Final
Wisconsin eases past Coastal Carolina
Mar 21, 2015 - 5:25 AM Omaha, NE (SportsNetwork.com) - Frank Kaminsky scored 27 points and pulled down 12 rebounds as Wisconsin cruised past Coastal Carolina, 86-72, in a second round matchup out of the West Region of the NCAA Tournament.Sam Dekker scored 20 points while Nigel Hayes added 15 points and eight rebounds for the top-seeded Badgers (32-3), who are in the tourney for the 17th year in a row and are looking for their first national championship since 1941.
"I think we did a good job of making shots," said Dekker. "Making shots is part of the game; it's always a good thing to do, and that comes from us being unselfish. We play as a team. We don't want to just rush, hurry shots or one guy try to score as many as he can."
Wisconsin, which set a school record for wins in a season, advances to face Oregon in the third round on Sunday.
Warren Gillis totaled 22 points and five rebounds and Elijah Wilson gave 20 for the Chanticleers (24-10), who were in the tournament for the second straight year after winning the Big South Conference Tournament.
"I thought our offense was good," said Coastal Carolina head coach Cliff Ellis. "We made shots we needed to have to be able to pull this off, but defensively we never could find anything, whether it was our man-to-man, whether it was our zone. Nothing was really effective, so you gotta give them a lot of credit."
Wisconsin took the lead for good on a Kaminsky layup 5 1/2 minutes in, and the Big Ten Player of the Year followed that with a 3-pointer for a 12-8 advantage.
Coastal Carolina tried to keep it close, and it was a 28-24 game after a Wilson jumper with just under seven minutes to play, but the Badgers followed with an 11-3 run to create some distance and eventually took a 47-32 edge into the break.
Gillis scored the first four points of the second half in an attempt to get the Chanticleers back in the game, but Kaminsky countered with a 3 and Josh Gasser followed with a jumper to push the advantage to 16.
Wisconsin built its lead as high as 24 before Coastal Carolina scored the final nine points of the game to make the final score more respectable.
Game Notes
Wisconsin has won all three matchups with Coastal Carolina ... Coastal Carolina has yet to win a tournament game in four appearances ... Wisconsin improved to 30-19 overall in the tournament ... Wisconsin outscored Coastal Carolina in the paint, 40-24, and controlled the rebound battle, 36-25.
- COASTAL CAROLINA: 72
WISCONSIN: 86
Final
Mar 20 11:18 PM - COASTAL CAROLINA: 32
WISCONSIN: 47
Halftime
Mar 20 10:12 PM - COASTAL CAROLINA: 0
WISCONSIN: 0
1st Half - 20:00
Mar 20 9:29 PM
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