Sports
Nee: Loss to Sooners tough for Huskers
By Nick Hytrek
Senior Editor
Just call it Sooner Magic—round
ball style.
The No. 18 Oklahoma Sooners
overcame a seven-point deficit with
2:29 left and pulled out a 79-76 win
over Nebraska in men’s basketball
action Monday night.
A crowd of 12,962 people at the
Bob Devancy Sports Center and a
national television audience watched
Sooner guard Brent Price nail a three
pointer with 28 seconds left to put
Oklahoma up 77-76. Price led the
Sooners with 17 points.
After Nebraska’s Eric Piatkowski
missed a 19-footjumper,BryattVann
scored on an uncontested dunk for the
final margin. Bruce Chubick’s des
peration three-point shot at the buzzer
failed, and the Sooners pulled out a
big road win.
Nebraska coach Danny Nee said*
the loss wasn’t an easy one to take.
“It was a real tough game for us,”
Nee said. “I thought we played well
enough, but we didn’t play well enough
long enough. I just felt that at the end
of tnc game we just didn’t do enough
things ri^hl.”
The Comhuskcrs scored only four
points in the final two and a half
minutes and shot only 33.7 percent
from the floor for the game, to go
along with 27 turnovers.
Those statistics were keys to the
game, Nee said.
“It’s pretty hard to win the basket
ball game shooting that poor,” he
said. “I thought we rebounded the
ball well. We went after it but we just
didn’t convert, we didn’t keep our
balance on our shooting.”
Nebraska oulrebounded the Soon
ers 72-42, with Nebraska’s Derrick
Chandler pulling down a game-high
20, to go with his 16 points. Carl
Hayes and Daprcis Owens had 11 and
10 rebounds, respectively. Hayes led
Nebraska with 17 points.
Chandler said it was poor ball
control that lei Oklahoma hack into
the game.
we just didn’t take care of the
ball,” he said. “We just lost.”
Having point guard Jamar Johnson
silting the bench didn’t help cither,
Chandler said. Johnson fouled out
with 2:51 left in the game. The sopho
more was held scoreless and had only
one assist.
“We’re used to Jamar in there
handl ing the pressure and that kind of
hurt us, too, Chandler said. “But I
think when one person leaves the
game the other four guys have to step
up and play a little harder and play a
little smarter.”
Throughout the first half, the
Huskcrs, 13-4, 1-3 in the Big Eight,
played smart, opening up with a 6-0
lead and trading leads with the Soon
ers.
Nebraska opened up a 32-25 lead
with 5:53 to go in the half, but the
Sooners stormed back and regained
the lead, taking a 40-37 lead into
halftime.
Oklahoma, 13-3, 2-2, threatened
to break the game open in the second
half, opening up a 53-46 lead at 14:51
of the second half.
The Huskers stormed back, though,
and went on a 13-1 run to go up 59-54
with 10:47 left.
The lead grew to eight with 5:36
left on a three-pointer by Hayes and
with just 2:29 left, Nebraska held a
72-65 lead.
Oklahoma chipped away at the
lead and pulled to within two at 76-74
with 44 seconds left. After a Husker
turnover, Price came down on the
break, pulled up and nailed the win
ning shot from well behind the three
point line to give Oklahoma a 77-76
lead.
Vann then scored on his dunk after
Piatkowski missed a shot which would
have given Nebraska the lead.
The loss, Nebraska’s second at home
in Big Eight play, dimmed the Husk
ers’ hopes of contending for the con
ference title, Nee said.
“I think realistically, if you just
look at the numbers now, it’s not very
realistic,” Nee said. “We were trying
to be contenders. You’re not going to
be contenders if you can’t win at
home.” \
Nebraska will have to play well
from now on if it is to reach its goal of
post-season play, Piatkowski said.
“We’vc got a lot of basketball left
this year," nc said. “If we want to
make the (NCAA) tournament, we
gotta pull it together and just forget,
this one.
"We have a lot of good basketball
left in us. We have to pul our heads
down to the grindstone and get after
it."
Oklahoma.40 39 — 79
at Nebraska.37 39 — 76
Oklahoma — Patterson 2-12 1-2 5,
Webster 5-9 1-4 11, Sallier 5-10 3-7 13,
Price 6-19 2-3 17, Hamilton 6-12 2-2 14,
Evans 5-12 4-9 15, Gallien 1 -1 0-0 2, Davis
0-1 0-00. Vann 1-10-02 Totals 31 -7710-23
79
Nebraska—Owens 6-131-4 13, Hayes
7-16 2-217, Chandler 8-16 0-316, Johnson
0-8 0-00, Piatkowski 3-12 7-10 15, Chubick
2-4 1-2 5, Cresswell 2-6 0-0 6, Hughes 0-8
4-6 4 Totals 28-83 15-27 76
Three-point goals — Oklahoma 7-25
(Patterson 0-3, Price 3-11, Hamilton 0-2,
Evans 4-9), Nebraska 5-20 (Hayes 1-4,
Johnson 0-3, Piatkowski 2-4, Chubick 0-1,
Cresswell 2-6, Hughes 0-2) Rebounds —
Oklahoma 42 (Patterson 13), Nebraska 72
(Chandler 20) Assists — Oklahoma 17
(Price 6), Nebraska 20 (Piatkowski 6)
Turnovers — Oklahoma 14 (Patterson 3),
Nebraska 27 (Chandler 5) Total fouls (dq)
— Oklahoma 27 (Webster), Nebraska 19
(Johnson). A — 12,962
Jeff Haller/DN
Nebraska’s Derrick Chandler fights for a rebound with Oklahoma’s Derrick Gallien in Monday
night’s 79-76 Cornhusker loss. Chandler pulled down a career-high 20 rebounds as the Huskers
outrebounrlprl Oklahoma 72-42.
