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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 1996)
Monday, January 29, 1996 Page 7 Kansas buries Huskers in second half By Trevor Parks Senior Reporter At halftime, Nebraska basketball coach Danny Nee told his team, two things would be key in the second half. The Cornhuskers had to cut down on tum 1 overs and they had to play well the first five minutes after the break to stay with third-ranked Kansas. Unfortunately for Nebraska, neither hap pened. Nebraska dropped to 15-5,3-2 in the Big Eight, with an 88-73 loss to Kansas on Sunday in front of a crowd of 14,620 fans at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Jayhawks improved to 16-1 and 4-0 in the conference. In the first six minutes of the second half, Kansas outscored the Huskers 18-4 to turn a one-point Jayhawk lead into a 54-39 advantage. Guard Erick Strickland, who had a team high 19 points, said he didn’t know how Ne braska collapsed after halftime. “Everybody looked bright-eyed, but I don’t know if everybody dug down and really went after it like we did in the first half,” Strickland said. “We gave them a couple of open jumpers, and they did their job.” To open the second half, Jerod Haase made a 3-pointer. Then after Bernard Garner, who scored 16 points, made two free throws for Nebraska, Kansas’ Paul Pierce made back-to back 3-point shots to give the Jayhawks a 45-37 lead. Pierce finished the game with a game-high 25 points. The Huskers pulled to within 49-39 before Kansas took its biggest lead of the game, 61 -43 with 12:16 left. But Nebraska would rally. The Huskers pulled back to within 10 points with 9:29 remaining and trailed 68-61 after two Tom Wald free throws with 6:54 left. Nebraska then regained possession after a Ryan Robertson miss with 6:22 remaining. But on Nebraska’s next three possessions, the Huskers turned the ball over, allowing Kan sas to build the lead back to nine points. Strickland made a 3-pointer to make the score 70-64, but Kansas scored 18 of the game’s final 27 points. Nee said he never lost faith in the Huskers despite trailing the Jayhawks for the entire sec ond half. “I was really comfortable even though we got down 16; we came back and twice we came down the floor, and the turnover bug bit us,” Nee said. “A good team closes the door, which Kansas did.” Nebraska had its chance in the first half as the Jayhawks struggled, shooting only 30 per cent from the field. The Huskers made 50 per cent of their shots. Nebraska made 12 turnovers in the first half and gave up 12 offensive re bounds to Kansas. In the first half, the teams battled through four ties and 11 lead changes before the Jayhawks took their 36-35 halftime lead. Strickland said turnovers and rebounds were Nebraska’s major problems. “We know we had a chance to win; that’s what hurts the most,” Strickland said. “We got back in it, and i f we rebound and take care of the ball, I think we win.” Travis Heying/DN Nebraska guard Jaron Boone and Kansas guard Jacque Vaughn battle for a loose ball as the Jay hawks’ Jerod Haase stands in the background. Boone scored only eight points and had three rebounds as third-ranked Kansas beat the Cornhuskers 88-73 Sunday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Jay hawks rebound after poor start By Mike Kluck Senior Reporter Kansas shot 30 percent in the first half. The Jayhawks led by one at half I-I t i OlC . And they had lost four of their last five games in the Bob Devaney Sports Center. All this might rattleateam’scom posure,but not No. 3 Kansas. The Jayhawks turned a Williams one-point halftime advantage into a 88-73 victory over Nebraska on Sunday at the Devaney Center. With Sunday’s win, Kansas, which defeated the Comhuskers 91-68 last season in Lincoln, won consecutive games at the Devaney Center for the first time since the 1985-86 seasons. The win also gave Coach Roy Wil liams his 200th victory in just 252 outings. “We talk all the time about main tainingour poise,’’Williams said. “It’s just a basketball game. We’re not try ing to build a bomb or anything that important. What we’re trying to do is win a basketball game.” But it was a bomb the Jayhawks dropped in the second half by outscoring the Cornhuskers 18-4 in the first six minutes to give Kansas a 54-39 advantage. Williams said the Jayhawks played sluggishly in the first half while turn ing the ball over nine times and allow ing the Huskers to shoot 50 percent. “I told them we were pretty lucky,” Williams