■ loacn says Kansas
State ‘puked’ up the ball
in 70-61 loss to NU.
ByLisaVonnahme
Staff writer
In what Kansas State Coach Tom
Asbury called “the worst game of the
season,” the Wildcats left the Bob
Devaney Sports Center on
Wednesday night with their heads
hanging.
The Wildcats weren’t thrown any
surprises by the Cornhuskers.
Instead, Kansas State faced a
Nebraska team that showed a stronger
mentality than what they were ready
for, Asbury said.
The result: missed layups, missed
foul shots and missed 3-pointers,
which resulted in a 70-61 Wildcat
loss.
“The guys were just puking the
ball up,” Asbury said. “It wasn’t even
close. We didn’t show any kind of
mental toughness at all.”
Down by 10 at halftime, the
Wildcats returned from the locker
room and were able to pull within two
points, putting the score at 41-39 at
the 15 minute, 49 second mark of the
second half.
After a pair of jumpers from Josh
Reid and Shawn Rhodes, the
Wildcats were able to keep the
Huskers scoreless for four minutes.
In that time, senior Manny Dies was
able to make two free throws. Both
Reid and Rhodes responded again
with a basket. Rhodes added an extra
spark with a 3-pointer, closing the
gap by two.
“The only bright spot of the game
was our run at the beginning of the
second half,” Rhodes said. “We had
no leadership tonight No one stepped
it up.”
Despite Asbury’s clear disap
pointment after Wednesday’s game,
he-did credit the^play of Dies and
freshman Josh Kimm. Dies tied a
KSU record for shooting 11 of 14 free
throws.
Wednesday also marked the first
time since Kansas State’s season
jopener in which Dies recorded dou
ble figures in rebounds and points,
grabbing 12 boards and racking up 19
points.
Kimm added two rebounds and 7
points.
“Manny and Josh showed they
wanted it,” Asbury said. “But I’m not
satisfied.
“You don’t need street-tough fist
fighteYs to have a good basketball
team. But we didn’t have a single
tough guy out there tonight.”
Overall, Asbury was frustrated
with the Wildcats’ play, especially
since the team had prepared for NU’s
game plan all week, f
“This was embarrassing. We
knew exactly what we had to do. We
didn’t execute, and we can’t just show
up for every other game.”
NUgets needed win over KSU
HOOPS from page 11
down and stepped it up a little bit and
had the team follow us, and I think it
really worked tonight”
Throughout the game, NU (9-7
overall and 1-2 in the Big 12
Conference) kept the Wildcats
guessing by mixing up zone and
man-to-man defenses and half-court
traps.
Hamilton said the zone was a
great tool all night.
“They started taking bad shots,
throwing the ball away. I think Coach
(Danny Nee) saw that and so we
played more zone.”
The Husker offense also charged
I into high gear behind Hamilton’s
fourth consecutive double-double
(17 points, 12 rebounds) and
Belcher’s 15 points and four assists.
“This was the kind of game that
we knew we had to play to be com
petitive,” Nee said. “We just tried to
keep our energy level for 40 minutes
and we did, and we won.”
In addition, the Huskers also got
strong play off the bench with Chad
Johnson and Cary Cochran scoring 8
points apiece at crucial moments in
the game.
With 6 minutes and 3 seconds
left in the first half, Cochran
knocked down a 25-foot 3-pointer to
start a 14-4 NU run and carry the
Huskers into halftime with a 35-25
lead over KSU.
“He shot the ball very well,”
Hamilton said. “We need that when
teams try to go to the zone and pack
it down on Cookie and me. Cochran
will bring us out of a lot of situations
like that”
The NU lead reached its apex
with 4:26 remaining in the second
half after a jumper by Belcher put the
Huskers up 62-50.
But a Hamilton foul on Manny
Dies netted the Wildcats 2 points and
consecutive fouls by Troy
Piatkowski and Larry Florence oh
Chris Griffin gave KSU another 4
points from the line, cutting the NU
lead to 6.
The Huskers managed to hold
the Wildcats off over the final 3 min
utes of the game.
Dies led all scorers with 19
points, 12 of them coming in the sec
ond half including 10 from the chari
ty stripe. Dies was 11-14 (.786) on
free throws for the game.
