Badgers in the first half, and senior forward Alando Tucker led them in the second as UW went on to a 72-48 victory over the Mercer Bears.
""It feels good. We can actually put a mark in our win column,"" said Tucker, who scored 21 points, 16 of those in the second half.
Though the highlight of the first half was a put-back slam by Tucker that brought the Kohl Center faithful to their feet, Taylor really led Wisconsin in the first 20 minutes. Scoring 18 of his team-high 22 in the first frame, Taylor's four first-half 3-pointers carried Wisconsin, to a 14-point first half lead, 39-25.
""He was aggressive,"" said Badgers' head coach Bo Ryan, who improved his opening day mark with UW to 5-1. ""Intelligent aggression was being used, not wild aggression. I thought his decision making was really good.""
Taylor attributed his opening night success to the work of the rest of the Badger squad.
""It was just a matter of my teammates finding me and me knocking down the shot,"" Taylor said. ""The credit goes to my teammates.""
In the second half, the Badgers came out hot. After a quick Bear score, the Badgers reeled off a 10-0 run spurred on in large part by Tucker. A score by freshman guard Jason Bohannon gave Wisconsin a 22-point lead.
Tucker, whose first half struggles mirrored his troubles in the two exhibition victories, stopped relying on his outside game and worked on getting opportunities in close. Subsequently, his shots began to fall, and he again looked like the All-American candidate Badger fans know.
""One of the things you want to do to stay consistent with is attacking the glass, attacking the lane,"" Tucker said. ""That's where I made a stronger effort in trying to do that and that's how you have to try to get your shot going when it's not falling.""
The Bears got as close as 15 later in the period, but another late 10-0 run by the Badgers, capped off by a Taylor score, stretched the lead to 26 and put the game out of reach.
Junior forward Brian Butch struggled with four points on 1-of-7 shooting, though he did haul in eight rebounds. The bright surprise of Wisconsin on the night, however, was the play of sophomore forward Joe Krabbenhoft. Krabbenhoft, later called the Badgers' ""enforcer"" by Tucker, filled up the stat sheet. He had seven points, 10 rebounds and three assists, showing his trademark hustle on both ends of the floor.
Coming into this season, Mercer lost its top three scorers and it certainly showed. Only six Mercer players scored and only one, senior forward Hrvoje Pervan, hit double digits with 10.
Wisconsin continued their usual troubles from the free-throw line that plagues them in the preseason as well as last season. The team shot an anemic 44 percent from the line. Tucker, who was 0-of-5 from the charity stripe, said the struggles are a mental problem.
""We came out flat,"" Tucker said. ""I think once one guy started missing, it was just one of those plagues that went down the line, throughout the team.""
