Wisconsin Survives Scare From TAMU-Corpus Christi
Badgers 76, Islanders 63
Friday, March 16, 2007; 5:35 PM
CHICAGO (AP) -- Wisconsin looked liked the NCAA tournament rookies, at least at the start.
Flustered for most of the first half, the Badgers overcame an 18-point deficit to beat 15th-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 76-63 Friday in the opening round of the Midwest Region.
  The Gators are too much to handle in an 84-75 victory over Ohio State for their second straight national championship. On Hoops: Florida is a team for the ages, because in winning back-to-back national titles they took a very good team's best shot and still came out victorious. The Buckeyes are setback by the Gators' three-point shooting every time they try to make a run. Greg Oden, the public introvert, and Joakim Noah, the unabashed extrovert, share a common desire to savor college. Select CompanyFlorida joined a small group who repeated as men's basketball champion:Oklahoma State 1945-46 Kentucky 1948-49 San Francisco 1955-56 Cincinnati 1961-62 UCLA 1964-65, 1967-73 Duke 1991-92 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPFINAL FOURREGIONAL FINALSSouth West Midwest EastMULTIMEDIA Photos: Snapshots from the 2007 NCAA tournament. Video: Charting Texas freshman Kevin Durant's rapid rise to the top. Video: Post columnist Sally Jenkins talks about Durant. ON OUR SITETeam-by-Team Analysis:Coaching Tree: The Six Degrees of March's Mayhem (PDF) Flashback: A Quarter-Century Worth of Memories (PDF) TOURNEY TRACKER Share and compare your NCAA brackets. |
Kammron Taylor, scoreless at the break, finished with 24 points. Wisconsin also clamped down its defense on the Islanders (26-7), who began playing basketball in the 1999-2000 season.
Second-seeded Wisconsin (30-5) advanced to Sunday's second round at the United Center against UNLV, which beat Georgia Tech 67-63 in Friday's opening game.
The Islanders came out strong in their first tournament appearance, scoring the game's first 10 points and later leading 25-7 against the stunned Badgers.
Taylor rallied Wisconsin, scoring 14 straight points at one stretch. The Badgers did it at the other end, too, holding A&M-Corpus Christi without a basket for nearly nine minutes.
Big Ten Player of the Year Alando Tucker scored 23 points for the Badgers, while 7-foot center Chris Daniels led A&M-Corpus Christi with 20 points.
The Islanders' bid to become just the fifth No. 15 seed to upend a No. 2 was hurt greatly by struggles at the free throw line in the second half. They missed eight from the line in the final 10 minutes.
