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By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter
Heather Brink knows how to make
a good first impression.
In her first collegiate appearance
Saturday at the
Iowa State Invita
tional, the Ne
braska freshman
women’s gymnast
showed her poten
tial by winning
the all-around
with a score of
39.175.
Her score
helped the fifth
1 ranked Comhuskers win their season
opening meet 193.675-191.675 over
the Cyclones. The score was the high
est first-meet score in NU history.
Brink won the balance beam
(9.775) and the floor exercise (9.775).
She finished second on the vault
(9.875) and third on the uneven bars
(9.775) .
Brink, a Lincoln native who com
peted for five years with the Dynamo
Gymnastics Club in Oklahoma City,
said she didn’t expect that kind of per
formance.
“Actually, I was really nervous. I
haven’t competed in two years.”
The hiatus didn’t affect her perfor
mance on Saturday, and Coach Dan
Kendig said it shouldn’t affect her at
any point in the season.
Brink said she shared the same
goals as the rest of the team.
“Most of the goals we have are real
long-term goals,” she said. “Of course,
we all want to make it to the national
championships, but right now my
short term goal is just to do the best I
can and to come back and improve on
the mistakes I made in the last meet.”
Kendig said Brink has a disci
plined work ethic and a quiet confi
dence that should help Brink meet her
goal of improving each week. j
“She’s the kind of person who
doesn’t really want to hear the kind of
expectations you have for ha-,” Kendig
said. “She just wants to go out and
compete.”
A member of the 1993 and 1995
U.S. National Teams, Brink said it was
different to compete as part of a team
instead of an individual competitor.
Brink said competing at the colle
giate level was the biggest adjustment
from club gymnastics.
“That’s been the hardest for me to
adjust to,” she said. “I’m not only go
ing to score for myself. Some days I’ll
have to work a little harder just to help
the team and I have to keep a positive
attitude, not only for myself, but for
the team.”
Nu, KSU enter £ame on a roll
WOMEN from page 10
in Manhattan, Kan., the same after
noon. So both teams enter the game
with momentum.
“I kind of feel like I’m somewhat
the underdog going in,” Husker Coach
Angela Beck said. “Although they
don’t have a huge roster, they really
have some great players on their team
that play well together ”
The Wildcats are led by junior
guard Brit Jacobson, senior guard
Missy Decker and senior forward
Andria Jones — all three were 1995
96 All-Big Eight selections.
Jones leads KSU in both scoring
and rebounding averaging 20.3 points
and 6.8 rebounds per game. The 6
foot-1 forward also has 32 blocked
shots, one shy of the school record.
Jacobson needs just three points
22nd Wildcat to reach toe*UKWpoint
mark.
While Decker, who hit a free throw
at the end of regulation against Texas
for the win, leads the Wildcats with
22 3-point goals and is shooting 37
percent from behind the arc.
With the win over Texas and the
leadership of three seniors and three
juniors, Kansas Stale is playing as a
team, something NU hasn’t quite done
yet, Beck said.
“Right now, chemistry-wise, we’re
still working on it,” Beck said. “Be
lieve it or not, even though we’re 11 -
1,1 can’t say we have played our best
basketball yet.”
However, Kansas State first-year
Coach Deb Patterson said her team is
at a major disadvantage playing in the
Devaney Center.
“Anybody who looks forward to
coming to Lincoln to play Nebraska
wTenher football or baHkett&Il rnust
be halfcrazy,” Patterson said.
Patterson said she is impressed
with the Huskers’ record and knows
the Wildcats will have to be ready for
NU’s aggressive defense. Against
Texas A&M, the Huskers forced 36
Aggie turnovers.
Nebraska has been causing 33
turnovers per game. KSU averages just
under 19 turnovers a game.
Patterson said she is concerned
about the Wildcats’ lack of depth com
pared to the Huskers’. The Wildcats
are consistently using seven players,
while NU has played as many as 13
players in 10 games this season.
“K-State reminds me a lot of our
guys,” Beck said. “They have some of
the five better players in the league if
you put them on the floor together.
They have that land of •combination,
but they don’t have anything after
that**
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Huskers need to protect
home court against KSU
juisin from page m_
on Saturday. “You’ve got to expect that every
I night.”
Tonight’s opponent, Kansas State, presents
NU with a reasonable chance to win its third
straight game, but if the Huskers are caught
with their guard down, Moore said, they will
lose.
“We can’t afford to lose any of the rest of
our home games,” Moore said. “We have to
please our fans and have pride in our home
court.”
The 7-5 Wildcats, 0-2 in the Big 12, enter
tonight’s 6:05 game at the Bob Devaney Sports
Centra still recovering from a 103-64 waxing
at the hands of No. 23 Texas on Saturday.
Losers of four of its last five games, KSU
has played terribly away from Bramlagc Coli
seum this season. Before losing in Austin by
39 points, Kansas State dropped road games to
Xavier (95-54) and to Michigan State (75-43).
“K-State is a good basketball team that is
just about ready to break out,” Huskcr Coach
Danny Nee said. ’They will crane in here and
be very confident. We will catch their best shot.”
Junior forward Mark Young leads KSU,
averaging 14.4 points and 6.5 rebounds per
game. The Wildcats start only one senior, 6
foot-11 center Gerald Eakra, and rank last in
; the Big 12 in scoring (67 points per game) on
39.1 percent field-goal shooting.
But KSU isnot without its bright spots. The
Wildcats own a 6*2 home mark rad took No. 1
Kansas to the final minute,losing62-59 on Jan.
4.
.Nebraska (9-5 and 1 -1) has also played well
this season at home, winning six of seven games
at die Devaney Crater.
Senior forward Bernard Gamer returns to
the court tonight after missing fbur games be
cause of uncompleted academic course work.
Nee sent Gamra back to Lincoln for an undis
closed disciplinary reason following NU’s 84
73 loss to Cincinnati, Dec. 31 in Puerto Rico.
“We feel like we are family” Moore said.
“With Bernard gone, it felt like something was
M
We can’t afford to lose
any of the rest of our
home games”
Mikki Moore
NU center
missing. Since he’s coming back with a new
attitude, I feel like there will be unity.”
Mporc, whose role increased in Gamer’s
absence, felfthe Aggies’ heat on Saturday, of
ten fading two or three defenders at once. The
6-11 senior scored only eight points and took
eight shots in 35 minutes. Nee expects Moore
to draw more of the same attention throughout
the conference season.
“As far as a mental approach,” Nee said,
“Mikki Moore is A-pi us. But the physicalness
is going to afTect him.”
Moore said he urges his teammates to “bang
cm him” in practice to help prepare him for the
physical post play he’ll see in the next two
months.
“I tell them to smack me or push me,” he
said. “Sometimes the coaches get out the foot
ball pads. Even though I’m skinny, I try to be a
little aggressive under there.”
, Moore lit up Colorado for a career-high 27
points in NU’s 79-73 league-opening loss in
Bocdtfer. When A&M shut him down, the Husk
ers looked to point guard Tyronn Lue, who
made 10 of 17 field goals on the way to 29
points.
Despite KSU’s struggles, Nee said the Wild
cats pose an important test for NU, which plays
host to Missouri on Saturday night before hit
ting the road for six of its next eight games.
“The first place problems start is when you
lose home games,” Nee said. “We try to win
them all. Realistically, is that going to happen?
I don’t know. But that’s what we try to do.”
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