Jayhawks leave Huskers flat
Ryan Soderlin/DN
NU POINT GUARD Tyronn Lue recovers a loose ball after knocking it out of KU forward Raef LaFrentz’s hands late in the second half Sunday. The Jayhawks downed the Huskers 82-71.
NU’s mistakes clinch
close win for Kansas
By Sam McKewon
Senior Reporter
Not quite.
The Nebraska men’s basketball
team played close all game long, but
could not over
come No. 5
Kansas.
The Jayhawks
used a one-two
combination
from forwards
Paul Pierce and
Raef LaFrentz
Piatkowski andcapitalized
on Cornhusker
mistakes en route
I
m
to an 82-71 win in front of a season
high 14,484 fans at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center Sunday.
“Kansas answered every push we
had,” NU Coach Danny Nee said. “It
was a game where we competed, but
we never played well enough to win
the game.”
Nebraska (13-8 overall and 4-4 in
the Big 12 Conference) had its
chances. The Husker defense limited
KU to 45 percent shooting for the
game and outrebounded Kansas 44
40. NU also hit eight 3-pointers in the
second half, including five from for
ward Troy Piatkowski.
But when the Huskers had a
chance to take leads over the
Jayhawks in the second half, mistakes
reared their ugly head.
With Kansas (24-3 and 8-1) lead
ing 53-51, Nebraska missed five con
secutive free throws while Kansas
stretched its lead to 59-53.
“That’s all mental,” NU center
Venson Hamilton said. “We’ve got to
concentrate more. We’ve got to make
them.”
Hamilton missed two of the five
attempts.
Still, Nebraska cut the lead to 67
65 with 3:08 remaining after a
Please see ERRORS on 8
KU finishes strong
to douse Husker fire
By Darren Ivy
Assignment Reporter
For 37 minutes Kansas senior
guard Billy Thomas made just 22
percent of his shots from the
field.
But with a two-point lead and
2:27 left in the game, Thomas hit
a 3-point shot and then made a
jumper 27 seconds later to make
up for his misses and break
Nebraska’s back.
The ability to execute and
come up with big plays in crunch
time was the key for Kansas in an
82-71 win over Nebraska at the
Bob Devaney Sports Center
Sunday.
“We were not playing very
intelligent today, but we played
intelligent enough in the last two
minutes to win,” KU Coach Roy
Williams said. “We called a play
that we like: Ryan (Robertson)
penetrating and Billy on one side
and Paul (Pierce) on the other.
“We didn’t play that posses
sion very smart either until the
last play, and then Ryan penetrat
ed, and Billy hit the tough shot.”
While the rest of the
Jayhawks struggled, preseason
All-Americans Raef LaFrentz
and Paul Pierce carried the
Jayhawks on their backs.
“It was really an ugly perfor
mance,” Williams said. “I was not
Please see KANSAS on 8
Huskers’ defensive pressure shuts down OSU
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska women’s basketball team con
tinued its tear through the Big 12 Conference
Saturday, dismembering Oklahoma State bit by
bit until all that remained
was a bruised, beaten shad
ow of the team that arrived in
Lincoln the day before.
NU’s 77-47 win over the
Cowgirls at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center Saturday
marked the second time this
week the Cornhuskers had
npFnrnP ripped apart a respectable
H league foe. Nebraska defeat
ed Texas 87-75 Wednesday
night m Lincoln.
“The kids are really focused right now,” NU
Coach Paul Sanderford said. “They’re beginning
to understand what it takes to play and be suc
cessful in February and March.
“I’m really excited and feel very positive
about some of the things I’m starting to see hap
pen.”
The Huskers improved to 16-6 overall and 5
3 in the Big 12 Conference before 2,770 fans.
Oklahoma State, which fell to 11-7 and 4-4,
made a season-low 16 field goals and recorded its
second lowest field goal percentage of the season
in what Coach Dick Halterman called a surpris
ing and disappointing performance.
“We felt that we matched up well with
Nebraska,” Halterman said. “We thought we
could come out and compete and have a chance to
win in the last five minutes. But it was just a total
mismatch from the start.”
The Huskers opened the contest with an 11-0
run before the Cowgirls’ Jennifer Crow put OSU
on the board nearly four minutes into the half.
Crow scored Oklahoma State’s first six
points, but NU hammered the cold Cowgirls with
runs of 17-3 and 11 -4 to close out the half.
“The difference was the level of intensity the
two teams came out with,” Halterman said. “For
the 22 years I’ve been here, we’ve always had
teams that compete with intensity.
“So far, we’re not doing that this year. Their
intensity level was so far above ours that it’s mind
boggling”
Another key factor that helped the Huskers
was their 25-9 rebounding advantage in the first
half.
“Our post players had good position; they
boxed out very well,” said NU forward Anna
DeForge, who had 11 rebounds and 14 points.
“We pretty much controlled the boards from
the get-go. We were aggressive and won the
rebounding battle.”
NU also held the Cowgirls to 25 percent
shooting from the field in the first half.
Nebraska’s Jami Kubik, who recorded 15
points, eight assists and five rebounds, limited
OSU’s leading scorer, Renee Roberts.
“I drew a tough defensive assignment and I
knew I needed to come out focused,” Kubik said.
“When I do that on defense it just helps the rest of
my game a lot.”
The Huskers stumped OSU with their “Mad
Dog” three-fourths-court press and also disrupted
the Cowgirls by trapping the wings at the 28-foot
line out of a one-three-one half-court defense.
“We changed defenses and that affected them
early,” Sanderford said. “There was an eight
minute period in the first half where we played
the best we have all year.”