The men's basketball team did not need its lead swingman Alando Tucker to help defeat Coastal Carolina 92-54 in its home opener Saturday. The Badgers instead turned to guard
Kammron Taylor to help lead the unblemished team (3-0) to a blowout victory.
"I don't really look at the margin [of victory]," Badger head coach Bo Ryan said after the game. "I'm just looking at ball movement and how we handled their scorers."
"It was 40 minutes of effort."
Tucker, who had been averaging 22.7 points per game, was held to an abominable five points. Tucker now averages 18.3 points per game, which ranks second on the team, courtesy of Taylor's 20-point effort Saturday. Taylor now leads UW with 18.5 points per game.
Taylor jump-started the game for the Badgers with a 3-pointer and never looked back. In the first half, UW went on a 26-5 run and outscored Coastal Carolina 29-4 to open the second half. Wisconsin also had a season-low 11 turnovers.
"If we'd have played [Friday] it probably wouldn't have looked as crisp," Ryan said, referring to the day after a Thanksgiving feast. "When you come back from some of these tournaments and you travel awhile and you come through all these time zones and you get in different hours; some teams struggle with that. I thought tonight our guys kept focused on the things we have to do."
Brian Butch joined Taylor to lead the way for Wisconsin. They were the only two Badgers who scored in double figures. Butch put up 17 points and came within one rebound of his first career double-double.
Picking up Tucker's slack were nine UW players who scored five or more points, with 11 players in all scoring for UW.
"[Tucker] didn't have to shoot a lot. [Tucker] was getting a lot of attention," Ryan said, adding that the performance from the rest of the team was also encouraging. "Our guys were active."
The Badgers shot 54 percent from the field, while holding the Chanticleers (Chanticleer: A rooster who rules the barnyard with cunning and wit) to only 38 percent shooting, and a witless 28 percent in the first half.
Wisconsin also was dominant from the free-throw line, making 20 of 30 while Coastal Carolina only managed seven points from the charity stripe.
Early in the game Wisconsin built up a lead with solid outside shooting, making three of their first four shots from beyond the arc. As the game progressed, the team asserted their authority in the post more and more against an undersized Chanticleer team whose tallest player was a generous 6'7," ending the game with 48 points in the paint, compared to Coastal Carolina's 14.
"The littler guys, the smaller guys who are in there against the taller guys and haven't played against taller teams, they tend to chest up and get their elbows in there and it isn't as easy as it looks," Ryan said of his team's size advantage.
Coastal Carolina was lead by forward Moses Sonko who contributed 19 points and five rebounds in the losing effort. Swingman Pele Paelay was the only other Chanticleer to reach double digits.
Wisconsin also gave impressive sophomore Jack Leasure a night to forget. Leasure, the 2005 Big South Freshman of the Year, struggled to only seven points on 2-16 shooting, and had seven turnovers.
"This young man can shoot, but this night he just had one of those nights," Coastal Carolina head coach Buzz Peterson said.
Sophomore reserve point guard Michael Flowers also had a very impressive game, scoring nine points on 3-4 shooting, with five rebounds, five steals, two assists and a block and also had what was certainly the play of the game. Flowers blocked a shot by Leasure, who recovered the ball. Flowers then stole the pass from Leasure to a Coastal Carolina teammate. Flowers then pushed the ball up the floor and lobbed the ball up to a trailing DeAaron Williams, who punctuated the play with a fierce slam.
"[Flowers] was just huge," Ryan said. "He just refused to get discouraged on some screens, on positioning … he's a great defensive player."
