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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1997)
Huskers begin Big 12 play «-* We want to show people we are a better team than people think we are.” Kerhjt McDermott NU men’s tennis coach By Jay Saunders Staff Reporter Before last weekend’s match against Drake, Nebraska Men’s Ten nis Coach Kerry McDermott stressed ■ the Comhuskers’ performance in re gional matches. rNow inai NU pulled a 5-2 upset over the Bulldogs, McDermott’s stance hasn’t changed. McDenMtt “This gives us a big psychological boost,” McDermott said. “But for us it is a week-to-week thing. We are just try ing to put our thoughts on what a match means either in the region or conferencewise.” The win against Drake accom plished two things for the Huskers. First, upsetting the Bulldogs — ranked fifth in the Midwest region — put Nebraska — ranked ninth — in a position to move up in the regional rankings. The victory also pushes the Huskers’ record to 5-5, marking the first time a Nebraska team has been at .500 in three years. NU has now won three straight matches with wins over the Bulldogs, Temple and Weber State. Despite accomplishing two of their early season goals, McDermott said NU is hardly satisfied. “We want to show people we are a better team than people think we are,” he said. “They feel they need to prove we are better. It just comes down to winning.” If the Huskers want to go above the .500 mark, they need to turn their fo cus to the start of the Big 12 Confer ence season. Nebraska plays host to Baylor — which NU defeated 5-2 last year — on Sunday in a 2 p.m. match at the Cather-Pound varsity tennis courts. After meeting the Bears (6-5 over all and 0-1 in the Big 12) on Sunday, eight of NU’s last 10 meets are against conference teams. McDermott said Baylor is in a similar situation to the Huskers. “They are kind of the new kids on the block,” McDermott said. “They are trying to come in and show people they have a good team.” McDermott said if Nebraska is to beat the Bears, it will have to improve on some of the things it did wrong in the Drake match. Against the Bull dogs, Nebraska lost all three doubles matches, relying on the singles play ers to win the meet. “We will have to play better doubles,” McDermott said. “Baylor is much improved. If we play well, things should go our way.” KU run starts in Memphis From Staff Reports The road to winning its first na tional title since 1988 starts today for the Kansas basketball team. The Jayhawks (32-1) are the top seed in the Southeast region and play Jackson State (14-15) today at 11:25 a.m. at the Pyramid in Mem phis, Tenn., in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Two other Big 12 Conference schools open tournament play to day. Iowa State (20-8), the fifth seed in the Midwest region, plays Illi nois State (24-5) about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Cincin nati-Butler game, which tips off at 11:30 a.m. at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich. Ninth-seed Colorado (21-9) faces eighth-seed Indiana (22-10) about 30 minutes following the conclusion of the North Carolina Fairfield game, which starts at 6:40 p.m. in Winston-Salem, N.C. Other first-round games today include California and Princeton meeting at 11:15 a.m. at Winstom Salem. Following the conclusion of that game, Villanova plays No. 13 seed Long Island. In the Southeast region, Purdue meets Rhode Island after the the conclusion of the KU game. Mary land plays College of Charleston, and Arizona meets South Alabama in the night session. At Auburn Hills, Xavier, Ohio, plays Vanderbilt at 6:40 pjn. with that game followed by UCLA against Charleston Southern. In the west, Boston College plays Valparaiso and St. Joseph’s meets Pacific in the afternoon ses sion at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City. Top-seeded Kentucky plays Montana and Iowa meets Vir ginia in the night session. Eleventh-seed Oklahoma be gins the tournament Friday with a game against sixth-seed Stanford at the Me Kale Center in Tucson, Ariz. And lOth-seed Texas plays seventh-seed Wisconsin Friday at 11:15 a.m. at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. -1 Turnovers key in UW loss HUSKIES from page 9 continued the comeback with a slam of his own. “Two or three times in a row we turned it over to them, and they got a dunk and got the crowd into it,” said forward Mark Sanford, a 6-9 junior from Dallas, who led the Huskies with 20 points but only scored six in the second half. “It then became a total Nebraska effort after that and that’s what put us away,” Sanford said. “They got a little more game. They just came out and played aggressive ball in the second half and got it done.” Washington took its last lead of the game when MacCulloch put back an offensive miss with 5:44 left. But less than 30 seconds later Moore tipped in his own miss to give the Huskers a lead they would not let go. UW had a couple of chances at the end, trailing just 61-60 with 2:23 re maining before NU senior Bernard Garner made a 3-pointer. Bender called that 3 a back breaker. Twice in the last two and a half minutes, Washington missed the front end of one-and-one opportunities, and with 10 seconds left, sophomore Donald Watts missed a 3-pointer that 66 Turnovers killed us. We played well enough to win, but turnovers negated that.” Bob Bender UW basketball coach would have sent the game into over time. After the loss, Bender thought Nebraska looked very strong at mak ing a run to win its second straight NIT championship. “With Lue they’ve got a guy who will create and control things,” Bender saidL “They are big, so they can in timidate inside with blocking shots and they can score. Then they rebound the basketball. “They’ve got the weapons to be real effective and they also know and have the confidence to get the job done with this tournament and win it.” NU sneaks by Huskies NIT from page 9 the game away at the free-throw line. “I think it was a quality win,” Nee said. “I was pleased with our effort, and the crowd was nice and loud and enthusiastic.” Lue received treatment for his sprained ankle after the game and said he’s confident he won’t miss any game time. “I was in a lot of pain at first,” he said, “but once I got in here, it was OK.” In his 36 minutes on the court, Lue scored 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting, and with 12 minutes to play he sug gested to Nee a defensive shift that threw the Huskies out of whack. Trail ing 53-48, NU used an 8-0 run sparked by an agressive trapping defense and took its first lead since late in the first half. “We were down,” Lue said, “and it was time to get a little spark, a little intensity.” Washington, which lost in the first round of the NIT for the second straight year to finish 17-11, regained a 57-56 lead on a MacCulloch layup, but a bucket by Moore with 5:12 left gave NU the lead for good. Hie Husk ers then out-sewed Washington 74— using a Gamer 3-pointer to go up 65 61 — befwe Lue went down. In the first half, Nebraska led 26 18 at the 6-minute mark before Wash ington erased the deficit with a 14-2 run. Hie Huskies led 36-33 at the half, but committed 13 of their 22 turnovers in the second half, when Nebraska turned up the defensive pressure. . Hamilton, who scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, teamed with Moore to control the UW big men. MacCulloch and 7-1 sophomore Patrick Femerling combined for 21 points and 11 rebounds in 48 minutes. Sanford led all players with 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Gamer, Belcher and Moore sewed nine points apiece. “We just needed some postseason experience,” Belcher said. “It’s a big win for us because we’ve got a young team with a lot of players coming back next year.” Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Lady's Fitness 121 Cherxy Hills Blvd. 483-7777 New Beds Call and Now! Bulbs! TAN & TONE: SPRING BREAK SPECIAL 3 Months $99 6 Months $149 Includes: Tanning, Aerobics, Aquatics, Pool, Whirlpool, Sauna, Treadmills, Stairmaster, Lifecycles & much more! I OFFER GUARANTEED NEXT 24 HOURS! Akw V°*k 's /ward TQlnnina pfaa Ai-A rerformance$! !*> o presents Over The Edge ^,4’ 4‘8;^ * 1 ^ £>atutdai(f /Hat. 15, at 8 p.n1. A sophisticated, fast-paced show for college age youth focusing or: racism, gender equity, communication, pregnancy, homosexuality, safer sex & HIV/AIDS. 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