The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, March 06, 1998, Page 8, Image 8
_i_ftt___ - -—-—-----7-—j---- ■ —■.,IL"! '■ 1 ■' W -' ' Thursday’s results from the Men’s Big 12 Conference Basketball Tournament at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.: K-State 75, Colorado 61 Without its leading scorer, Kansas State used an 8-0 run late in the second half to hold off a Colorado comeback and advance to the second round today. “I thought it was a really gutty effort,” Kansas State Coach Tom Asbury said. “In the second half, we made an adjustment on our press attack. I thought we did a great job of handling the pres sure.” The Buffaloes (13-14) closed the Wildcat’s lead to 54-41 with 6:50 remaining, but KSU respond ed. Guard Aaron Swartzendruber ' hit a quick bucket, guard Ayome May sank two free throws and for ward Ty Sims blocked a shot and nailed a short jumper to give the Wildcats a 63-51 lead. Colorado was never able to recover. Manny Dies, Kansas State’s leading scorer and rebounder, missed his third consecutive game Thursday. Dies, who did travel to Kansas City with the team, was arrested in Manhattan two weeks ago, charged with transporting an open container and obstruction of the legal process, and released on $1,500 bond. “I would have liked to have played,” Dies said. “But we won - and that’s all that matters.” KSU, which improved to 17-10 on the season, will play top-seeded Kansas today at noon. m \ V > r Texas 86, Texas Tech 83 In the day’s*most exciting fin ish, Texas Tech guard Cory Carr missed a 28-foot 3-pointer with four seconds left as lO^-seeded Texas held on to defeat the sev enth-seeded Red Raiders. The Longhorns watched a 47 30 halftime lead dwindle down to one before freshman center Chris Mihm hit two free throws with eight seconds left to put UT up by three. Mihm also grabbed the rebound after Carr’s shot rattled in and out. “We knew Texas Tech would make a run,” Mihm said. “They’re too good of a team not to. We made plays down the stretch that won us the game.” Texas was led by junior for ward Chris Clack, who scored 28 points despite being hampered by a sore right shoulder. Freshman forward Luke Axtell added 20 Baylor 66, Texas A&M 63 With 26 seconds remaining in the contest, Baylor guard Patrick Hunter hit two free throws and the Aggies followed by missing three 3-point attempts to seal the victory for the Bears (14-13). “Some people might say it was an ugly win,” Baylor Coach Harry Miller said. “To me, on a scale of one to 10, this was a 10. A lot of credit has to go to A&M for fight ing tis hard as they did.” ^The game was A&M Coach Tony Barone’s final game with the Aggies (7-20). Barone had been told he would be reassigned as soon as the season ended. The Bears, who were led by center Brian Skinner’s 27 points, move on to play Nebraska (19-10) today at 2:20 p.m. “I didn’t shoot the ball very well today,” Skinner said. “I had to find other things to do. Kish (Lewis) had a lot to do with it He did a good job of getting the ball inside to me.” ■ points for the Longhorns. Carr, who put the Red Raiders within one with a long 3-pointer with 9.7 seconds left on the clock, led TTU with 20 points. Texas Tech finished the season at 13-14. UT improved to 13-16 and will face second-seeded Oklahoma State today in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. ■ Missouri 74, Iowa State 55 Missouri used hot shooting from the field in the first half to open up a big lead and never looked back. The Tigers shot 67 percent from the field and made 5 of 8 shots from behind the 3-point line en route to a 41-19 halftime lead. The Cyclones never got closer than 13 in the final 20 minutes. MU Coach Norm Stewart pointed to Missouri’s defense as a key along with its shooting as the Tigers held ISU to 33 percent shooting from the field and 13 per cent from behind the 3-point line. “Obviously, we shot the ball well,” Stewart said. “But our defense was there all night and just as important.” MU senior forward Kelly Thames led all scorers with 22 points, while ISU senior forward Paul Shirley led the Cyclones with 12 points. The Tigers