said. “Because with the way we were playing, we could have been down by 25, but we caught Nebraska on a day when things wcren ’t clicking for them either.” So at halftime Williams inspired his troops. “We had to rev up our engines because I thought we were running in quicksand out there,” Williams said. “They were being more aggressive than we were, so it was more of a change of attitude we talked about at halftime.” That change resulted in the best eight-minute span Williams had seen from the 16-1 Jayhawks this season. During the run that broke the game open, freshman Paul Pierce scored eight of his game-high 25 points, in cludingtwo 3-point shotsand two free throws. Pierce had a career-best five - 3-pointers. Pierce, who had been struggling with his shooting and was averaging only 7.25 points a game during the past four games, said he was able to get open more against the Huskers. “Today, I just concentrated a little more and I was able to get them down,” Pierce said. “They were leaving me wide open, and I was able to hit it.” Besides Pierce’s shooting, Will iams also was pleased with the Jayhawks’defensive play on Nebraska senior guard Jaron Boone. Boone, who had been averaging 13.8 points a game, finished the game with eight points while shooting 33 percent. “(Erick) Strickland and Boone still scare you to death,” Williams said. “But I thought (Bernard) Gar ner was really impressive. We also know we caught them on a day their shots weren’t going in like they nor mally do. I really like Danny’s (Nee) team.” Cowboys return to the saddle after 27-17 Super Bowl win TEMPE, Ariz. (AP)—Those limo ridin’ glamour boys from Dallas backed up their bluster, but barely. And they can thank one of their least glamorous players, Larry Brown, for their third Super Bowl victory in four years. The Cowboys beat Pittsburgh 27 17 on Sunday to extend the NFC’s streak of victories in the NFL’s show case game to 12. And while Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin all had their moments, the biggest moment was reserved for Brown, the right comerback who was often overshad owed by the spotlight on the left cor ner, Deion Sanders. Brown came up with two intercep tions at moments when Pittsburgh was ready to take control of the game. He was named the Super Bowl’s most valuable player. In the third quarter, his 44-yard return of Pittsburgh quarterback Neil O’Donnell’s pass set upa 1 -yard touch down run by Smith that put Dallas up 20-7 after Pittsburgh, which fell be hind 13-0, seemed ready to take the lead. Then, after Pittsburgh had closed to 20-17 and had the ball with four minutes left, Brown made another in terception, returning it 34 yards to set up another Smith touchdown run, this one for 4 yards. Dallas controlled the first half, with help from O’Donnell, who was high and outside most of the time, even on his completions. But while Dallas scored on its first two possessions, it could conVertthose into only 13 points, leavingthe Steelers within striking range, even with O’Donnell struggling so much. Then the Steelers, as they have so often, scored in the last two minutes of the first half, turning it into a 13-7 game. But while the Dal las offense fizzled, the defense didn’t . particularly Brown, who joined Miami’s Jake Scott as the only other defensive back to win a Super Bowl MVP trophy. Huskers get commitment from Texas quarterback By Trevor Parks Senior Reporter The Nebraska football team fi nally received an oral commitment from a high school quarterback. Clint Finley, a 6-foot-l, 200 pound quarterback from Cuero, Texas, gave an oral commitment to play for the Comhuskers on Sun day, becoming the 17th player to verbally commit to Nebraska. With the loss of quarterbacks Tommie Frazier and Brook Berringer, Nebraska returns only two quarterbacks, MattTurman and Stanford transfer Scott Frost, with collegiate experience. Freshman Frankie London and Jeff Perino alsowill be trying for playing time. That was one reason Finley was so high on playing for the Huskers. “The coaches told me I can go in and compete for the position,” Finley said. “That’s all they can tell me, and that’s all I wanted to hear. It should be fun.” In his final season at Cuero High School, Finley suffered a knee in jury and missed part of the regular season before returning for the play offs. Cuero lost 17-14 in the state semifinals at the Astrodome in Houston and finished 13-2. Besides Nebraska, Finley said he made visits to Texas, Texas A&M and Alabama. See FINLEY on 8