Mar 16, 2007, 23:05 GMT
Chicago, IL - Kammron Taylor scored 24 points and Alando Tucker had 23, and Wisconsin survived an early scare by erasing an 18-point deficit to pull off a 76-63 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Jason Bohannon chipped in 10 points for the second-seeded Badgers (30-5), who will battle UNLV in the second round on Sunday. Wisconsin, which was coming off a 66-49 defeat to Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament title game, is seeking its first NCAA championship since 1941.
Chris Daniels poured in 20 points and pulled down nine rebounds for the Southland Conference champion Islanders (26-7), who had a six-game winning streak snapped and had won 20 of their last 22 games coming in. Taurean Mitchell added 11 points in defeat.
Corpus Christi stormed out of the gate with 10 straight points -- led by a pair of three-pointers by Green -- and later opened up a commanding 25-7 advantage on Josh Washington's two free throws with 5:29 left in the first half.
Wisconsin, though, rallied and put an exclamation point on the frame when Tucker dunked, capping a 12-2 burst to cut within 27-19 at the break.
The Badgers shot a lousy 21 percent in the first half and were 0-for-8 from beyond-the-arc, but finished 40 percent from the field in the contest.
The Islanders held the lead for the first nine minutes of the second half, but a re-energized Wisconsin fought back and tied it at 47 when Taylor drilled back-to-back treys. The Badgers then took their first lead of the contest on Taylor's jumper with 9:35 to play.
Scooby Johnson hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe and brought Corpus Christi within one, but that's as close as it would get the rest of the way.
Marcus Landry's free throw put Wisconsin up 68-58 with 2:26 remaining, while the Islanders failed to become just the fifth No. 15 seed to upset a No. 2, due in part to missing eight free throws in the last 10 minutes.
Game Notes
The game marked the first-ever meeting between the two schools...Hampton was the last 15th-seeded team to defeat a two seed, edging Iowa State by a 58-57 margin in the 2001 NCAA Tournament...Corpus Christi shot 43 percent from the floor...Both teams pulled down 34 rebounds.
© 2007 The Sports Network
Game Notes.
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