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NU continues streak by pounding Builaioes
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Boone’s 19 leads team in win
By Mitch Sherman
- Staff Reporter .«• .—"" -
Seven minutes and 57 seconds into Nebras
ka’s 106-67 win over Colorado at the Bob
Dcvaney Sports Center Saturday, Cornhusker
coach Danny Nee was worried.
Colorado, which had won only one of its last
74 Big Eight road games, had cut the score to
24-20, and Nee said he was well aware that an
unprepared Nebraska team could be caught off
guard.
“I was really worried about a letdown,” Nee
said. “I was worried about psychologically not
being ready to play.”
Following a Nebraska timeout, the Huskers
quickly showed they were ready to play.
Sparked by guard Jaron Boone, who scored
12 of his game-high 19 points in the next eight
minutes, the Huskers went on a 24-6 run to close
out the first half.
Guard Erick Strickland, who held Colo
rado’s All-Big Eight guard Donnie Boyce to 16
points on 5-of-22 shooting, said the Huskers
knew the 22-point halftime lead was not enough
to put the Buffs away for good.
“Our duty was to come out the first five
minutes of the second half and bury them,”
Strickland said. “We had to wear them down,
and we did.”
The Huskers picked up where they left offby
scoring the first eight points of the second half
and cruising to a 30-point lead with 15:38
remaining in the game.
Nebraska increased its lead to 40 with 8:52
left on a basket by Strickland, who finished the
game with 15 points, seven rebounds and four
assists in 22 minutes.
The lead grew to 44 twice before Nee insert
cd the mop-up crew. Even sophomore walk-on
Lee Stcinbrook got into the action by drilling a
three-pointer with less than one minute remain
ing.
Nebraska, which improved to 11-2, was led
by Boone and Eric Piatkowski, who had 18
points and 14 rebounds. Terrance Badgett con
tributed 14 points, Bruce Chubick had 12 and
Jason Glock scored nine points for the Huskers.
- *4
/ was really worried about a
letdown.
—Nee
NU basketball coach
-->f
“It was as good of a Big Eight victory as we
have had in this building as far as the score
goes,” Nee said.‘i can’t remember dominating
a game as much as we did.”
The 39-point margin was the second highest
for the Huskers in conference history. Only a
48-8 stomping of Kansas on March 2, 1900,
topped Saturday’s blowout.
The 106 points scored by Nebraska was its
second highest total of the season and the first
time the Buffaloes had allowed an opponent to
lop the century mark in 83 games.
The victory ran the Huskers’ win streak to 10
games, their third longest streak in the last 73
years, and improved their Big Eight record to 2
0, tops in the conference.
“It feels good,” guard Jamar Johnson said,
“and the thing is if we take it one game at a time
and if the guys get mentally ready for each
game, 1 think we arc going to do all right.”
Teamwork lifts Huskers to win
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter
On Dec. 1, Nebraska traveled to Boone.
N.C., and lost to Appalachian State by nine
points.
Following that game, the Cornhuskers de
cided to improve their teamwork and step up
their intensity on the defensive end of the court.
They haven’t lost since.
- it
We're having a lot of fun as
a team and we’re all so
relaxed out there. I see no
reason why this can’t
continue.
—Boone
NU Quard
-ff
Once again, defense was the key in Satur
day’s 106-67 trouncingofColorado.ThcHusk
ers had six steals, blocked five shots, forced 20
turnovers and caused the Buffs to shoot 34
percent for the game, including eight percent
from behind the three-point line.
“That’s what our defense tends to do,” guard
Erick Strickland said. “As long as we take
advantage of their mistakes, we don’t even
have to shoot the ball well to get on top of
teams.”
But the Huskers did shoot the ball well on
Saturday. They shot 51 percent for the game, 85
percent from the free-throw line and 55 percent
on three-pointers. The 12 three-pointers made
by Nebraska tied the record for the most in Bob
Devaney Sports Center history.
