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Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan yells instructions to his team during their game against UNLV on Sunday.

“From day one we’ve talked about putting UNLV back on the map,” Kevin Kruger said. “There will be some doubters. Some people will say we were lucky, but we don’t really care. We’re going to the Sweet 16 and nobody can argue with that.”

Wisconsin fell into an 18-point hole in the first round Friday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before Taylor led them back in the second for a 76-63 victory.

The Badgers rallied again but this time after getting the lead, they couldn’t hold on.

Kruger finished with 16 points, seven assists and six rebounds. He was 4-for-10 from the field.

Taylor paced the Badgers with 24 points — 19 in the second half.

Alando Tucker, the Big Ten player of the year and leading scorer in Wisconsin history, added 17 for the Badgers, who were ranked No. 1 late in the regular season. But he managed only six points in the second half and finished 4-for-11 from the field against the aggressive UNLV defense.

“They were tough all game,” Tucker said. “They were hard-nosed on the ball and when I caught it on or off the block, two guys were coming at me.”

Wisconsin, which lost on the same floor a week ago in the Big Ten finals against Ohio State, was playing its fifth game at the United Center in 10 days.

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Kruger, 0-for-8 in a first-round win over Georgia Tech, missed his first three Sunday. But when he finally made one it turned into the biggest play of a 10-0 first-half spurt that opened up a 29-16 lead. Kruger was fouled on the play by Badgers freshman Jason Bohannon and made the free throw to finish off a four-point play.

With an aggressive defense and six 3-pointers the Runnin’ Rebels ran out to a 39-27 halftime lead.

When UNLV’s Wink Adams went high for a follow-up and fell hard to the floor, he was forced out of the game momentarily. After Terry stepped in at the line for Adams and missed both free throws, Wisconsin got a tying basket by Bohannon and then took its first lead since early in the game at 48-46 on Taylor’s two free throws.

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