OMAHA, Neb. — The Qwest Center, appropriately enough, is where the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team's NCAA tournament quest kicked off Thursday night.

And the sixth-ranked Badgers, by virtue of their 71-56 victory over Cal State Fullerton in a Midwest Regional first-round game watched by a crowd of 17,162, assured themselves of being one of the 32 teams that will still be playing after the tournament's opening round concludes today.

"We're happy with the win," UW senior center Brian Butch said. "To keep on moving on in the NCAA tournament is the first goal."

Third-seeded UW (30-4), which matched the program record for victories in a season with the win over the Titans, will face Kansas State in a second-round game Saturday.

The Badgers' most recent victory, like many of its triumphs this season, came as a result of a solid defensive effort combined with a balanced offensive attack.

UW, the stingiest team in the nation in terms of points allowed per game (53.8), surrendered only slightly more than that against the high-scoring and 14th-seeded Titans.

Cal State Fullerton (24-9), which ranked sixth in the nation in scoring offense (82.6 ppg) coming in, shot just 36.2 percent from the floor and made just nine of 29 field goal attempts in the second half (31 percent).

While the Titans' highly productive trio of Josh Akognon, Frank Robinson and Scott Cutley combined for 51 points — thanks to a game-high 31 from Akognon — Robinson (11 points) and Cutley (nine points) were held below their season averages.

Still, Cal State Fullerton found itself leading 31-30 early in the second half.

"We weren't taken aback at all," Butch said. "This is the NCAA tournament. You expect everything. You expect good teams. ... We knew they were a heck of a team when we got here and they fought us hard and they continued to fight us hard the entire game.

"They had a run and we had a run. I think that's one of the reasons why we've been so successful this year — because we've been able to stay even-keeled with things. When other teams have been able to make some runs, we've been able to stay calm and stay focused on what we needed to do."

What the Badgers did after that point, though, was get to the basket and the foul line regularly.

A 7-0 UW run that included a basket from the paint by junior swingman Joe Krabbenhoft, a three-point play by sophomore point guard Trevon Hughes and an offensive rebound and putback by Butch moved the Badgers ahead 37-31.

After a 3-pointer by Akognon made it 37-34, UW scored the game's next eight points — a free throw by Hughes, a three-point play by senior guard Michael Flowers, a short jumper by senior center Greg Stiemsma and an interior basket by Krabbenhoft — to push the lead into double digits at 45-34.

"We just took advantage of our opportunities, and were able to get to the rim and able to get open shots. They were being overly aggressive, and anytime a team is overly aggressive, it opens up driving lanes," Flowers said. "We just tried to counter that aggressiveness by being aggressive ourselves in terms of getting the ball to the hoop and getting fouls in the second half."

The Badgers, who shot 48.1 percent from the field in the second half following a 37.5 percent conversion rate over the first 20 minutes, made 14 of 20 free throws in the second half, and outscored the Titans 36-24 in the paint for the game.

Butch finished with a team-high 14 points and Krabbenhoft and sophomore guard Jason Bohannon scored 13 apiece for UW, which also got nine points from Flowers and eight each from Hughes and junior forward Marcus Landry.

"Winner's got next. And we won, so we've got next," Flowers said. "It's do-or-die time and for me Greg, Brian and Tanner (Bronson). This is our last run. We're going to fight, we're going to be scrappy, we're going to leave it all out there on the court, we're going to bleed, and we're going to do everything we can to stay in this tournament as long as we can."