Guard Jaron Boone is an example of Ne
braska’s transformation to improved teamwork.
The sophomore from Salt Lake City poured in
a career-high 19 points, grabbed five rebounds
and dished out four assists in 28 minutes in the
victory over Colorado.
Boone, who had become accustomed to
playing shooting guard, was forced to switch to
point guard when Jatnar Johnson went down
with a broken finger on Dee. 11 against Wichita
State.
“It gives me two concepts of the game,”
Boone said. “When I’m at the point, I look at it
as being an assist man and always looking for
the open man. Other times, I have to come into
the game and put a couple ofpoints on the board
and grab a couple rebounds. It has helped me
become more of a complete guard.”
Boone was asked to nut points on the board
when Nebraska — up by four at the time —
called a timeout with 7:57 remaining in the first
half against Colorado. He responded by scoring
12 of the Cornhuskers’ final 24 points to give
the Huskers a 22-point halftime lead.
One reason for the Huskers’ 10-game win
ning streak, Boone said, has been the team’s
sense of unity and teamwork.
“We’re having a lot of fun as a team and
we’re all so relaxed out there,” he said. “I see no
reason why this can’t continue. We just have to
come out and be focused and hopefully we’ll
get the victories.”
Damon Lee/DN
Nebraska’s Jaron Boone goes up for a layup over Colorado’s Pete Hefty
durina the Cornhuskers’ win Saturday. Boone, a sophomore from Sait
Lake City, scored a career-high 19 points, grabbed five rebounds and
dished out four assists during the win.
Young wrestlers may earn national encore, coach says
By Tony West
Staff Reporter
A year after finishing third in the
nation, Nebraska wrestling coach Tim
Neumann said his young, 1 Oth-ranked
Cornhuskcrs may be inching toward
the national spotlight once again.
In the least: he knows his Huskers
received much-needed exposure to
top competition during the Great
Plains Open on Saturday at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center.
“Every single guy that wrestled
(Saturday) got a ton better just by
experience, Neumann said. “We
wrestled good, but it’s just a really
tou * tournament."
meet included more than 20
teams, with powerhouses Iowa State
and Clemson topping the list. Top
ranked Oklahoma State also was
scheduled to compete but didn’t. The
Cowboys defeated the Huskers in a
27-13 dual Friday night in Lincoln.
If team scoring would have been
counted, Neumann said, he thought
his team might have even won Satur
day’s meet.
Nebraska had four wrestlers in the
finals, with one champion.
Redshirt freshman Justin Ware,
who was listed on the bracket as a
seventh seed, captured the 142-pound
title with a 9-6 win over West Virgin
ia’s Matt Blair.
“The only reason Justin was sev
enth seed was because he was lazy the
first semester,” Neumann said. “Jus
tin is as good as anyone when he
works hard.”
Steve Baer, Chad Nelson and Frank
Velazquez all finished second in the
tournament.
Baer lost a 6-5 decision to Kris
Hayward of Southern Illinois. Nelson
lost a 11-4 decision to Keith
Cunningham of Central Oklahoma.
Despite the positive finishes by the
Huskers, there were some down spots.
Junior All-American Mike
Eierman, a 142-pounder, won his first
match but left the meet after learning
about the deaths of his brother’s girl
friend and one of his best friends in a
-44
Every single guy that wrestled got a ton better
just by experience.
—Neumann
NU wrestling coach
-99
car accident early Saturday, Neumann
said.
Velazquez, a senior All-Ameri
can, had to default his final match
because of a second-degree sprain he
had during the semifinals.
Despite those setbacks, Neumann
said he thought he had a good idea of
where the Huskcrs sat now and where
they could be by the end of the season.
“After this tournament, wc have a
realistic idea of where we are,”
Neumann said. “I want to be in the top
five by the end of the year. Obviously,
we’ve got a ways to go but that’s our
goal.
“Wc’ re a year away from being the
dominating team wc were last year.”