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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1994)
Sports Nebraskan Monday, January 17,1994 Win over UMKC puts NU stfeak at 11 By Jeff Griesch Senior Editor Defense did it again for the Ne braska men’s basketball team. The Comhuskers rolled to their 11 th straight win with a 92-71 victory over the University of Missouri-Kan sas City in front of 14,358 fans at the Bob De vaney Sports Center on Satur day. An aggressive Husker defense held the Kangaroos, 5-11, to a 39.3 shoot ing percentage and only 22.2 percent from three-point range. The Huskers, 12-2, used a box and-one defense to keep the Kanga roos’ leading scorer, Tony Dumas, from carrying UMKC. “One of our goals was to try to control Tony Dumas, and I think we did that,” Nebraska coach Danny Nee said. “I think he was the key to the game. Dumas was the focal point. I was just really proud of how wc guard ed him.” Dumas, a 6-foot-6-inch senior guard from Memphis, Tenn., had scored 87 points in the Kangaroos’ last two games, but Erick Strickland, Jaron Boone and the rest of the Ne braska defensive rotation limited Dumas to only 16 points on 6-of-22 shooting from the field. Strickland said the Huskers played great defense on Dumas from the opening tip to the final buzzer. “From the start we put it in his head that it was not going to be an easy night,” Strickland said. “1 was on him right away, hand-checking him and putting a body on him.” While Dumas and the rest of the Kangaroos shot blanks for most of the night, the Huskers were on target. Nebraska hit 54.2 percent of its shots from the floor, including 10 of 17 attempts from beyond the three point arc. Jaron Boone, who tied a career high with 19points, led six Huskers in double figures. Jamar Johnson and Terrance Badgett each scored 14 points, while Melvin Brooks pumped in 12 points. Eric Piatkowski and Bruce Chubick added 10 points each. Nee said he was pleased with Ne braska ’ s effort. And, Nee said, UMKC coach Lee Hunt also was impressed with the play of the Huskers. “Lee Hunt paid me a great compli ment as we shook hands coming in,” Nee said! “He said, i think this is the best Nebraska basketball team you’ve ever had.’” The Huskers jumped out to a 4-0 lead after a dunk by Boone, but UMKC went on a 9-1 run to give the Kanga roos their biggest lead of the game at 9-5. Strickland tied the game 9-9 with a spectacular behind-the-back, wrap around layup. UMKC center Dennis Jacobs, who scored 26 points and grabbed 11 re bounds, hit two free throws togive the Kangaroos their final lead of the game with 15:12 left in the first half. The Huskers went on a 15-point run, shutting out UMKC for six min utes and 24 seconds, until Jacobs hit two more free throws to end UMKC’s drought. With the win, Nebraska ended its nonconference schedule at 10-2, which Nee said was impressive. UMKC. 33 38 — 71 at Nebraska. .47 45 — 92 UMKC—Jacobs 7-13 (0-0) 12-13 26. Dumas 4-15 (2-7) 6-8 16, Berg 7-12 (0-2) 0-1 14, Barnes 3-8 (2-4) 0-0 8, Rawlins 1-3 (0-1) 1 2 3, Salmon 1 -6 (0-3) 0-2 2, Muller 1 -2 (0-0) 0-0 2, Smith 0-2 (0-1) 0-0 0, Seabrooks 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0 Totals — 24-61, 19-26, 71. Nebraska—Boone8 12(2-3)1-119, Badgett 4-7 (1-1) 5-6 14, Johnson 5-8 (2-2) 2-2 14, Brooks 5-6 (2-2) 2-312, Piatkowski 4-9 (2-5) 0-110, Chubick 2-3 (0-0) 6-9 10, Strickland 2-8 (1 -3) 3-4 8, Best 1 -3 (0-0) 1 -2 3, dock 1 - 3 (0-0) 0-0 2, Moore 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Newton 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0 Totals 32-59 (10-17), 18-26, 92 Rebounds—Nebraska 37 (Badgett 10), UMKC 34 (Jacobs 11). Assists — Nebras ka 22 (Piatkowski 7), UMKC 11 (Salmon, Dumas, Smith 3). Steals — Nebraska 9 (Strickland 3), UMKC 12 (Dumas 4). Turn overs—Nebraska 18 (Badgett 6), UMKC 17 (Jacobs 5). Blocks—Nebraska6, UMKC 2 Fouls — Nebraska 21. UMKC 21 Fouled out — Salmon A — 14,358. Boone going in high gear after starting season slowly By Mitch Sherman Stall Reporter After the first twogamesof the season, Jaron Boone was shooting 28 percent from the field. It looked like the 6-foot-6-inch, 191-pound guard from Salt Lake City was falling into the category of players suffering from the sopho more jinx. inui so nisi. In the last four games, Boone has shot better than 60 percent from the field while averaging 14.3 points per game. The sophomore guard has shot better than 70 per cent from three-point range and better than 80 percent from the free-throw line. Boone noone scored a career high 19 points and provided the spark out of the gate for the Huskers in each of the last two games. He scored 16 points in the first half of the Huskers’ 106-67 romp of Col orado on Jan. 8 and 14 points in the first half of Saturday’s 