Badgers advance to third round
For the 11th time in 13 years, the Badgers will dance on to a second game in the NCAA tournament.
No.
2 seed Wisconsin rolled past 15th-seeded American for its most lopsided
win in the Big Dance with a 75-35 victory in front of a loud, decidedly
red-clad crowd at the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
Traevon
Jackson scored 18 points, Ben Brust scored 17 and Sam Dekker added 11
as Wisconsin devastated American with a 22-5 run to close the first
half. Over the game's final 29 minutes, the Badgers outscored the
Eagles by a 65-18 margin thanks to shooting 57 percent from the floor
in the second half.
American's 35 points were the fewest for a
UW opponent in the NCAA tournament in the modern era and the lowest
total since 1941. UW held Pittsburgh to 30 points and Washington State
to 34 on its way to the 1941 NCAA title.
The 40-point margin of
victory was also UW's largest in an NCAA tournament game, surpassing
the 73-49 win over No. 13 Montana second round 2012 in Albuquerque, N.M.
In
a balanced scoring effort, the Badgers also got eight points from Frank
Kaminsky and seven from Josh Gasser. Jackson (18), Brust (17) and
Kaminsky (7) all posted the highest scoring outputs of their NCAA
tournament careers.
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