Sports
Thursday, February 23,1995 Page 7
Huskers still breathing after win at Missouri
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Nebraska coach
Danny Nee said his team didn’t play great.
But it did come up with a much-needed win
Wednesday night against Missouri.
After three straight losses to ranked oppo
nents by a combined 66 points, the Comhuskers
turned the tables Wednesday night.
The Huskers topped No. 14 Missouri 78-75
before a crowd of 13,300 at the Heames Cen
ter.
In extending their hopes to finish with a
.500 Big Eight record, the Huskers improved
to 17-9 overall and 4-7 in the Big Eight.
Missouri fell to 18-5 and 7-4.
“It’s a real big win for us because we just
had so much trouble,” said Nee, who won in
Columbia for the second time in three years.
“Our kids, our confidence level, everything
was just questionable. We didn’t play a great
game, but our kids played 40 minutes.”
Two free throws by Tom Wald with 17.6
seconds left in the game gave the Huskers a 76
75 lead. On the ensuing possession, Nebraska
guard Erick Strickland, who led all scorers
with 27 points, rebounded a Kendrick Moore
miss and delivered the ball to a streaking
Mikki Moore, whose dunk gave the Huskers a
3-point lead with less than five seconds to play.
Tiger guard Paul O’Liney took the inbound
pass, dribbled past half-court and launched a
30-foot jumper, which hit the left side of the
rim and fell to the floor.
Missouri was paced by O’ Liney, who scored
23, but the senior guard, an 82-percent shooter
from the line, missed two free throws with 19.3
seconds left that could have given the Tigers a
3-point lead.
So instead of being down 77-74, the Husk
ers trailed by only a point after O’Liney’s
misses. Wald grabbed the rebound and was
immediately fouled by O’Liney.
Nee said O’Liney’s two misses were in the
midst of a critical series of events. Before
going to the line, O’Liney stole an inbound
pass from Strickland after two consecutive
timeouts with 23.5 seconds to play in the
game.
“The play broke,” Nee said of the inbound
pass, which was intended for Terrance Badgett.
“It didn’t go where we wanted it to go, obvi
ously. But we were just fortunate. It took a
little luck.”
The Tigers were playing without junior
forward Julian Winfield, out with a strained
muscle in his left leg. Junior center Sammie
Haley stepped up in Winfield’s absence. The
transfer from Connors (Okla.) State junior
college scored a career-best 24 points and
grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds in 29 min
utes.
More importantly, Haley’s presence on the
inside caused Husker center Chris Sallee to
foul out with 6:50 left. Moore picked up foul
No. 4 with 10^57 to play, but managed to play
the nearly the rest of the way without fouling
out.
“Coach just told me to keep my hands up,”
said Moore, who scored 11 points and grabbed
7 rebounds in 22 minutes. “He said to not try to
put my hands on Haley and try to guard with
my body.”
Nebraska guard Jaron Boone, who scored
23 points, his fifth straight game with at least
20 points, said a win on the road over a ranked
team changed the Huskers’ outlook on the
remainder of the season.
“It’s a big win for us,” Boone said. “We
played it to the end. We haven’t done that
before, but we knew we were due.”
Inconsistency plagues
Missouri in loss to NU
oy i oaa vvaiKennorsi
Staff Reporter
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Despite
Missouri’s 18-5 record and 8-4 record
in the Big Eight conference, Tiger
coach Norm Stewart summed up his
team’s season in two words after
losing to Nebraska Wednesday night.
“Just inconsistent.”
When the Tigers fell to Nebraska
78-75 at the Heames Center, Stewart
cited youth and inconsistency as rea
sons for his team’s loss.
Stewart said he believed that his
team was still relatively young —
even 23 games into the season.
“The thing that frustrates you is
you’ve gotayoungball club,” Stewart
said. “Even though it’s 25 games into
the season, we’re still a young ball,
club. After 25 games you’re not sup
posed to be a young ball club.”
Missouri used a starting lineup
that included only one senior, guard
Paul O’Liney. O’Liney scored 23
points for the Tigers. Junior Sammie
Haley led Missouri with a career
high 24.
The Tigers were without junior
guard Julian Winfield, who will be
out for a week with a quadricep strain
in his left leg. Winfield is Missouri’s
leading rebounder and second-lead
ing scorer, but Stewart said Winfield’s
absence didn’t matter.
The Tigers won earlier this year
against Colorado when Winfield was
out.
“We’ve been able to overcome all
of the things that have happened all
year long,” Stewart said. “Tonight
“Even though it’s 25
games into the season,
we’re still a young ball
club. After 25 games
you ’re not supposed to |
be a young ball club.” 1
■
* NORM STEWART
Missouri coach
wc couldn’t do it.”
With the Tigers up 75-74,0’Liney
had a chance at the free-throw line to
increase Missouri’s lead with 19.3
seconds left in the game, but he mi ssed
both shots.
“We missed some free throws,”
Stewart said, “not just the ones at the
end.”
Missouri only shot 62.9 percent
from the free-throw line and made
just 16 of 26 shots in the second half.
Stewart said that both the Husker
defense and the play of junior guard I
Erick Strickland helped Nebraska
leave Columbia with a victory.