92-71 victory over Missouri-Kan sas City. “I give all the credit to my teammates,” Boone said. “If it wasn’t for them getting me the ball when I was open or on the cuts, I wouldn’t have come up big in the first half or at all.” Boone was asked to come up big earlier in the year, when senior point guard Jamar Johnson went down with a broken finger against Wich ita State on Dec. 11. The injury forced Boone to move to point guard, a position he was unfamil iar with after playing a full year as a shooting guard. “It put a lot of pressure on me at first to be a combo guard,” Boone said. “So I had to adjust, and I did. It has given me the chance to be a leader sometimes and be a scoring threat other times. That helped boost my confidence level.” Boone said his teammates had helped him believe in himself. “My confidence has grown a lot from being around the same guys everyday,” he said. “I’ve gotten to know them and that has helped. Within the offense, we all have confidence in each other.” Boone and fellow sophomores Terrance Badgett, Jason Glock and Erick Strickland are averaging 38 percent of the Huskers’ scoring and 33 percent of the rebounding. Badgett, Boone and Strickland were each named to the All-Big Eight freshman team last season. Boone said their winning attitude would help the foursome as long as they kept a positive outlook. “Last year it helped us out as freshmen that we went to the NCAA tournament,” he said. “It gave us confidence that we can get there again. If the players coming in next year get the confidence from us, we can keep the team unity -4* My confidence has grown a lot from being around the same guys e very day. —Boone Nebraska Guard -99 going.” Boone said he and his teammates should make a return trip to the tournament, but he said they were not looking past anyone this year. “I don’t think we will be satisfied with just getting to the tournament this year,” he said. “After last year, we want to get an NCAA victory under our belts. And hopefully we can get even further than that. “But we have to take this one game at a time and push, push, push until we get there.” Hoosier wrestlers rally, but NU escapes with victory By Tim Pearson Senior Reporter Nebraska’s dual against Indiana started out well for Coach Tim Neumann and his Cornhusker wres tlers. But in the end, Neumann had a sour taste in his mouth. The Ncl 11 Huskers defeated the 20th-ranked Neumann Hoosiers 19-16 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Saturday night after jumping out to a 16-0 lead. Nebraska won in the first four divi sions, but the Huskers lost their final four matches. “I was pleased with about half of our performance,” Neumann said. “And I was upset with the other half.” Senior Scott Gonyo, a transfer from Drake who is ranked fourth in the nation, got the Huskers off to a fast start with a technical fall over Indi ana’s Derek Moscovic. In what may have turned out to be the deciding match of the night, Steve Baer upset Indiana’s Chris Russo, the fifth-ranked wrestler in the nation. Baer, a junior transfer from Min nesota, defeated Russo 6-4 in over time with a takedown, avenging an earlier loss to Russo at the Las Vegas Invitational. Neumann said Baer’s performance was one of the few bright spots. “Steve took a great step tonight,” he said. “Russo’s a real good kid, but we’ve seen him wrestle for five years. “It’s agood win. Steve’s been com ing on all year. He had some mental problems at Minnesota after trying to make 118 last year. He came here without a good self-image. That’s something he’s snapping out of right now.” All-American Frank Velazquez raised his record to 15-1 with a 20-9 victory over Hoosier freshman Roger Chandler. The Huskers increased their lead to 16-0 after Justin Ware’s major de cision over Andy Trevino. Then the Hoosiers started a come back, as Scott Petche defeated Huskcr freshman Temocr Terry 8-3. Petche jumped out to a 5-0 lead at the begin ning of the match . Redshirt freshman Justin Kraft's win at 158 turned out to be the Husk ers’ last win of the night. After Kraft’s victory, Hoosier as sistant coach Tom Ryan was thrown out of the arena for yelling at the referee. Two points were deducted from Indiana’s point total. Nebraska lost its last four matches, including the heavyweight match when Husker freshman Tolly Thomp son was disqualified for flagrant mis conduct. Thompson allegedly bit Indiana’s Vito Maurici, ranked fourth in the nation, during the second period. The match was awarded to Maurici, which made the score 19-16. Neumann said a lot of work needed to be done before next weekend’s National Dual Meet Championships, where the Huskers will face sixth ranked North Carolina. “The lower weights were great,” he said. “But there are things that have to be fixed.”