moved to 17-13 and can keep their hopes alive for an NCAA Tournament bid when they play third-seeded Oklahoma in an 8:20 p.m. game. Iowa State ended its season at 12-18. ■ Thursday’s results from the Women’s Big 12 Conference Basketball Tournament at Municipal Coliseum in Kansas City, Mo.: Texas Tech 53, OSU 49 Top-seeded Texas Tech (24-4) slipped past No. 5 seed Oklahoma State (19-10) to advance to the championship game of the tourna ment Saturday at 7 p.m. The Red Raiders led 23-20 at halftime and though they only made 33 percent of their shots in the second half, the Red Raiders outscored the Cowgirls by one in the final 20 minutes. OSU led 41-36 with 8:01 left in the game, but Texas Tech tied the match with 5:30 left and continued on a 17-8 run to douse the Cowgirls’ fire. Tech junior Angie Braziel grabbed seven second-half rebounds helping the Red Raiders prevent the upset. ■ Kansas 70, Iowa State 65 The third-seeded Jayhawks turned a three-point halftime deficit into a five-point win over the Cyclones. Kansas guard Jennifer Jackson scored 20 points as the Jayhawks improved to 21-7. .Second-seeded Iowa State fell to 24-7. KU sophomore Lynn Pride rebounded from an 0 for 5 shoot ing performance in the first half to score 15 points in the second. Iowa State was led by Stacy Frese, who made five 3-point shots and scored 20 points for the Cyclones. • With the win, Kansas advances to the championship game to face Texas Tech Saturday at 7 p.m. Big 12 Conference Basketball Tournament Notebook compiled by. Senior Reporter Sam McKewon. •T {ibrnc Zi nm onl no aqoiq hi Bears on deck for Huskers Solid pitching part of recent NU success ' * a By Andrew Strnad Staff Reporter While University of Nebraska Lincoln students are taking midterm exams, the Cornhusker base ball team will be given its first conference test of the season when it travels to Waco, Texas, to take on Baylor. The Huskers, (7-5 overall and 0-0 in the Big 12 Conference) fresh off a successful weekend in Louisville, Ky., will test their luck in a three-game series against the Bears at Ferrell Field. Baylor is 10-5-1 overall and 1-2 in the conference and returns home after dropping two out of three to fourth-ranked Oklahoma. NU opens conference play after winning seven of its last nine games thanks - in part - to its pitching staff. Husker pitchers have kept oppos ing hitters off-balance with a mixture of pitches. Collectively, Nebraska has an eamed-run average of 3.59 and has allowed just six runs in the last 36 innings. “We’ve worked really hard to get ahead of batters early in the count,” NU senior left-hander Kenny Dubelbeis said. “That has really kept hitters guessing and allows us to con trol the pace of the game.” The Husker staff has kept control by keeping batters from reaching base. NU has a better than two-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio, striking out 84, while issuing just 34 free passes. While Husker pitchers haven’t given up much, NU batters have been able to tag opponents for an average of more than six runs a game. During Nebraska’s recent trip to Kentucky, the Huskers won three of four games by scoring at least 11 runs per contest. In the lone contest in which NU didn’t score 11 runs or more, the Huskers relied on a nine inning 1-0 shutout by sophomore right-hander Chad Wiles to defeat Louisville. “Of course hitting and scoring runs is all about good timing,” sopho more first baseman Ken Harvey said. “When we have good timing, we’ve shown what we can do.” Harvey has shown what he can do all season. The Los Angeles native leads the Huskers in nine offensive categories, including a .477 batting average and a .824 slugging percentage with 38 total bases in just 44 at bats. The Huskers are expected to receive a challenge from a Baylor pitching staff that includes preseason All-American Kip Wells. But so far, Wells owns a 8.10 ERA and a 3-2 record in five starts. The Bear staff overall has struggled with a 6.65 ERA. Despite BU’s recent struggles on the mound, Harvey said, the Bears will be the biggest test for the Huskers so far this season. “After losing to Oklahoma last