The Wisconsin Badgers (11-5 Big Ten, 20-7 overall) held off a furious comeback by the Purdue Boilermakers (3-13, 7-20), who trailed by as many as 24 points in the first half, to win 64-52 Saturday at the Kohl Center.
The UW victory spoiled legendary Purdue head coach Gene Keady's final Big Ten regular season game. Prior to the game, the Wisconsin coaching staff presented Keady, who is retiring from coaching after 25 years at Purdue, with a set of golf woods and a golf vacation to Whistling Straits.
As part of the senior day festivities, UW head coach Bo Ryan started all five of his seniors. Senior forward Mike Wilkinson led the attack early, scoring seven of the Badgers' first nine points. Wilkinson would only score two more points in the half, but sophomore forward Alando Tucker picked up the slack.
Left on the bench for Senior Day, Tucker did not waste any time getting into the action. The sophomore forward came off the bench and converted a 3-point play on his first touch in the post. Purdue had no answer for Tucker, who scored all 14 of his points in the first half on 5-7 shooting in just 12 minutes of play.
Showing no ill effects of his unfamiliar role as a bench player, after the game Tucker joked about being the sixth man every game.
\If I can go out and play like that all the time, hey, I don't mind."" Tucker said. ""But it was fun ... coming off [the bench] and just being able to give them a spark, because I was just as excited to play this game.""
On the defensive end, Wisconsin had the Boilermakers completely out of rhythm. The Badgers' defense forced Purdue deep into the 35-second shot clock on numerous occasions. The Boilermakers shot just 8-of-25 and committed six turnovers finding themselves trailing 40-19 at halftime.
The roles were switched in the second half, as Purdue came out with all the intensity on the defensive end. The Boilermakers switched to a zone defense that confounded the Badgers for much of the second half.
""We came out in the second half and started getting after folks, that's the difference,"" Keady said. ""I think Wisconsin thought they had it made, typical human nature stuff, and that caught with them.""
With its increased pressure on defense, Purdue forced eight uncharacteristic Badger turnovers in the second half. At one point, Wisconsin went nearly seven minutes without a field goal.
The stunning comeback attempt climaxed with 3:34 left in the game, when Purdue junior guard David Teague??-who led the Boilermakers with 17 points-knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the UW lead to 56-47.
That was all the closer the Boilermakers would get as UW sophomore guard Kammron Taylor scored five points and Wilkinson chipped in four over the final three minutes to close the door on the comeback.
Taylor scored seven of his 11 points in the latter part of the second half. During Wisconsin's long field-goal drought, it was Taylor's free throws that provided the offense.
""What [the Boilermakers] were doing by eliminating some things in the post... is we needed to attack,"" UW head coach Bo Ryan said. ""And Kam's the guy on our team who can attack. He's the guy who can put it on the floor and split a seam and he got to free-throw line.""
With the win, Wisconsin completed its school-record third consecutive 20-win season. The Badgers now turn their attention to the Big Ten Tournament, which will take place in Chicago next weekend. Keady, who has seen his fair share of quality teams during his 25-year tenure at Purdue, had this to say about the Badgers post-season potential.
""I think they're very good, they can go a long way,"" Keady said. ""I hope the people on the committee understand that we have five or six teams in this league that should go to the NCAA [Tournament].\
