Nebraskan
Monday, Fobruary 7,1994
Sports
Jon Waller/DN
Nebraska’s Jamar Johnson looks for an opening past Kansas’ Scot Pollard during a confer
ence game Sunday afternoon in Lawrence, Kan.
NU fights back,
but loses to KU
By Tim Pearson
Senior Reporter_
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Jamar
Johnson was on the bench with three
fouls, and Nebraska was down by 10
in the first half to third-ranked Kansas
on its home floor.
Any other Nebraska team would
have folded right there, Johnson said,
but this Husker squad fought back and
put itself in position to win at Allen
Fieldhouse, where the Comhuskers
haven’t won in 11 years.
Jayhawk guard Steve Wood berry
put an end to those hopes when he
drilled a three-pointer to make it 89
85 and to virtually seal the 94-87
Kansas victory Sunday.
Husker senior Eric Piatkowski,
whose 26 points led all scorers, said
the game was encouraging even though
Nebraska lost its fourth straight.
“I have a lot of confidence in this
team,” he said. “We’re playing good
basketball right now.
“We’ve never come down and
played this well in Lawrence.”
Johnson said it was important for
the Huskers to bounce back after three
straight poor-shooting performances.
“We wanted to come in, and we
really wanted to win this game,” he
said. “If we were going to go down, we
were going to go down fighting.
“This team is as good as we thought
we were.”
But the Huskers weren’t looking so
good in the first half.
Nebraska, which fell to 12-6 and 2
4 in the Big Eight, fell behind by as
many as 14 points in the first half.
The Jayhawks suffered a blow in
the first half when forward Richard
Scott, their second-leading scorer,
reinjured his shoulder he hurt in prac
tice Jan. 24.
Huskerguard Erick Strickland said
losing Scott hurt Kansas.
“Scott’s a great down-low player,”
he said. “When he’s out of the game,
it takes the pressure off of you inside.”
With Scott out, the Huskers mount
ed a comeback and were only down
44-40 at halftime after Piatkowski hit
a three-pointer with three seconds left
in the half.
Piatkowski said closing the gap to
four points was crucial.
-44
We’re playing good
basketball right now.
We’ve never come
down and played this
well in Lawrence.
—Piatkowski
Nebraska forward
-99 -
“We were down 14 points, and the
crowd was getting into it,” he said. “If
we wouldn’t have made that run, they
could’ve blown it wide open.”
Nebraska coach Danny Nee said he
was pleased with his team’s effort.
“You have to understand how good
Kansas is on their home floor,” he
said. “They wear you down, and we’re
only playing with a seven-man rota
tion.”
Senior forward Tom Best didn’t
make the trip because of disciplinary
reasons, and sophomore guard Jason
Glock didn’t suit up for the second
straight game.
Their absence didn’t matter in the
second hal fas the Huskers came storm
ing back.
Nebraska tied the game up on a
Piatkowski three-point play with 17:26
to go, and they took their first lead of
the game — and their first lead since
the Missouri loss, Jan. 24 — when
Jaron Boone stole the ball and dished
it to Johnson, who laid it in to give the
Huskers a 54-52 lead.
With 14:03 left, forward Bruce
Chubick, who finished with 14 points
and nine rebounds, gave the Huskers
a 60-55 lead on a turnaround jumper
in the lane.
Nee said Chubick’s play against
the Jayhawks’ 7-foot-2-inch center
Greg Ostcrtag kept the Huskers close.
“They are giants,” Nee said. “They
arc a big, physical basketball team.
“I was really pleased with
Chubick.”
But Chubick and the Huskers
couldn’t put the Jayhawks away as
Kansas came back to take the lead, BO
72, with 5:58 left.
See JAYHAWKS on 8
Nebraska falls to Cowgirls; tournament chances fading
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter_
Oklahoma State had an answer for
every second-half Nebraska rally in
its 81-75 victory Sunday.
The Cowgirls scored 12 unan
swered points to take an early 21-13
lead, and Nebraska never led again,
despite several comback attempts.
Women’s Basketball Coach Ange
la Beck said Nebraska wasn’t up to the
task of playing a team like Oklahoma
State.
“Oklahoma State plays kind of an
ugly game,” Beck said. “They’re a
tough team to defend because they
don’tdo thingsother teams do. They’re
very scrappy.
