Friday, January 17, 1986 Daily Nebraskan Page 7 Sports rnnn nn H ( Chievous Hoppen, in battle By Jeff Apel Senior Reporter Nebraska center Dave Hoppen re gained something he lost last season : - . ' A - ' am V ' 9 , - ; J Iba Indoor meet to test track teams' skills By Richard Cooper Staff Reporter Nebraska track coach Gary Pepin said Saturday's indoor meet against Wyoming, Drake and Wichita State at the Bob Devaney Sports Center will show the teams how to defend their Big Eight indoor titles. Pepin said both teams are young but have excellent athletes. They are well-balanced and have a good chance at the Big Eight title. "We are going to go out, run and see what the athletes' strengths and weaknesses are so we can go back and get our athletes ready for the big meets," Pepin said. Pepin said he is most concerned about sprints on the men's team. Keith Jones, the defending Big Eight champion in the 60-yard dash, is on the team but won't compete Satur-' day because he only has practiced one week. Pepin said he is a little worried because John Kelley and Dana Brin son have not contacted him. The rest of the team's strongest areas are distance, middle distance and the field events, he said. During semester break the team picked up a few more athletes who should help, he said. One of them, Carl Mouton from Randburg, South Africa, was his country's Junior National Champion in the 800. Pepin said Mouton should give Regis Humphrey good practice competition. Another strong addi tion to the team is Kent Wells, a gold medalist in the shotput at last year's Nebraska State High School meet. Pepin said this year's men's team has a lot of potential. The Corn huskers have 18 returning letter men, one All-American and four all- uw uooiig lip sjwoimg uos Tiger coach says team needs best game to win Probable starters: expected to return against the Corn- Missouri. boost of c Missouri (14-5) F Derrick Chievous 6-6 Soph. F Mike Sanbothe 6-7 Fresh. C Dan Bingenheimer 6-9 Sen. G Jeff Strong 6-1 Sen. G Lynn Hardy 6-2 Soph. Nebraska (10-4) F Bernard Day 6-5 Jr. F John Matzke 6-5 Sen. C DaveHoppen 6-11 Sen. G Brian Carr 6-1 Jr. G Harvey Marshall 6-3 Sen. Tip-off: 7:35 p.m. at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. By Mike Reilley and Jeff Apel Staff Reporters Missouri men's basketball coach Norm Stewart said earlier this week that a win against Oklahoma State on Tuesday night would give the Tigers "a good feeling" about themselves as they head into Saturday night's game against Nebraska. The Tigers did win, 55-51, and with out the help of their leading scorer, Derrick Chievous. Chievous, who aver ages 18.9 points a game, missed the game with a sprained ankle. He's Sellers face off of NBA hopefuls when the Cornhuskers played in the Sun Bowl Tournament. Hoppen, Nebraska's all-Big Eight center, said he missed not playing this season against Creighton center Benoit Big Eight performers. Iowa State and Kansas State have good teams and will challenge the Huskers for the Big Eight title, Pepin said. The women's team has the talent to push strongly for the National Championship, Pepin said. The Huskers will return 22 letter winners, six all-Big Eight performers and four Ail-Americans. He said the women's team is the team to beat in the Big Eight. The Huskers have dominated the con ference by winning five straight Big Eight indoor championships and four out of the last five years have won the national championship. Leading the Huskers will be 12 time All-American Angela Thacker. Pepin said Thacker will not com pete in the long jump this season because of a bad knee. She is in excellent running shape and should have a good season, he said. Pepin said the team is well balanced but is a young team with only four seniors. The distance team is strong, with some of the top runners in the Big Eight. Jill Noel, Laura Wight and Mary Amen all were national qualifiers last year and helped the women's cross country team win the Big Eight title last fall. Pepin said with the addition of two runners from Denmark, Heidi Christiansen and Trine Pedersen, the distance team will make the Huskers tough to beat. The season's first meet is basi cally a practice met, he said. It will give the coaches a chance to see how in-shape the athletes are. All three teams competing against the Huskers will have some good individuals but won't be very strong as teams, Pepin said. huskers. Still, with or without Chievous, Ste wart expects a tough game. "We're going to need our best game to date in order to win," Stewart said. With Chievous out, the rest of the Tigers had to pick up the scoring slack against Oklahoma State. Center Dan Bingenheimer had 16 points, including four free throws in the final 30 seconds to secure the win. Guards Jeff Strong and Lynn Hardy added 15 and 12 points respectively. Coach Moe Iba said he doesn't know which Missouri team Nebraska will face in