NU splits with Oklahoma
Anna DeForge scores
27 points to lead the
Nebraska women.
\
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
Nebraska Women’s Basketball
Coach Angela Beck allowed Anna
DeForge to act a little “cheesy” before
the Cornhuskers
game with Okla
homa Sunday af
ternoon.
In turn
DeForge, a 5-foot
11 junior forward
from Niagara,
Wis., who showed
up at the game
wearing a No. 4
DeForge Green Bay Pack_
ers jersey, re
sponded with a game-high 27 points
as NU beat the Sooners 87-59 before
a season-high crowd of 3,525 fans at
the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
With their fifth-straight win the
Huskers continued their best start in
school history at 15-1 and 5-1 in the
Big 12 Conference. NU has a half
game lead over Kansas in the league’s
North Division. Oklahoma fell to 5
12 and 1-6 in the conference.
“Early on I got a little nervous
when she came out of the locker room
with her Packer gear on and everyone
else was in their uniform,” Beck said.
"She’s come this far to go to school
that I've got to let her feel the
cheesehead material.
“She really, really bleeds that stuff.
I guess, that’s my obligation when I
pluck a kid from that far away.”
Beck’s concern about DeForge’s
focus before the game became a real
ity in the game’s first six minutes.
DeForge struggled making just one of
her first six shots. Her only basket
came after she put back her own miss
to give the Huskers a 7-6, 4 minutes,
51 seconds into the game.
Please see WOMEN on 8
Matt Miller/DN
TYRQNN LUE drives against two Oklahoma defenders in HU'S 84-77 loss Saturday in Norman.
Lue scored a career-high 30 points against the Sooners.
Comhusker men lose
despite Tyronn Lue’s
30-point effort.
I 1
I_I
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter
NORMAN, Okla. — Frustration
poured from Mikki Moore’s eyes, and
each word from his mouth carried a
harsh tone re
served for times
like Saturday.
The normally
loose locker room
of the Comhusker
basketball team
radiated a tense
and angry feeling.
No yelling. No
clapping. Few
words of encour
agement.
Nebraska lost Saturday. But to the
eight Huskers who played, this 84-77
defeat at Oklahoma was more than a
loss. It was a missed opportunity to
jump start a season beginning to head
in the wrong direction.
Asked what each Husker must do
to turn the comer. Moore sat quietly
and then stopped in mid-sentence,
throwing his towel to the ground and
raising his voice.
“Play like a man,” the 6-foot-11
senior said.
“Each player has got to look at
themselves in the mirror and push
themselves from now until the end of
the season. I know for a fact that I am
because I don’t want my season end
ing after the Big 12 Tournament.”
Before a crowd of 9,617 at the
Lloyd Noble Center, NU fell to 11-7
overall and 3-3 in the Big 12 Confer
ence, losing for the 15th time in its last
16 trips to Norman. OU (11-5 and 3
3) used a 14-5 mn late in the second
half and out-scored Nebraska 30-18 in
the final 12 minutes, capitalizing on
numerous Husker errors down the
stretch.
Please see MEN on 8
Packers roll past Pats
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Green Bay fi
nally has a present to go with its past.
The Packers’ 35-21 Super Bowl victory
over New England on Sunday hardly brought
back memories of Vince Lombardi’s grind
it-out champions of the ’60s.
Instead, this was a high-powered Pack —
doing it with big plays, especially by MVP
Desmond Howard — who returned Green
Bay to NFL prominence and put the title back
in “Titletown, USA.”
“I think it’s time that the Lombardi Trophy
goes home to Lambeau Field, where it belongs,”
Packers President Robert Harlan said.
Not that Lombardi would have recognized
the way this team won. There were no pulling
guards, none of his classic power sweeps.
Rather, it was Brett Favre finding Andre
Rison for a 54-yard touchdown on the Pack
ers’ second offensive play of the game. Then
Favre threw an 81-yard touchdown pass to
Antonio Freeman — the longest in Super Bowl
history — in the first minute of the second
quarter to put Green Bay ahead for good.
And it was Howard scoring on a 99-yard
kickoff return, then striking an abbreviated
W' -
Heisman pose in the end zone, a dagger in
the heart of the Patriots, who had just closed
to 27-21 the play before.
Howard, the first special teams player to win
MVP, finished with a record 244 return yards.
“Through all the adversity and the trials
and tribulations, I’ve always had confidence
in myself,” Howard said.
Two former Nebraska football players
overcame adversity as well Sunday night.
Comerback Tyrone Williams overcame many
off-the-field distractions and reserve running
back and special teams player Calvin Jones
both helped the Packers.
The win was the 13th straight for the NFC
and kept Bill Parcells, who had two of the 13
with the Giants in 1986 and 1990, from be
coming the first coach to win a Super Bowl
with two different franchises. f\
“I’m disappointed, because I do think we
had a chance there for a moment,” Parcells
said. “We played hard. We just cracked a little
bit under pressure.”
Thick teams win 14 events
V
By Vince D’Adamo
Staff Reporter
Although more than 25 teams and 600 ath
letes competed in the non-team scored Nebraska
Open Saturday, the meet lacked the scintillat
ing atmosphere of other invitational and cham
pionship meets.
Nevertheless, Comhusker Coach Gary Pepin
said both the men’s and women’s track and field
teams had many positive results in front of a
crowd of 1,706 people at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center track.
“Considering it was not a real hyped up
meet,” Pepin said, “we still had a lot of good
performances.”
On the women’s side, nine Huskers claimed
first place titles and they also won the 4 x 400
meter relay.
Shot putter Tressa Thompson won her event
with a career and school-best toss of 57 feet,
5Vi inches. Although her throw is an automatic
NCAA qualifying mark, Thompson said she
plans to reach greater heights.
“I’m setting my goals,” Thompson said.
“Now my next mark is 59. The collegiate record,
I plan on getting that in the next couple weeks.”
In the 20-pound weight throw, Doreen Heldt
earned first place with a heave of 53-5l/2. Sherri
Macfee won the 1,000 meter in a time of 2 min
utes, 55.5 seconds.
Two NU freshmen posted NCAA qualify
ing marks in their event wins. In the high jump,
Carrie Braness leaped 5-10 and in the triple
jump, Dahlia Ingram had a jump of 41-1*4.
Angee Henry won the long jump (20-6*4)
and the 200-meter dash (24.54 seconds). In the
4 x 400-meter relay, Henry, Stella Klassen, Jill
Myatt and La Tisha Croom won with a time of
3:44.56. Croom also won the 400-meter dash
title with a time of 55.65 seconds.
“She did a great job,” NU Sprints Coach
Billy Maxwell said. “We’re expecting even bet
ter things from her this year.”
The Husker men won four individual events.
In the 35-pound weight throw, Scott Warren
triumphed with a toss of 63-10*4. Alex Lamme
won the 1,000-meter run in 2:28.46 and Benji
Prebyl won the triple jump with a leap of 49-6*4.
In the long jump, junior Chris Wright, a
transfer from Kansas City Community College,
had the right stuff winning the event with a leap
of 25-6.
“I just came out each day and worked on
my approaches,” Wright said.