Sanderford embarrassed by blowout loss to B
__ «/
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
Nebraska Coach Paul Sanderford
challenged the seniors on his women’s
basketball team at halftime ON
Thursday night.
It didn’t work.
Down by 12 points at the break to
hot-shooting Brigham Young, the
Comhuskers weren’t able to balance the
deficit. Instead, it doubled on them as
BYU defeated NU 81-57 in front of
3,276 fans at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center.
The 24-point loss was tile second
worst in Sanderford’s tenure and was the
worst at the Sports Center since a 97-64
loss to Creighton on Dec. 10,1993.
Sanderford said the second half
“might have been the most embarrass
ing of my career.”
In the final half NU shot an ice-cold
25 percent from the field on 9-36 shoot
ing, and an even worse 3-19 from the 3
point range (15.8 percent).
“I challenged the kids, our serums,
at halftime to step it up,” Sanderford
said. “I guess putting pressure on this
group was not die right thing to do. I did
put quite a bit of pressure on diem.”
The three seniors in the Husker
starting line-up - Brooke Schwartz,
Nicole Kubik and Charlie Rogers -
combined to shoot 10-31 from the field.
But its shooting woes were the least
ofNebraska’s worries as it fell to 3-3 on
the season. As bad as the offense was,
the defense might have been worse.
BYU (6-2) went 10-16 from 3-point
range (62.5 percent)-in the fust half and
14-26 in the game. NU’s defense was
over-rotating on Cougar shooters, leav
ing open shots from the perimeter,
which BYU buried all game long
That Brigham Young was able to
convert on its open 3-point looks didn’t
surprise Schwartz.
“Well, if you’re left wide open, I
suspect you should knock down a few,”
Schwartz said. “We left them open all
night. I can’t put a finger on a specific
shooter - they all knocked them down.
They reminded me of Iowa State; they
can all shoot the ball.”
Nebraska matched BYU for most of
the first half and trailed by only four; 36
32, with 3:23 left in the first half. But the
JoshWolfe/DN
CISCO GILMORE scrambles for a rebound during the first half against RYU
last light.
BYU81
Nebraska 57
Huskers couldn’t put any points (Hi die
board the rest of the half as BYU wtent
on 8-0 to end the period, which included
one free throw on a technical foul
charged to Sanderford
The Cougars carried their run over
the break and extended to a 50-32 lead
with 18:04 to go in the contest. NU
would cut the lead to 52-38 two minutes
later on a jumper by freshman
Stephanie Jones, who finished with
eight points and six rebounds but could
get no closer.
Sanderford said he “hasn’t raised
the white flag yet, but the ship needs to
be righted pretty quickly. If I could sin
gle something out, I’d certainly put my
finger on it
“I got to look at senior leadership
again - that’s all we got. We got to
decide what kind of team we’re going to
be. If we have to walk it down the floor
and pass it 17 times, that’s what were
going to do. We’ll do whatever we got to
do to get die job done.
“Evidently our style of play doesn’t
fit our personnel.”
Cougars’ hot 3-point shooting
seals victory in second half
By David Diehl
Staff writer
Brigham Young handed
Nebraska its second-worst loss in
the Paul Sanderford era, its worst
loss at the Devaney Center in six
years and also its fifth loss in the
last eight home games.
In large part, it was because of
BYU’s 3-point bombs.
Three Cougar starters, guards
Cady Williams, Erin Thorn and
center Jill Adams, combined to drill
11-21 from beyond the arc to set the
pace for BYU’s best 3-point shoot
ing game of the season, as the team
made 14 of 26 3-pointers on the
night.
“That was a big factor in the
game,” BYU Coach Trent Shippen
said. “We were hot with 3-pointers.”
The Cougars went into halftime
ahead 44-32 after nailing 10-16
3-point shots in the first 20 minutes.
The game was neck-and-neck for
the first 15 minutes, until BYU
went through the last three minutes
of the first half on a 10-2 run after
NU was within four at 34-36.
