With chants of ‘FRANK THE TANK’ booming off the rafters in the Kohl Center, Frank Kaminsky shot his way to 43 points, breaking the Wisconsin men’s basketball single-game scoring record that has been standing since 1965.

On the back of Kaminksy’s record-breaking performance, No. 12 Wisconsin (4-0) ran away with a 103-85 win over North Dakota (1-1) Tuesday night, marking the first time the Badgers have eclipsed 100 points since 1995.

North Dakota came out of the gates firing, scoring 23 points in the first ten minutes. Wisconsin needed someone to spark its offense.

Cue Kaminksy. The 7-foot center hit 5 of Wisconsin’s first 6 field goals to help keep pace with North Dakota.

“When those first couple of shots went in, I said to myself ‘I’m feeling it,’” Kaminsky said. “I just kept shooting and it kept going in.”

Once Kaminsky began to realize how hot he was, he wasn’t afraid to tell his teammates to feed him the ball.

“He came down in the game and said, ‘hey run this play for me’ and he never says that,” Wisconsin point guard Traevon Jackson said. “So it was sweet to see that. I was happy to run it for him.”

Through the first half Kaminsky was perfect (4-4) from downtown and had missed only one shot from the field, leading the team with 21 points. But, heading into the locker room, the Illinois native wasn’t even the biggest story with UND’s Troy Huff leading all scorers with 26.

Little did the Kohl Center crowd know that it was about to witness a performance for the Wisconsin record books.

With 6:01 left in the game and UW leading 87-70, Kaminsky hit 41 points and was only one point away from tying the single-game scoring record. By now ‘FRANK THE TANK’ had become the student section’s favorite cheer.

But not realizing Kaminsky was so close to the record, Ryan took him out with the game well in hand.

The 16,000-plus let Ryan know their displeasure with the decision, booing and finding their new favorite chant, ‘WE WANT FRANK!’

“I heard them boo and I was laughing because I had no idea I was close to a record,” Kaminsky said. “I was kind of curious why [Ryan] kept taking me out and putting me back in.”

After Kaminsky’s teammates begged their coach to let him in and discovering his center was on the brink of history, Ryan gave him one more chance.

“I had no idea until the players on the bench pleaded to give him one more possession,” Ryan said. “So I thought about Frank’s folks, I thought about his friends … so one more possession, that’s all I said. If the team didn’t get him the ball that was it and guess what, they got him the ball.”

Freshman point guard Bronson Koenig brought the ball in for the Badgers, found the 7-footer on a pick and roll and at 1:14 left in the game, with a finger roll over two would-be defenders, Kaminsky would not be denied his spot in Wisconsin basketball history.

After the game, Ryan was quick to pick a little fun with Kaminsky after his historic night.

“I did jump Frank for no assists,” Ryan said with a smile. “You knew that’d be the first thing I’d say when I walked in the locker room. I said ‘yeah Frank, three rebounds? No assists? Come on.’”

Kaminsky played into his coaches hand saying after the game: “I said sorry, but I didn’t mean it.”

Any other night, Troy Huff’s 37-point effort in front of his home state on a bum leg that he injured in the second half would have been the story of the night.

The Milwaukee native willed North Dakota’s offense to stay close with Wisconsin, going 15-22 from the floor and 4-6 from deep. But in the end Kaminsky and the Badgers were just too much for North Dakota to handle.

Though Wisconsin was shooting lights out all night long– going 59 percent from the field and 60 percent from three – there is naturally still some concern when 85 points are given up to the opposition.

“We did play some bad defense, but credit to them too,” Jackson said. “Huff was hitting some really good shots. We’ll get better from it. We’ll learn from it, move on and keep giving it to Frank.”

There is little doubt the 43-point performance will stick with Kaminsky for the rest life, but when asked where the game ranks for him, he was quick to acknowledge that he is saving the No. 1 spot for something special.

“This would be in my top-five,” Kaminsky said.  “Not number one. That’s to come, when we win the Big Ten Championship this year.”