In the clutch, the Price is right I
By Susie Arth
Staff Reporter
The Comhusker men’s basketball
team paid the (Mice for letting a Sooner
guard get off a three-point shot in the
final seconds of Monday night’s game.
With 28 seconds remaining in the
game and the Sooners trailing by one
point, Brent Price hit a critical three
pointer that put the Sooners up for
good.
“I didn’t think about the shot,”
Price said. “It was just a reaction.”
Price had taken the ball away from
Huskcr guard Michael Hughes to gel
the opportunity to win the game for
the Sooners.
Price, who led Oklahoma in scor
ing with 17 points, said he felt the
difference in the game was the Soon
ers’ press.
“The time was ticking away on
us,” he said. “So we had to pick up our
press intensity.”
When Huskcr guard Jamar Johnson
fouled out. Price said. Nebraska w»«
left with nobody to handle the ball.
Price, who also had seven rebounds
and six assists, said the ending re
minded him of the Huskcr victory
over the Sooners in last year’s Big
• * af
Eight Tournament.
In that game, former Huskcr guard
Keith Moody hit a three-pointer in
the closing seconds to force the game
into overtime.
“It feels a lot better being on this
end,” Price said.
Sooner coach Billy Tubbs said he
thought the Sooners’ experience was
the difference.
Out of the Sooners’ four confer
ence games, T ubbs said, three of them
-44
I didn’t think about
the shot. It was just a
reaction.
Brent Price,
Oklahoma guard
-ft -
have been won or lost on the last shot.
“Our experience really paid off for
us tonight,” he said. “We made the
plays when we had to.”
Tubbs said he thought the game
was an ugly one. The shooting by
both teams, he said, was terrible.
“I have to give our players credit,”
he said. “There were times when we
could have foldefl up tent.”
Tubbs said he was disappointed
with the Huskers’ 72 rebounds, a record
against the Sooners.
Tubbs said he thought his players
were boxing out well, but they were
getting out-manned rebounding.
Tubbs said he believed that Der
rick Chandler was the reason the game
went down to the wire.
“Chandler was outstanding,” Tubbs
said. “Without him it wouldn’t have
been a close game.”
Chandler, the Huskers’ junior
center, pulled down a personal-best
20 rebounds and scored 16 points.
Tubbs said he expected this kind
of game from Chandler because the
Sooners had recruited him heavily..
Tubbs said he believed the victory
put the Sooners’ in good shape for the
rest of the season.
“We needed a game like this,” he
said. “It helped our cause.”
The Huskers, who dropped to 1-3
in Big Eight contests, will return to
action Saturday at the Bob Dcvancy
Sports Center against the Iowa State
Cyclones. L
-SPORTS BRIEFS
Men's volleyball club
misses tournament title
The University of Nebraska
Lincoln men’s volleyball club
bounced back from a loss Friday
night to advance to the finals of a
tournament in Ames, Iowa, on
Saturday.
Nebraska’s club lost to Park
College in Kansas City Friday night
15-8, 10-15, 16-14, 15-3.
The club traveled to Ames, Iowa,
on Saturday, and went 2-2 in round
robin competition before playing a
tournament that night.
In the tournament, Nebraska beat
Minnesota in the semifinals before
losing to Graccland College in the
finals 15-10, 15-2.
Nebraska’s club will play Kan
sas on Friday at the UNL Campus
Recreation Center. The match starts
at 7 p.m.
Swim teams beat Missouri
The Nebraska men’s and
women’s swimming and diving
teams beat Missouri on Saturday at
Columbia 171-59 and 128-102,
respectively.
Both Comhusker squads also
were victorious at Southern Illi
nois on Friday. The men won MS
95 and the women outscored SIU
127-116.
The win marks the men’s last
meet before February’s Big Eight
Championships, The women’s learn
has one home meet remaining
against Minnesota on Saturday.
Michelle Butcher led the women
with four wins over the weekend.
The men were led by Will Campbell
and Alan Kqjscy who each won a
total of four events in the two meets.
The Husker men’s dual record
improved to 7*3 on the season,
while the women’s record improved
to 5-4.