MADISON, Wis. – A year ago it took clutch shooting from Illinois’ big man on the bench to carry the Illini over Wisconsin at the Kohl Center.

Jack Ingram, now playing professional basketball in Cyprus, would have been proud of his successors, as the bench showed up big again Tuesday, helping the No. 6 Illini to a 66-51 victory against No. 23 Wisconsin.

“When the starters aren’t playing well or somebody’s in foul trouble, they step up,” senior James Augustine said of his non-starter teammates. “That’s what they did tonight.”

Augustine saw early foul trouble and missed much of the first half, but Illinois went small and got big results from its guards.

Dee Brown and Rich McBride each scored 16 points for the Illini (20-2, 6-2), and Jamar Smith and Brian Randle added 12 apiece. Randle’s big scoring, coupled with his 13 rebounds, added up to the first double-double of his career.

“Brian had a huge game,” Augustine said. “He hit the boards really well.”

For every time Randle hit the boards, Smith seemed to hit a bucket, including a pair of free throws that would have troubled him earlier in the season.

While Smith showed his usual shooting prowess, it was on defense where Illinois’ backups made the biggest difference.

Alando Tucker totaled a game-high 19 points, six rebounds and two assists for Wisconsin (15-6, 5-3), but Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said they were “a hard 19,” as Illinois’ defense kept him from running away with a victory. Weber said he was more concerned with controlling guard Kammron Taylor, who scored 14 but also had four turnovers.

“The young guys were full of energy, enthusiasm, and that’s what you need to come on the road and win,” Brown said.

The Illini had 10 steals, twice as many as the Badgers, and out-rebounded Wisconsin 43 boards to 28. Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said he was most impressed with the way Randle seemed to be constantly crashing, but that in the end it was the way all the Illini picked up offensive boards that made the difference in the game.

“We got them to take some shots that weren’t maybe the highest percentage shots,” Ryan said. “But there were a couple there at the end when we cut it to six or eight and had a chance to get a rebound, but there were long rebounds that got touched, tipped, and boom, that counts as an offensive rebound.

“They’re good on the glass. They’ve been good all year and we needed to be better.”

Illinois next faces Penn State at home, where they’ll make another stand at defending their record winning streak, then take a week’s rest from competition. While the Nittany Lions are unranked and don’t seem to pose much of a threat, the Illini know better than to take home-court advantage for granted. After all, they crushed the Badgers’ streak on that 2005 visit to Madison.

“This was a big win, but you’ve got to take one game at a time,” Brown said. “But this was a huge boost for our confidence, individually and as a team.”