When UW-Milwaukee head coach Rob Jeter was asked how Wednesday night's game against No. 7 Wisconsin got away from his Panthers, it did not take him long to respond.
""I think his number's 42,"" Jeter, the former Badger assistant coach said, referring to Wisconsin's leading scorer, senior forward Alando Tucker.
Tucker, coming off a 28-point outburst in Marquette Saturday, scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the first half, and led the Badgers (10-1 overall) to a 68-49 win over UW-Milwaukee. He was also the key to an early 11-0 run that put the game out of reach and set the tone for the remainder of the contest.
After holding the Panthers (2-10) without a bucket for the first three minutes and building up a 9-0 lead, the Badgers allowed Jeter's club to get back in it. Three 3-pointers—two by junior forward Paige Paulsen—cut the Badger lead to two at 11-9.
But with the score 14-11, the seniors took over. Tucker, Kammron Taylor and Jason Chappell combined to boost the Badgers to an 11-0 run, stretching the Badger lead to 14. The Panthers could never come back.
""It had to come from the seniors,"" said Tucker, who shot nine-of-16 from the floor. ""We had to set the tone and show the guys that this was going to be a game that you have to come and prove that we're going to play hard.""
Taylor pitched in with 10 points and Chappell had five clutch points and five boards.
After building up a 15-point halftime lead and limiting the Panthers to just 20 points in the first frame, Wisconsin came out firing on all cylinders again in the second half. Junior forward Brian Butch, who scored 11 points and pulled down eight rebounds in 20 minutes, scored seven of Wisconsin's first nine points of the second half, including a step-back 3-pointer from the left side.
But the story of the game was Tucker. The senior hit shots from all angles, bringing the Kohl Center crowd to their feet. Midway through the first half, Tucker picked off a Panther pass and threw down a one-handed fast break dunk. Later, he was on the receiving end of an alley-oop assisted by freshman guard Jason Bohannon.
The Panthers were led by Paulsen's 13 points and got a spark off the bench from seldom-used senior forward Nick Hansen. Hansen, Butch's former high school backup at Appleton West, scored six points.