“Strickland is a heck of an ath- I
lete,” he said. “They did some good r
things. They kept us off balance de- g
fensively. You have to give them I
credit. 1
“We gave them too many easy f
baskets in the first half,” Stewart |
said, “and that comes from prepara
tion. It’s a tough loss and it doesn’t
get any easier.”
JeffHaller/DN
Nebraska guard Erick Strickland shoots over Oklahoma State’s
Randy Rutherford during last Saturday’s 40-point loss.
Baseball
negotiations
get stickier
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The base
ball players won’t be the only ones
going hungry this spring if the strike
continues.
So will the fans, and so will minor
league players.
Even as baseball negotiators
agreed to resume talks Monday in the
Phoenix area, striking major leagu
ers formally asked minor leaguers to
boycott exhibition games.
And Teamsters said it would refuse
to deliver beer and other supplies to
the 23 ballparks supplied by its driv
ers.
Union head Don Fehr and acting
commissioner Bud Selig attempted
to downplay the pressures that pick
eting and the involvement of the
Teamsters and other unions might
bring to bear on the two sides.
“There are complications on all
sides,” Selig said. “But everybody
hopes to have a deal before then, so
we hope it becomes academic.”
And with the minor league players
being asked not to participate in ex
hibition games, the strike has be
come even more complicated.
“Players not on the 40-man roster
of course have a legal right to play in
replacement games,” Fehr said
Wednesday. “Major league players,
however, have the corresponding
right to regard any individuals who
play in such games as scabs.”
Teams maintain that minor leagu
See STRIKE on 8
Grand slam Sunday brings smiles to Husker ballpark
Sunday was a great day for
baseball.
The sun was out, the tempera
ture pushed near 60 degrees and for
the hitters at Buck Beltzer Field,
the wind was blowing out.
Almost 1,500 fans watched the
Nebraska baseball team dominate
Nebraska-Keamey 9-0 by throwing
strikes, playing perfect defense and
hitting bullets around the inside
and outside the park.
It was a great atmosphere — the
way it should be for baseball every
day in every ballpark.
Nebraska coach John Sanders
wore a broad smile that made the
lines around his eyes stretch
beyond the reaches of his black
Oakley sunglasses as he summed
up his thoughts about the Huskers’
win over the Lopers.
“We had great weather and a
great crowd,” Sanders said. “And
‘ you just couldn’t have asked for a
nicer start to the season.”
But the Huskers’ season wasn’t
originally scheduled to start at
home in Nebraska.
The Huskers were supposed to
throw out the first pitch of 1995
against Southern Utah at the Arthur
Gallagher Tournament in San
Diego, Calif., this Friday.
Instead, Nebraska right-hander
Cody Winget did the honors
Sunday, and the Huskers get to
head out to California with the
opening-day jitters behind them
and a bundle of confidence under
their belts.
Nebraska leadoff hitter Jed
Dalton started his season with a
perfect day at the plate, including a
home run on the second pitch of the
season.
Dalton struggled last season and
posted a miserable .263 batting
average, almost 100 points lower
than his average in his first season,
when he earned second-team
freshman All-American honors.
For Dalton, the day provided a
perfect start to what he hopes is a
redeeming season for an embarrass
ing 1994.
Jeff Griesch
Darin Petersen’s day was almost
as promising as Dalton’s.
The senior shortstop singled,
doubled, drove in a run and scored
another.
Like Dalton, Petersen hit .263
last season, almost 70 points lower
than his average in 1992, when he
was a first-team freshman All
American.
Like Dalton, Petersen has
something to prove.
But Dalton and Petersen aren’t
the only Huskers looking to
rebound from a disappointing 1994
season.
Darin Erstad’s batting average
fell more than 20 points last year as
he hit a very human .317.
Although Erstad’s explosive bat
speed makes him look better
striking out four times a game than
most college players who go 4 for 4
with two homers, he wants to put
up better numbers to prove some
thing. He wants to prove to himself
that he deserves to be considered
the best college baseball player in
the country.
On Sunday, he awed the crowd
twice on big cuts with those hands
so quick he could wash them
without getting them wet.
On both those swings, he missed
and struck out. On another shutter
speed swing, he pulverized a pitch
and connected for a grand slam.
Erstad showed he was ready to
shoulder the load for the Huskers,
but he also knows that one game
really doesn’t prove anything.
The other Huskers know it, too.
Second baseman Scott Wulfing
knows he has to prove he is better
than a .228 hitter. Catcher David
Crain knows he must hit better than
.223 if Nebraska is going to make a
run for a regional bid.
The Huskers’ unknown pitching
staff must throw strikes and
improve on a 5.41 ERA that was
second-worst in the Big Eight last
year.
More than a dozen junior
college transfers and freshmen
must prove that they belong.
The Arthur Gallagher Tourna
ment could set the tone for a group
of Huskers out to prove that they
belong in the NCAA Tournament
this year.
If they play well against South
ern Utah, New Mexico State, San
Diego State and Big Eight rival
Oklahoma State* it could be the
start of a great season for Nebraska
baseball.
Grlesch is a senior news-editorial mq)or
and a Dally Nebraskan senior reporter and
sports columnist