“We didn’t play hard enough for
40 minutes to win. We were way too
tentative. We just didn’t have the in
tensity we needed for this game.”
With Oklahoma State leading 24
15, Nebraska pulled within one by
scoring eight straight points. But the
Cowgirls answered with the next 10
points and finished the half on a 12-4
run to hold a 36-27 lead at intermis
sion.
Nebraska made only six of 22 first
half shots and scored 13 of its 27
points at the free throw line.
Beck said the f rst-half performance
could have resulted in a much bigger
deficit.
‘ That ’ s one of the poorer first hal vcs
we’ve seen,” she said. “We told our
team ifyou play that poor of a first half
and are only down by nine, you still
have a chance.”
Nafeesah Brown started the second
half on fire by scoring 13 of the Husk
ers’ first 18 points. Nebraska could
never pull any closer than seven until
Tina McClain’s free throw with 10
seconds left pulled the Huskers to 81
75.
Oklahoma State “played a good
game, give the credit to them,” Beck
said. “Ouroffensive rebounding wasn ’t
what it should be and our turnovers
were more than what it should be. We
didn’t do the things we needed to.
Only having two players in double
figures isn’t enough to win.”
Oklahoma State led by 18, 63-45,
See CORRALLED on 8
Husker women rirst, men second at indoor track meet
By Trevor Partts
Staff Report*
The Nebraska men ’ s and women’s track and
field teams used some outstanding individual
performances Saturday and nearly swept a five
team meet at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
The Comhusker women won the meet by
scoring 94.5 points, and Arkansas finished
second with 64.5. Illinois, the top-ranked, dual
meet team in the nation, finished third with 48
points.
The Nebraska men were edged out by Arkan
sas, which has won 10 consecutive NCAA
Indoor National Championships. The Razor
backs had 82 points followed by the Huskers
with 77.5 and Illinois with 53.5.
The women had six first-place finishes and
were led by senior Shanelle Porter, who finished
first in the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes and
helped the Comhuskers win the 4 x 400-meter
relay.
Porter had provisionally qualified for the
NCAA Championships with her times in the
200-metcr and 400-meter dashes.
Porter, the 1993 NCAA Indoor champion in
the 400-mcter dash, said it was nice to qualify
early in the season.
“It’s more of a psychological thing,” Porter
said. “It gives me the edge over the other girls
because they say ‘she ran that fast.’”
In the shot put, the women took the top four
places. Paulette Mitchell finished first with an
NCAA automatic qualifying throw of 52 feet, 6
inches.
Dagmar Pesakova was second, Tressa Th
ompson was third and Krista Mader was fourth.
All three had provisional qualifying throws.
Coach Gary Pepin said he was pleased with
the women’s team performance.
“Our shot putters tore them up,” Pepin said.
“Shanelle ran well in the 400-meter dash... and
Nicola Martial had a personal best in the triple
jump.”
Kevin Miiller started off the day for the men,
who had three first-place finishes, by winning
the mile. Miillcr posted a personal-best and
NCAA provisional qualifying mark of4:06.35,
while beating Illinois’ Marko Koers, last year’s
NCAA outdoor 1,500-meter champion.
Porter said Miiller’s performance inspired
her.
“He wanted it so bad,” Porter said. “After
watching him I said that I have no excuse to
slack off.”
Only a Ra/orback sweep in the last event of
the day—the long jump—gave them the meet
win over the Huskers.
Arkansas’ Erick Walder set a Bob Devaney
Sports Center record in the long jump with a
leap of 27-fect-4-inches.
Walder and Mitchell were the only two
automatic NCAA qualifiers of the meet.
Overall, the five teams combined for 37
NCAA provisional qualifiers, fifteen of which
were Huskers.
Six Huskers qualified provisionally for the
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(Miiller) wanted it so bad.
After watching him I said
that I have no excuse to
slack off.
— Porter
Nebraska runner
-ff -
NCAA meet for the first time Saturday. They
included: Martial (triple jump), Kwani Stewart
(long jump), Tressa Thompson (shot put), and
Theresa Stelling (mile) on the women’s side.
For the men, Paul Morrison qualified in the shot
put and Steve Gordon qualified in the triple
jump.
'Tm not worried about anything other than
winning,” Pepin said. “Winning first, qualify
ing second.”