Hamilton held Dies to 4 of 9
shooting from the field and mirrored
him in rebounding - both with 7 on
defense and 5 on offense.
But apparently, Hamilton wasn’t
able to match some of Dies’ trash talk
underneath.
“He’s like Godzilla down low,”
Hamilton said of Dies. “He’s a real
big guy and with all his mouth, that
makes him extra big.”
The Huskers now go on the road
to face Baylor (6-11, 0-4) on
Saturday in Waco, Texas, another
game that NU feels is crucial to post
season goals.
“This feels real good,” Belcher
said. “The pressure’s off us; now we
just need to carry this with us.”
UM coach hopes for another upset at Iowa
By Lisa Vonnahme
Staffwriter
The silence of Iowa fans in
Carver-Hawkeye Arena one year ago
after the finals of the National Duals
was deafening.
It was an unusual moment for
dedicated Hawkeye wrestling fans.
For just the fourth time since the
opening of the arena in 1983, the
Hawkeyes experienced the feeling of
losing a home dual.
Not just any dual, though. A dual
with Big 10 rival Minnesota. A dual
in which Iowa was heavily favored to
win. A dual in front of a National
Duals record crowd of7,807.
With the Hawkeyes leading 17-12
going into the final match, Iowa’s
heavyweight Wes Hand faced
Minnesota’s Shelton Benjamin.
Minnesota needed a pin for 6 points
to get the win, and at the 2:16 mark of
the match Benjamin got the fall, giv
ing Minnesota its first-ever National
Duals title.
“Beating Iowa at home was
huge,” said Minnesota Coach J.
Robinson, a former Iowa coach. “It’s
hardly ever done. It put our mark on
their map”
With the Cliff Keen NWCA
National Duals coming up Saturday
and Sunday, again in Iowa City, Iowa,
Robinson and the No. 2 Golden
Gophers are looking for the same
outcome as last year.
However, with seven of the top
eight teams at this year’s 16-team
duals, Minnesota will be up against
the best competition it has faced this
season.
Missing from last year’s National
Duals is this year’s No. 1-ranked
team, Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys won the duals the
«—-;
I think we 'll face Nebraska in the second
round. They ve been surprising people this
year, so we 're not taking anything
for granted."
John Smith
OSU coach
I _
last time they competed in the event
in 1997 in Lincoln.
Even as the top-ranked team,
OSU Coach John Smith said he is not
looking past any opponent.
“We’re looking to beat our first
round team, and we’ll go from there,”
Smith said. “I think we’ll face
Nebraska in the second round.
They’ve been surprising people this
year, so we’re not taking anything for
granted.”
And with top wrestling schools
like Iowa, Iowa State, Penn State,
Oklahoma, Central Michigan,
Michigan and Nebraska competing,
the Golden Gophers and the
Cowboys have put in extra training in
preparation for the duals.
One aspect important to the
National Duals is the atmosphere. It’s
an atmosphere that can affect the
wrestling, both Robinson and Smith
said.
I “It’s always so loud,” Robinson
said. “You’ve always got Iowa fans
yelling against you. It brings the
intensity up.”
With Oklahoma State absent
from competition last year, the
Cowboys are eager to defend their
No. 1 ranking.
“The magnitude of this event
brings out the best in our athletes,”
Smith said. “We’re going in to win it.”
K-State gets ahead early,
then holds off Huskers
BASKETBALL from page 11
Husker offense.
Schwartz’s basket with 14 minutes
and 3 5 seconds remaining would be the
last points the Huskers would see foi
seven minutes.
“We did a lot of standing around,”
junior guard Nicole Kubik said. “We
were a little tired from making our run.’
While the Huskers were on theii
heelS, KSU scored 17 straight points.
Kubik scored two of her game-high
26 points .to break the scoring drought
but the damage had already been done.
NU made another late run, bul
could get no closer than 10 points.
“We could never establish any kind
of rhythm,” Sanderford said. “It’s much
easier to press when you’re not playing
catch-up.”
The Huskers attempted a season
low 12 free throws and were outre
bounded 37-26.
The 26 rebounds were also a season
low. NU has only eight offensive
rebounds.
“We missed enough shots to get
offensive rebounds, but you have to
give K-State credit,” Sanderford said.
“I was very impressed with K-State’s
composure.”
J
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