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Wisconsin handles American

Mar 20, 2014 - 10:23 PM Milwaukee, WI (SportsNetwork.com) - Ben Brust sparked a key first-half run and ended with 17 points, as the second-seeded Wisconsin Badgers cruised to a 75-35 win over the 15th-seeded American Eagles in second-round action of the NCAA Tournament at the Bradley Center.

Traevon Jackson added a game-high 18 points for the Badgers (27-7), who used a 40-6 run that bridged the first and second halves to put away the Patriot League champs.

"The thing about their team," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said, "(is) you have a great year, you win the conference tournament, and then it ends so fast. And I heard in the back one of the questions you asked them about their season. Those guys can keep their heads up high. They had an unbelievable year."

Sam Dekker added 11 points and six rebounds for Wisconsin, which will face seventh-seeded Oregon in the third round of the West Region on Saturday.

John Schoof and Tony Wroblicky each scored 11 points to lead the overmatched Eagles (20-13), who jumped ahead early but failed to get much going after that.

American led by seven points, 17-10, when Jesse Reed drained a 3-pointer with 9:47 left in the first half.

"We were excited," Wroblicky said. "We were playing well. We were making them take tough shots and we were scoring. Then, you know, after that we just kind of hit a rut and just extended throughout the rest of the game."

That was it for the Eagles.

Wisconsin got it going after that and took control heading into halftime. Down 19-13, the Badgers ended the stanza with a 19-3 run. Brust scored eight points during the surge, which gave Wisconsin a 32-22 advantage going into the break.

The Badgers continued to pull away early in the second half. Still leading by 10 points early on, 34-24, the Badgers went on a 19-1 run to put the game well out of reach. Brust scored six points and Dekker added seven points during the burst, which was ended by a Duje Dukan tip-in with 11:03 left for a 53-25 cushion.

The lead later ballooned to 41 points, 69-28, after a Jackson three at the 5:26 mark. Wisconsin cruised to the finish after that.

Game Notes

This was the first-ever meeting between these two schools ... American fell to 0-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament ... Wisconsin improved to 26-18 in the NCAA Tournament ... This is the 16th year in a row the Badgers have made the tournament.