the game against the Tigers Saturday. Iba said that facing Missouri is almost like facing two teams because the Tigers can use either a big or small lineup. That, Iba said, could pose problems for the Huskers. "Missouri can put in a big lineup in the game just like Kansas can," he said. "They can also use a smaller lineup, so we won't know which one to expect until game time." Iba said that Nebraska will have to control both the transition game and the offensive boards to succeed against Benjamin and Oklahoma center Way man Tisdale. Both chose to forgo their senior college basketball seasons to be eligible for the National Basketball Association draft. But in the Sun Bowl Tournament, Hoppen again faced a player of Ben jamin and Tisdale's caliber: Ohio State's Brad Sellers. "Facing a player of Sellers' caliber definitely helped me to get ready emo tionally before the game," Hoppen said. Hoppen started slowly at this year's tournament: Three early fouls sent him to the bench with only two points. Reserve center Deak Vance, who left the team Monday, replaced Hoppen. He scored six points, pulling Nebraska to 38 points against Ohio State's 44 at halftime. Cornhusker coach Moe Iba said the early problems Hoppen had against Sellers were because of a recent slump. "I think David (Hoppen) is pressing a little bit right now," Iba said. "He's struggling." Hoppen ignited a second-half Ne braska rally that resulted in a 69-66 victory over the Buckeyes. He scored 17 second-half points. The key to his second-half success, Hoppen said, was that he stayed out of foul trouble, even though Ohio State continued to play physical basketball. Hoppen said Sellers' quickness and jumping ability are his main strengths. "I think he is really a good ball player," Hoppen said. "He moves really well on the floor." Sellers said he didn't approach the game against Hoppen differently than any other game. Players in the Big Ten Conference face opponents of Hoppen's caliber all the time, he said. "We don't do too many specific things to try and stop anyone," Sellers said. Sellers said he was far from satisfied with his 13-point performance against Nebraska. He shot only four of 13 from the floor. Even so, Sellers said, the Ohio State team had not experienced any letdown after the Buckeyes 58-57 loss to UTEP the night before. "We just take one game at a time, so there wasn't any type of letdown at all," he said. "We'll be back, I guarantee it." Missouri is a very strong team inside. Iba said. "We'll have to play for a full 40 min utes if we plan on winning," he said. "We can't afford to go out and have a second half like we did against Kansas if we plan on winning." Iba also said that senior Chris Logan would continue to come off the bench for Nebraska even though he scored 12 points in the Husker's 81-70 loss to Kansas. Logan, Iba said, seems to feel more comfortable coming off the bench. "Chris (Logan) was always picking up two early fouls when we started him," Iba said. "We decided to try hav ing him come off the bench, which seemed to have worked out pretty well." NU women face Tigers Nebraska's women's basketball team will try to rebound from its 84-64 loss to Kansas when it plays Missouri Satur day at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Cornhuskers were without the services of sophomore starter Maurtice Ivy, who is recovering from an ankle injury suffered in practice. "Maurtice being back is an extra I r Mark DavisDaily Nebraskan Nebraska's ail-American candidate, Dave Hoppen, puts up a shot against Northeast Missouri State. Hoppen, who scored 25 points against Kansas on Wednesday, will lead Nebraska against Missouri at the Bob Devaney Sports Center this Sat urday. Tip-off is set for 7:35 p.m. boost of confidence for the team," Coach Kelly Hill said. Missouri, now 9-5 on the season, defeated Oklahoma State 81-65 Tues day night. The Tigers are without the help of their leading scorer, 5-1 1 senior guard Sarah Campbell, who quit the team for personal reasons. Missouri has a 12-5 advantage in the series and has won eight of the last nine meetings. The Huskers beat the Tigers 93-79 in Lincoln last year. Missouri has two strong inside shooters in 6-1 center Renee Dozier and 6-1 co-captain Renee Kelly. The Tigers have a lot of quickness, although they are not perimeter shooters like the Jayhawks, Hill said. Freshman Eileen King will add pressure from the outside for the Huskers, Hill said. The Tigers must stay in their offense and stay out of foul trouble if they want to beat Nebraska according to Joann Rutheford, who is in her 1 1th year as the Tigers coach. "We've got to play a total game to beat Nebraska," Rutheford said. "Neb raska is a good ballclub. We always have a tough time with them. We will have to play exceptionally well to beat them." Nebraska will take a 7-7 record into the game. Tipoff is set for 5:15 p.m. rr r. Vjh 4f 7 ( ' '