MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin's Alando Tucker missed last year's game against Alabama because of a foot injury.
He made up for it Wednesday night.
Tucker had 21 points and seven rebounds for the Badgers as they stifled No. 18 Alabama's high-powered offense in a 76-62 victory Wednesday night that extended the nation's longest home winning streak to 36 games.
The game was the Big Ten's best defense -- Wisconsin giving up just 56 points a game -- against the Southeastern Conference's best offense -- Alabama averaging better than 86 points.
The Crimson Tide (10-2) couldn't recover from a first half that saw the Badgers (9-2) take a 33-23 lead.
Alabama scored on seven straight possessions to open the second half and cut the lead to 42-37, but Wisconsin built its lead back to double figures and then held the Crimson Tide scoreless for almost three minutes after Ronald Steele's basket had made it 54-46 with 6:18 left.
Tucker's 3-pointer gave the Badgers a 65-48 lead, their biggest of the game, and Wisconsin cruised from there.
Tucker was one of four Badgers to finish in double figures. Mike Wilkinson hit his first three shots to start the game as Wisconsin never trailed and finished with 15 points. Zach Morley had 13 points and seven rebounds, while Sharif Chambliss scored 11 points.
"If they're trying to key on any one person, we're just going to find the open guy and take good shots," Wilkinson said. "I think that's a big advantage. We have a bunch of guys that can knock down shots when we need it instead of just one or two go-to guys."
Alabama came in shooting almost 50 percent from the field, but the Crimson Tide made less than one-third of their shots in the first half.
Coach Mark Gottfried said Wisconsin frustrated his Crimson Tide and didn't allow them to march up and down the court like they've been accustomed. Alabama didn't score a point on a fast break.
"All of a sudden, it's a different tempo for us and we didn't handle that very well and got impatient and had a really poor first half," Gottfried said.
Chuck Davis typified Alabama's night offensively. He made two of his first eight shots, turned it around to score 10 points in the Crimson's Tide's run to open the second half and then cooled off the rest of the way. He finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, while Kennedy Winston also had 18 points for the Crimson Tide.
"You're not going to get easy baskets. You're not going to be able to get yourself rolling by getting layups," Davis said. "You're just going to have to make shots, and tonight was not a night in which we made our shots."
The Badgers haven't lost at Kohl Center since Dec. 4, 2002, when Wake Forest beat them 90-80.
Last year, Alabama outrebounded, outshot and outworked Wisconsin for a 71-56 win while Tucker sat on the sidelines. Morley said the Badgers figured the Crimson Tide would try the same formula this year and were ready for it.
"We knew coming in that they pretty much took advantage of us last year down low and we knew they were probably going to try to do the same thing this year," Morley said. "We wanted to make everything they had difficult."
