OMAHA, Neb. — With his team playing the last game of the day Thursday night at the Qwest Center, Scott Cutley had gotten to see more than his fair share of March Madness on TV before taking the floor himself.

What he hadn't seen was any March Magic.

But maybe, he thought, his 14th-seeded Cal State Fullerton team would be the Cinderellas to crash the NCAA men's basketball tournament's second-round ball and stun the third-seeded University of Wisconsin.

"There were basically no upsets today, and we just thought maybe we had the chance to be that one upset," the Titans' senior forward said. "But we liked the matchup — they were way big, but we thought we could outrun them. Unfortunately, it just didn't turn out that way. Their size really got to us."

Indeed, on a day when only two lower seeds won — No. 11 Kansas State, which beat No. 6 seed USC here, and No. 9 seed Texas A&M, which beat No. 8 seed BYU in the West Regional — form held between the Titans and Badgers, whose size advantage eventually wore Fullerton down in a 71-56 victory.

But, making the school's first NCAA tournament appearance in 30 years, the Titans (24-9) were in it early, taking leads of 4-0, 8-4, 10-6, 13-8 and 15-10.

"I felt like when we were up 15-10, I felt like we could really get these guys," said junior guard Josh Akognon, who led Fullerton with 31 points on 11-for-23 shooting (5-for-12 from 3-point range) and kept the game close in the second half.

Even after UW came back to take a 26-18 lead and appeared on the verge of taking control, the Titans closed the half with a 10-4 burst to pull within 30-28 at the half. They then scored the first three points of the second half to go up 31-30.

They never led again. After the Badgers' size — the Titans' main rotation has no player taller than 6-foot-5 — was a nonfactor for most of the game, UW finished with advantages of 50-27 in rebounding, 36-24 in points in the paint and 18-15 in second-chance points. Fullerton also committed 25 fouls to UW's 11.

"You know, I'm new to this big-time stuff here. I don't think I'm supposed to comment on (the foul disparity). Which I would absolutely love to," said Fullerton coach Bob Burton, who saw 6-4 guard Frank Robinson pick up four fouls in a 6-minute span and foul out with 10 minutes, 30 seconds to play.

"It really had our rotation fouled up, because we're not really that deep of a team. I think the fatigue probably set in on us."

And that was what prevented the upset.

"I think in the first half, the adrenaline was rushing, and we did a good job of keeping them off. But then as time went on and fatigue set in, they started crashing harder and harder," Cutley said. "It started costing us offensive rebounds and second-chance points. At the end of the day, that's what beat us."