Adams, BYU’s leading scorer
averaging 16 points a game, said
she wasn’t surprised at all that her
team went into the break on such a
run.
“We have a good team,” Adams
said. “If we set our screens right and
run our plays, we get those shots.
Our defense comes out really pre
pared, and we know what their ten
dencies are.
“We should be doing that to
teams.”
„ Adams, who scored a game
high 21 points and had seven
rebounds, missed only two of her
seven 3-point attempts. Combining
a deft shooting touch (48 percent on
3-point field goals for the season)
and her size (6-foot-3), Adams
extended NU’s defense, benefiting
BYU, Shippen said.
66
That was a big
factor in the game.
We were hot with 3
pointers.”
Trent Shippen
BYU coach
“That’s been an advantage for us
this year,” Shippen said. “It causes
their inside players to come out and
defend her.”
Williams was one of four
Cougars scoring in double figures,
chipping in 19 points on five of 11
shooting, though she sank only two
of seven 3-pointers.
Williams said the Cougars
exploited NU’s defense when it was
in the trapping zone or man-to-man
defense.
“We were able to break the zone
pretty easily and get some open
looks there because we had broken
the front line,” Williams said.
“When they were in man -1 think
-by coming off the screens hard we
were able to free up the screener
who was able to get the outside
shot.”
Shippen agreed with Williams’
assessment of how BYU broke
down Nebraska’s zone.
“Once the ball got past the first
line, we made some good passes
and got some good looks,” Shippen
said. “They only had two defenders
to guard three of our players.”
BYU also got a solid contribu
tion off the bench from senior for
ward Alisha Griffith, last week’s
Western Athletic Conference Player
of the Week. She was averaging five
points a game coming in and scored
11 points.
She was perfect on three shots
from the 3-point range.
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NU expects easy time with MU
By David Diehl
Staff writer
If so-called “bulletin board materi
al” was as prevalent in die world of col
lege wrestling as it is in college football,
Brad Vering, the No. 3 197-pound
wrestler in the nation, wouldn’t be
allowed to talk to the media.
“We’re going to tear them apart,”
Vering said when asked if he expected a
good dual this Sunday vs. Missouri.
“And that’s pretty much it.”
He added that Mizzou isn’t a highly
ranked team, but it has a few good indi
vidual wrestlers.
“But outside of that,” Vering said, “if
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the guys show up, we’re going to
destroy them, and that’s die plan.” •
The seventh-ranked Comhuskers
square off against the Tigers at 2 p.m.
Sunday in a home-away-from-home
match in Sioux City at the sold-out
Sioux Dome.
MU is 0-2 for the season in duals; it
lost to sixth-ranked minoisand to Big 12
rival and No. 3 Oklahoma State, 34-3.
Head Coach Tim Neumann had a
different view on the quality of
Missouri’s team. He said Missouri had
performances that concerned him.
“We’re at a point in the season
where we want the best competition we
can get,” he said. “Missouri has five or
six guys that are legitimate, tough,
Division I guys. And we’re going to use
this match for a springboard for Reno.”
NU heads to Reno, Nev., for the
Reno Challenge on Dec. 19, which is
one of the tougher meets of die season,
Vering and Neumann both said.
Vering was also hoping to have this
dual go into die Reno matches on a roll
“Guys broke out of their shells (in
the past couple matches) and started
wrestling with the intensity that they
needed to,” Vering said. “Now they need
to carry that into this week and as a little
bit of a pickup for Reno, because Reno
is going to be tough.”
The showcase match this weekend
in Sioux City is the 174-pound matchup
between Ati Conner and Missouri’s
John Kopinsky, the No. 15 wrestler in
the country at 174.
Conner said he doesn’t know a
whole lot about his opponent, just that
he is ranked 15*, but that doesn’t
anything to him.
“It’s just whoever has a better day
that day,” Conner said.