weekend, they’ve got to be pretty pissed, so I’d say were going to see a very determined team this weekend.” Harvey said. The Huskers will play two games Saturday against Baylor. Dubelbeis (1-1,3.66) will pitch the first game at 2 p.m. The two teams will play the final game on Sunday afternoon, before NU returns to Buck Beltzer Field next Tuesday night to face Northern Iowa. M After losing to Oklahoma last weekend, they’ve got to be pretty pissed....” Ken Harvey NU first baseman Coach: Confidence needed against KU - > * By Darren Ivy Assignment Reporter Coach Kerry McDermott is taking a line from Aretha Franklin to get his tennis play ers motivated for their meet today with the No. 24 Kansas men’s tennis team. McDermott wants a little respect. r “We need to give respect to ourselves,” McDermott said. “Sometimes guys on our own team don’t give themselves enough credit. We don’t need to be cocky, but we need to be confident in our abilities.” Coming into today’s home dual at the Woods Tennis Center, the Cornhuskers (8-2) have won five straight matches led by Dinko Verzi and Markus Bergerheim. But traditionally the Huskers have struggled against Kansas (3-6). However, McDermott thinks this year will be different. “I know our guys are play ing with a lot of confidence,” McDermott said. “In the past we were in awe of schools, such as Kansas. “Now, we have played a higher caliber of opponent, and the guys know what it takes to be successful. We expect a good battle, but we feel we can pull the upset.” Bergerheim, a senior co captain from Kallaink, Sweden, agreed with McDermott’s assessment. He said Kansas is supposed to be a good team on paper, but its ranking doesn’t mean anything to him. “I think the teams between M We need to give respect to ourselves.” Kerry McDermott NU tennis coach 25 and 70 are equal and any one can win on a given day,” Bergerheim said. “The way we are playing right now, we should win.” Bergerheim and Verzi are NU’s two hottest players, each posting 17-3 records. Verzi, a junior from Hamm, Germany, is 9-1 in singles and has teamed with Bergerheim to post an 8-2 record at No. 1 doubles. McDermott noticed a change in the duo after they defeated Texas’ No. 1 doubles team that made the NCAA quarterfinals last year. “Their confidence shot up after beating Texas,” McDermott said. Bergerheim said that confi dence is why NU is off to its best start in eight years. “The people who succeed are the ones who have confi dence and know how to win,” Bergerheim said. NU has shown it knows how to win, but McDermott said a win over Kansas would be major. “It is time to make a state ment,” McDermott said. “This is a perfect match to let the other teams (in the confer ence) know we are here to play.” NU hopes to prove itself at NCAAs NCAA from page 7 said. “I hope we get in, but when you lose in the first round, you don’t feel good about it” NU senior Anna DeForge said the Huskers hope to lessen the sting of their frustrating loss in the confer ence tournament by making some noise in the NCAA Tournament. “You never want your season to end - especially when it’s your senior year,” DeForge said. “It’s disappoint ing to come out here and play the way we did. If we get the opportunity to have another chance, we want to prove to people that we have a differ ent basketball team than what we showed here.” Nee, Lue: NU focused i for tourney j BIG 12 from page 7 cent shooting from the field for the game. Nee said good perimeter defense along with the containment of Bears’ center Brian Skinner, who garnered second-team All-Big 12 honors Monday, would help the Huskers. Skinner scored 27 points against Texas A&M Thursday. “Skinner’s a good player,” Nee said. “He and (BU guard) Patrick Hunter made a good combination.” If the Huskers can beat Baylor, they would likely face top-seeded and third ranked Kansas on Saturday, who beat the Huskers twice during the season. GuardTyronn Lue, who was named to the first-team All-Big 12 Monday, said NU won’t be looking ahead to the Jayhawks and forget to play die Bears. “This is not like that,” Lue said. ‘Wreveiy&cuse^(moBr^lgw».rg j 1 • 1