Wis. Beats Ala., Extend Home Win Streak

Posted 5:20AM on Thursday 30th December 2004 ( 20 years ago )

The Big Ten's best defense handled the Southeastern Conference's best offense, and the site of the game had a lot to do with it. Alando Tucker scored 21 points to lead Wisconsin to a 76-62 victory over No. 18 Alabama on Wednesday night, extending the nation's longest home winning streak to 36 games. Wisconsin came in allowing 56 points a game, while Alabama came in averaging better than 86 points. Chalk up another win for defense. Wisconsin (9-2) led 33-23 at halftime, and the closest the Crimson Tide (10-2) got was 42-37 after scoring on their first seven possessions of the second half. The Badgers held Alabama without a field goal for almost three minutes after the visitors closed within 54-46 with 6:18 left. "All of a sudden, it's a different tempo for us and we didn't handle that very well and got impatient and had a really poor first half," said Alabama coach Mark Gottfried, whose team didn't have a single fast-break point. The Badgers haven't lost at Kohl Center since Dec. 4, 2002, when Wake Forest beat them 90-80. In other games involving ranked teams, it was: No. 8 Kentucky 82, Campbell 50; No. 10 Pittsburgh 72, South Carolina 68; No. 15 Texas 100, Texas-San Antonio 82; West Virginia 71, No. 20 George Washington 65; and No. 23 Michigan State 92, North Carolina-Asheville 63. Mike Wilkinson had 15 points for Wisconsin, while Zach Morley had 13 and Sharif Chambliss 11. "If they're trying to key on any one person, we're just going to find the open guy and take good shots," Wilkinson said. "I think that's a big advantage. We have a bunch of guys that can knock down shots when we need it instead of just one or two go-to guys." Chuck Davis and Kennedy Winston each had 18 points for the Crimson Tide, who manhandled Wisconsin 71-56 last season. "We knew coming in that they pretty much took advantage of us last year down low and we knew they were probably going to try to do the same thing this year," Morley said. "We wanted to make everything they had difficult."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/12/144327