2012 N.C.A.A. Tournament - Unerring From Outside, Wisconsin Routs Montana - NYTimes.com Christian Petersen/Getty Images Ryan Evans, being check by Montana's Mathias Ward, led Wisconsin with 18 points. ALBUQUERQUE - Even when things went wrong for Wisconsin, they turned out right. Guard Jordan Taylor fell to the court, and he still managed to get away a pass to an open Mike Bruesewitz for an easy layup. Wisconsin turned over the basketball nine times, but only three led to Montana baskets. Even Badgers Coach Bo Ryan cleanly caught an errant pass that sailed out of bounds and into his grasp. With bobbles causing little damage and 10 of its 18 3-point attempts finding the mark, fourth-seeded Wisconsin cruised to a 73-49 win over 13th-seeded Montana at the Pit Thursday. In earning their sixth consecutive N.C.A.A. tournament-opening win, the Badgers (25-9) overpowered the Grizzlies (25-7) down low and rarely let them penetrate. Wisconsin limited Montana to a season-low 21 rebounds, and its complex, switching defense prevented Montana's guards from attacking the basket. "We like to roll, we like to set picks-and-rolls, and that kind of messes up everything," said forward Art Steward, who led the Grizzlies with 18 points. It kind of spread it out and left the bigs down low and the guards on the wings. It kind of kept it hard for us to switch on things. Ryan Evans scored 18 points and Taylor 17 to lead the Badgers. Taylor won his duel of guards with Montana's leading scorer, Will Cherry, who shot 3 of 14 and was held to 9 points - 7 below his season average. "We just made sure that we tried to run him off the 3-point line and tried to get some help to him and squeeze the court, make the driving line smaller," said Ryan, who improved to 10-1 in tournament-opening games at Wisconsin. The Badgers never trailed after Josh Gasser hit a 3-pointer to tie the score at 5-5 3 minutes 2 seconds into the game. Gasser's basket began a barrage in which Wisconsin hit 6 of 7 shots from beyond the 3-point arc, allowing the Badgers to build a 20-14 lead that they stretched to 39-29 by halftime. Any hopes of a Montana rally died early in the second half after errant passes led to turnovers on two of its first three second-half possessions. An exasperated Montana Coach Wayne Tinkle called a timeout immediately after the second giveaway. Desperate to catch up, Montana began pressing the Badgers, but after Cherry stole the ball from Evans right after the timeout, the Badgers settled down and beat the trap with little difficulty. Meanwhile, Montana's offense continued misfiring; it missed six consecutive field-goal attempts until consecutive 3-pointers cut a 16-point deficit to 10 with 12:25 remaining. Montana drew no closer. Wisconsin replied by hitting its next three shots to push the lead to 17 points with 9:46 remaining and cruised from there. "We made a nice little run there in the second half, and they always had an answer," Tinkle said.