MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Going into the season, one of the questions facing the Badgers is how well they can replace Joe Krabbenhoft and Marcus Landry in the post.
   For at least one game, Jon Leuer looked like he could be part of the answer.
   Leuer scored 19 points and blocked a career-high four shots as Wisconsin beat Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne 75-46 Sunday in the season opener for both teams.
   Still, it may not have been the best measuring stick for the 6-foot-10 junior with IPFW short-handed due to injury, illness and suspension.
   "We knew we had the size advantage against these guys. We figured that out in the scouting report," Leuer said.
   Wisconsin's returning players accounted for almost two-thirds of the points the Badgers scored last season, when they made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. But Landry led the team in scoring at almost 13 points a game, and Krabbenhoft pulled down a team-best 6.7 rebounds a game.
   Still, the Badgers didn't seem to miss them at all against the undermanned Mastodons, taking control early and then running away with the game. Jason Bohannon punctuated a 15-4 Badgers spurt at the end of the half by gathering a poor pass in the corner and hitting a 3-pointer as time expired for a 39-18 lead.
   Wisconsin then opened the second half with a 12-0 run over the first five minutes, and the rout was on.
   Bohannon scored 12 points and had three blocks, a career high, as the Badgers shot 57 percent from the field. The only negative for the Badgers were the 13 turnovers they committed.
   "We were trying to make plays," said point guard Trevon Hughes, who scored eight points but had three turnovers to just one assist. "They were silly mistakes that can be corrected."
   It was a brutal night for the Mastodons. Senior Deilvez Yearby, a 6-foot-6 forward who IPFW coach Dane Fife described as his best player, was suspended for violating team rules. He averaged almost nine points and six rebounds a game last season.
   Fellow forwards Aaron Richie and John Peckinpaugh sat out Sunday's game due to injury, and Fife said several others who did play were recovering from illness.
   One of them was Jeremy Mixon, who came off the bench to lead IPFW with 17 points.
   The Mastodons shot 34 percent from the field and had seven assists compared to 14 turnovers. They also registered no blocks.
   "You've got to play with illness," Fife said. "We've got to show up and do what we need to do to take care of business, and we did not do that tonight."
   The Badgers used their size to their advantage, finishing with 11 blocks while holding a 28-16 advantage for points in the paint. The 11 blocks were the most by a Wisconsin team under coach Bo Ryan.
   "Those blocks came as a result of the offensive players trying to make a play and us being disciplined enough to not try blocking it too soon," Ryan said. "A couple were simply because one guy was 6-10 and the other guy might have been 5-10."
 
   (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
   APTV-11-15-09 2033CST