Nebraskan
Monday,February IB, 1993
Sports
By Jeff Singer
Senior Reporter
MANHATTAN, Kan.—After not
having won against a ranked oppo
nent all season, the Nebraska men’s
basketball team is now making a habit
out of beating college basketball’s
best.
The Comhuskers, who upset third
ranked Kansas last week, made it two
wins in a row against ranked teams,
beating No. 23 Kansas Stale 80-59
Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.
The win, in front of a sold-out
crowd of 13,389, avenged a 66-64
Veterans
carry NU
in victory
over KU
By Beau Finley
Staff Reporter
On a day when Nebraska coach
Angela Beck was hoping for a
Valentine’s Day massacre, her
women’s basketball team had to settle
for a victory Sunday.
Behind the scoring of two veter
ans, Nebraska pu lied away from Kan -
sas in the second half to win 66-52
before 3,126 fans at the Devaney
Sports Center.
After cold shooting led to a four
point Husker halftime lead, Nebraska
came out firing in the second half and
used a 12-4 run to take a43-31 advan
tage with 12:33 to play.
Nebraska was led by senior Karen
Jennings and junior Nafecsah Brown,
who in the first 17 minutes of the
second half combined to score all of
the Huskers’ points. *
Junior guard Meggan Yedscnasaid
Beck’s halftime talk woke the team
up.
“(Beck) told us we needed to ex
ecute on offense,” Yedsena said.
“Karen and Fccsah were having great
nights, and we had to keep getting
them the ball.”
Jennings led Nebraska with 27
points, and Brown added 20. The
tandem also grabbed 27 of 39 Ne
braska rebounds.
Defense was also a key, as the
Huskers held the Jayhawks to nine
points in the first 11 minutes of the
second half to take a 12-point lead.
Kansas shot only 39 percent from the
field in the game.
Beck said keeping the Jayhawks in
check offensively was key to the vic
tory.
“We protected our lead and wore
them out,” Beck said. “They got a
little one-dimensional in the second
half with (Charise) Sampson trying to
create too much. I was pleased with
our defensive effort.”
Close first halves are becoming a
habit for the Huskers, who are 18-5
overall and 8-3 in the Big Eight Con
See BECK on 8
loss three weeks before to the Wild
cats at the Bob Devaney Sports Cen
ter.
Nebraska coach Danny Nee said it
was one of his team’s best efforts of
the season.
“It’s a big win for us,” Nee said. ‘‘It
was probably our best overall team
win in a long time—there wasn’t one
playi^Kon Nebraska who didn’t con
tribute.”
The Husker victory, which evened
Nebraska’s Big Eight record at 4-4
and improved its overall mark to 16
7, could be explained simply by the
two teams’ shooting percentages.
\
-44
Coach Nee said ‘I’m
depending on you; I
think you’re the best
team in the Big Eight.’
—Badgett
Nil forward
-ft -
The Huskers shot 52 percent from
the field, while the Wildcats made
just 19 of their 71 shots and shot 27
percent.
Made free throws also helped the
Huskcrs, as Nebraska shot a season
high 87 percent from the charily stripe.
From the onset, the game didn’t
look like it would be lopsided. But
after being down 21-20, the Huskers
went on a 10-0 run near the end of the
first half that proved fatal for Kansas
State.
Nebraska took a 36-27 lead into
halftime, and the Wildcats could get
no closer than seven points for the rest
of the game.
After the Wildcats reduced the
deficit to42-35 with 15 minutes left in
the game, the Huskers used six unan
swered points, highlighted by a Der
rick Chandler dunk and Jamar
Johnson’s steal and layup on the fol
lowing possession, to put the game
out of reach.
The win, the largest margin of
victory for the Huskers on the road in
league play under Nee, improved
Nebraska’s record to 2-0 this season
in their black Voad uniforms.
The Huskers scored a 82-67 win
last month at Colorado, and guard
Jaron Boone said the uniforms seem
to bring out an extra dimension in 4
Nebraska.
See HUSKERS on 8
Michelle Paulman/DN
Nebraska’s Cris Hall clears 6 feet In the high jump at the Frank Sevlgne Husker Invitational. Hall placed second In the event.
Coach pleased with track weekend
By Derek Samson
Staff Reporter
Kevin Coleman capped
Nebraska’s successful track week
end when he heaved the competi
tion into the dust once again at the
Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational.
