SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (AP)—Kammron Taylor wasn’t too disappointed after No. 7 Wisconsin’s first loss of the season.
But knowing the Badgers needed to respond Saturday, Taylor scored 16 points and Alando Tucker added 15 to help Wisconsin beat Auburn 77-63 in the third-place game in the South Padre Island Invitational.
“It was a good thing we got to play within the next 24 hours cause I didn’t have to go home and sit in my room and think about it,” Taylor said. “I had to bounce back.”
Wisconsin lost 66-64 to Missouri State on Friday. Tucker and his teammates were determined to rebound after playing a sub-par game the day before.
“We knew what we had to do tonight, we knew Auburn wanted to come out and pressure us, to test us, to see how we were going to respond,” Tucker said.
DeWayne Reed led Auburn (4-2) with 17 points.
The Badgers led by as many as 19 in the second half and shot 46 percent from the field for the game.
More than five minutes elapsed before Auburn scored its first points of the game on a dunk by Reed to make the score 10-2.
The Badgers led by double digits for most of the second half. Auburn briefly narrowed the lead to eight points a jumper by Rasheem Barrett with about 12 minutes left, but Wisconsin quickly restored the lead to double figures.
Frank Tolbert scored 12 points for Auburn, and Barrett and Korvotney Barber added 10 points each for the Tigers.
Auburn shot 49 percent from the floor and committed 19 turnovers to Wisconsin’s 12.
With the victory, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan became the 15th active Division I coach to reach 500 victories. His career record is now 500-153 in 23 seasons.
“I got the gray hair,” he said. “(The players) know how I am. It’s (onto) the next game. Now we’ve got Florida State.”
Tucker said the coach was humble about reaching the milestone.
“You know Coach Ryan. He doesn’t talk about all his accolades. I’m sure nobody on the team even knew that,” he said. “He deserves it.”
