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Page 14 Friday, December 10,1999
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By John Gaskins
Staff writer
This time, there was no miracle
comeback.
Down two games to one, the 10th
ranked Nebraska volleyball team
tried to dig deep into its usually well
stocked barrel of grit and guts in
Thursday night’s NCAA Pacific
Regional semifinal against No. 7 UC
Santa Barbara.
But the barrel was empty.
The Gauchos (29-5) recovered
from a furious second game NU
UCSB 15 7 IS 15
Nebraska 5 15 8 3
attack and a scrappy third game
comeback to overpower the Huskers
in four games, 15-5,7-15,15-8,15-3,
in front of 1,154 at Stanford’s Maples
Pavillion in Palo Alto, Calif.
UCSB, which advanced to today’s
regional final, ended Nebraska’s 12
match winning streak and prevented
NU - which finished its season 27-6 -
from making its fourth final four trip
in five years.
And in the end of a season full of
early growing pains and heroic late
season triumphs, all the Huskers were
left with were plenty of tears to shed
in the locker room. ,
“There were, there are and there
will be,” Associate Head Coach John
Cook said when asked if the players
and coaches shed tears. “It was a dif
ficult loss for everybody.”
But the real question in the after
math of 1999’s last match: Was this
indeed the last match of 23-year NU
Head Coach Pettit’s career?
“That’s the last thing on our minds
right now,” said Cook, the former
Wisconsin Head Coach who Pettit
u
There’s always a desire to play well. I
thought tonight we tried so hard we
outplayed ourselves.”
Nancy Meendering
NU All-American candidate
hired last spring under high specula
tion that he would be Pettit’s heir
apparent, possibly after this season.
There was no word from Pettit
after the match about his retirement
decision.
If it was Pettit’s last match, howev
er, it might leave a bitter taste in his
Please see VOLLEY on 18
I Creighton89
I Nebraska 72
NU runs out
of gas in loss
By Matthew Hansen
Staff writer
OMAHA - Cookie Belcher and the Nebraska men’s
basketball team weathered the storm of a Creighton sellout
crowd and a Bluejay offensive onslaught for a half.
The final 20 minutes were a different story.
Feeding off the Omaha Civic Auditorium crowd,
Creighton broke open the close game early in the second
half en route to an 89
«- ~ ’ 72 victory over the
Huskers.
Creighton played at Belcher, who
scored 16 points on 7
an extremely high 10 shooting despite a
, , •ill near-useless right
level tonight, both wrist, said the differ
yy. •11 ence was the intensity
Offensively ana both teams brought out
i r • i tt of the locker room after
aejenstvely. intermission.
“We came out in the
DANNY Nee first half fired up and
NU coach ready to play, and so
____ did they,” Belcher said.
“In the second half, we
lost some ot that intensity and started to hang our heads a
little bit. It came down to heart. Creighton played harder
then we did.”
With just three minutes left in the first half, it looked
like NU would go into intermission with the lead. The
Huskers led by seven after two straight alley-oops to
Belcher and a jumper by Larry Florence. The Bluejays
stormed back, though, using a 10-1 run to end the half and
take a 40-38 lead into the locker room despite a perfect 5-5
half from the field by Belcher.
Nebraska Head Coach Danny Nee said Belcher played
courageously and gave the team a lift. He also said that the
senior guard would definitely use his medical redshirt.
“I thought Cookie did the best job he could do under the
circumstances of playing with one hand. I can’t ask him to
do more than that. For the record, I’ll tell you that he’s going
Please see BASKETBALL on 17 /
Lane Hickenbottom/DN
NEBRASKA’S ROONEY FIELDS frown as Creighton player Terrell Taylor descends from a dunk in the Bluejays’ 89-72 victory ever the
Haakon on Thursday night le Omaha.
Injured senior, talented freshman key CU’s victory
By Joshua Camenzind
Staff writer
As time expired on Creighton’s 89
72 victory over Nebraska, Donnie
Johnson applauded with a grin a mile
wide.
Johnson, a senior forward from
Omaha Central, brought intensity to
the Bluejays when they needed it the
most to avenge last year’s 76-60
Husker win in Lincoln.
With about one minute, 30 sec
onds remaining in the first half,
Johnson blocked NU forward Louis
Truscott and then proceeded to grab
the rebound and throw it off guard
Cary Cochran in a heads-up play. This
all came just after he had ignited the
crowd with a one-hand slam the play
before.
“At that point and time we were
down a bit, and then the energy 1
brought just got us back into the
game,” Johnson said.
But CU Coach Dana Altman felt
another play Johnson, who is one of
three Nebraskans on the Bluejay ros
ter, made was a bigger key to the win.
“I thought Donnie Johnson made
the biggest play of the night when he
dove on that loose ball and kicked it to
Matt West for a layup,” said Altman,
who won his 300™ career game as a
coach. “I thought the team’s energy
went up after that.”
Johnson has been battling back
pain all season and played only 16
minutes. But his 10 points, all in die
first half, were key. He said afterwards
that, “With winning the game, all the
pain is gone now”
The Bluejays were also helped by
24 Nebraska turnovers and by shoot
ing 28 of 31 from the foul line. Altman
said he feels his club should be able to
shoot that percentage on a consistent
basis.
“I think our team has the potential
to shoot like that all die time,” Altman
said. “You look down our team, and we
have good shooters.”
CU had five players in double fig
ures with Justin Haynes scoring nine,
and West adding eight. The Bluejays
knocked down 9 of 20 3-pointers
while committing only 13 turnovers.
The biggest factor could have been
a player that NU Coach Danny Nee
had heard little about before last night
- Bhiejay freshman Terrell Taylor.
Taylor shot 8 of 10 from the field,
including 3 of 3 on 3-pointers, on his
way to scoring a game-high 21 points.
Although he is from Bridgeport,
Conn., Taylor said it felt good to win
the intrastate rivalry.
Please see CU on 17