Coleman threw the shot put 64
10 1/2, beating Comhusker team
mate Andy Meyer, who had a throw
of 58-2.
"I knew there^ wouldn’t be that
much competitioh here. I was basi
cally just throwing for myself,”
Coleman said. “I can do a lot better.
There are some technical things I
need to work on if I’m going to
improve."
The competition included more
than 60 men’s and women’s teams,
which packed the Bob Devaney
Sports Center for the two-day meet.
Nonetheless, Coleman said he’d
be tested down the road.
“The real competition will come
at nationals/’ he said. “It’s all tech
nical now. If I want to improve
before then, I’ll just need to take
care of that.” ' j
Also highlighting the men’s side
was Riley Washington with his first
place finish in the men’s SS-meter
dash. Washington tied the school
record with a tijne of 6.17 seconds.
Another first-place finisher for.
the Nebraska men was Robert Tho
mas, who won the triple jump with
a leap of 52-8. "
Nebraska coach Gary Pepin said
he was pleased with the perfor
mance of the men’s team.
“I thought we had a lot of real
fine performances,” Pepin said. “It
was good for us to see the strong
areas today, but then again, the
areas that you don’t do well in can
cause some worries.”
On the women’s side, Theresa
Stelling took first in the mile, with
a time of 4:48.29.
“Stelling ran a fine mile, it was
good to see that,” Pepin said. “I
thought Crus Hall also did a fine
job.
Hall placed second in the high
jump with a leap of 6-0. Other
Nebraska women finishing second
included Kwani Stewart in the200
meter dash and Shancllc Porter in
the 400-mcter dash.
“Once we’ve had time to really
look at this thing, we’ll have a
better feel of how we did,” Pepin
said. “In any track meet there are
going to be real good things and
then you’ll have your disappoint
ments.
“There were ups and downs out
here today. But I’m sure the posi
tives outweighed the negatives by
a lot.”
The total attendance for the two
day event tallied 6,338 people, a
crowd that helped the Huskers,
according to Pepin.
Depth makes the difference for Husker gymnasts win
By Susie Artti
Senior Reporter
Depth was the difference between
Nebraska and Minnesota in a gym
nastics dual Saturday.
Nebraska coach Francis Alien said
the top-ranked Comhuskers, who won
the dual meet 281.15 to 279.8 at the
Bob Devancy Sports Center, relied on
their bottom gymnasts to pull away
from the No. 4 Gophers.
With the win, the Huskcrs im
proved their dual record to 5-0, while
Minnesota dropped to 2-1.
“I thought that team depth was the
key,” he said. ‘‘The top guys were
jammed in there together, so it must
be the bottom guys who madjft the
difference.”
The difference in the meet was
evident early.
After two rotations, the Huskers
led the Gophers 94.75 to 92.55, and
Minnesota never recovered.
Minnesota coach Fred
Roethisberger said poor performances
on the floor exercise and the pommel
horse killed his team’s chances for the
victory.
-44
The top guys were
jammed in there
together; so it must be
the bottom guys who
made the difference.
—>Allen
- Husker gymnastics coach
f^sUwo
“We lost the meet in the
events,” he said.
Three different gymnasts for the
Huskers were able to win individual
events.
Dennis Harrison won the horizon
tal bar with a 9.6, Che Bowers won the
pommel horse with a 9.8 and Richard
Grace tied Minnesota’s John
Rocthisbcrgcr for first place on the
parallel bars with a 9.65,
Rocthisbcrgcr, a two-time NCAA
all-around champion and member of
the 1992 U.S. Olympic team, edged
out Grace 56.55 to 56.4 for the all
around title. Minnesota’s Kerry
Huston finished third with a 56.25.
Allen said he was especially
pleased with Grace, who proved he
was on the same level as gymnasts
like Roethisberger.
Grace set a career high on the floor
exercise, and tied season bests on the
still rings and parallel bars.
“Grace is just doing what he did
last year,” Allen said. “He’s just pro
gressed a little bit.”
And Allen said depth was the qual
ity that wins NCAA championships.
“That’s what team gymnastics is
all about, that’s what the NCAA
Championships is all about — the
team that can go out and hang to
gether best.”