SportsWeekend
Huskers wilt under Iowa State pressure
Mike Warren/DN
JUNIOR GUARD BROOKE Schwartz drives for the bas
ket in Thursday night’s Big 12 semifinals. The Huskers
lost 85-48, breaking their winning streak.
Sanderford says Nebraska belongs in 64-team NCAA Tourney field
By John Gaskins
Staff writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Too
much Iowa State. Again.
The last thing the fifth-seeded
Nebraska women’s basketball
team needed for its NCAA
Tournament hopes was an embar
rassing loss on national television
to No. 13 and top-seeded Iowa
State in the semifinal round of the
Big 12 Tournament.
But the Cyclones paid little
attention to the Cornhuskers’
needs, or NU’s six-game winning
streak. ISU blew past Nebraska
midway through the first half and
rolled to a 85-48 victory in front
5,865 fans - mostly cheering for
Iowa State - at Municipal
Auditorium on Thursday night.
In the process, the Cyclones
(24-5) won for the third time
against Nebraska (18-12) and
sent the team home to wait until
CYCLONES 85
HUSKERS48
Sunday for a possible at-large
berth in (he NCAA Tournament.
If the bid doesn’t come, NU
could blame it on the worst loss
(37 points) and lowest point total
in the three-year Paul Sanderford
era. It is the worst Husker loss
since a 80-39 setback to Auburn
during the 1988-89 season.
“The last whipping I remem
ber like that I took from my dad
when I was about 13,” Sanderford
said. “It’s one of those nights you
want to forget.”
It was the kind of night Iowa
State has been accustomed to
ever since it lost back-to-back
games to Kansas and Kansas
State in mid-February. In its last
six games, all wins, ISU has aver
aged 92 points and a 29-point
margin of victory over its oppo
nents.
” The last whipping I remember
like that I took from my dad when
I was about 13.”
Paul Sanderford
women’s basketball coach
Against NU, the Cyclones,
who will play Texas in the tourna
ment finals Saturday night, had
four players score in double fig
ures, including guard Stacy
Frese, who led all players with 20
points. The senior All-American
hit three of her five three-point
attempts and nine of her 12 free
throw tries.
“Iowa State got on a roll,”
Sanderford said. “I thought the
real key tonight was Stacy Frese.
She controls everything. She
makes big shots when they need
big shots. When she plays good,
Iowa State plays good.”
For the first 10 minutes of the
game Nebraska played just as
well, as it had in stretches of its
first loss to ISU this year and the
entirety of the second game, a 77
76 Cyclone victory in overtime.
As ISU focused on NU’s trio
of guards - Nicole Kubik, Brooke
Schwartz and Melody Peterson -
early in the contest, 6-foot-5-inch
center Casey Leonhardt scored
Nebraska’s first eight points of
the game. She had 10 points when
Please see WOMEN on 15
_—_m
Mike Wsrren/D N
KiMANI FFRIEND HOLDS HIS head In Ids hands during the final seconds of Thursday night’s game. The Huskers blew a fourteen-point lead in the sec
ond half and were beat by Baylor at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.
NU blows big lead, ends season
” I thought we
had the game
under control
early, and I
thought we
played well...”
Danny Nee
men’s basketball coach
■ The Huskers fall to
Baylor in what could be
Nee’s last game.
By Joshua Camenzind
Staff writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Big
12 Tournament was supposed to be a
new season for the Nebraska men’s
basketball team. But it looked no dif
ferent than the 29-game season it just
finished.
The Comhuskers lost to Baylor
63-55 in front of about 8,000 fans at
Kemper Arena. Bears Coach Dave
Bliss said the game was a microcosm
for his team’s season.
It might as well have been Coach
BEARS , 63
HUSKERS55
Danny Nee talking.
“It was disappointing,” Nee said.
“I thought we had the game under
control early, and I thought we played
well and got the lead. We just couldn’t
finish them off.”
Nebraska owned a 26-20 lead at
the half thanks to an 11-0 run and grit
ty play under the boards. Nebraska led
41-27 at one point in the second half.
But in true Husker fashion, the
wheels fell off the wagon in the sec
ond half. NU (11-19) lost every edge
it had gained.
Baylor started to play a more
aggressive zone and center John
Flippen clogged up the middle of the
lane. Flippin had eight blocked shots
and forced NU’s post players to miss
various chip shots throughout the
game.
“John is a big presence inside, and
his guarding the basket during that
period allowed us to go on that run and
get back into the game,” Bliss said.
The run that Bliss referred to was
a 19-0 run that started at the 14:08
mark after Louis Truscott converted
on a layup.
Truscott’s basket gave NU the 41
27 advantageflt would be NU’s last
points for the next six minutes, 35 sec
onds. Cary Cochran made a three
pointer to break the run, but when the
dust settled Baylor led by two, 46-44.
“We started protecting the basket
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NU ready
for solid
showing
atNCAAs
By Jamie Suhr
Staff writer
The Nebraska track and field team
already has baked the cake, now it’s
looking fra- the icing.
Coach Gary Pepin said placing in
the top 10 at the NCAA Indoor
National Championships at
Fayetteville, Ark., held today and
tomorrow, would be the perfect ending
to a great season.
At the beginning of each year, Pepin
said, die team set the goal of winning
die conference title and placing high in
nationals.
Despite claiming both the men’s
and women’s indoor conference titles,
NU will have its hands full.
On die men’s side, the Huskers are
led by junior sprinter Chris Chandler.
He’ll be competing in the 60- and 200
meter dash.
Chandler is ranked No. 5 in the 200
meters with a time of20.98 seconds and
No. 6 in the 60 meters with a time of
6.61. _
Chandler ran a 20.73 in the 200
meters at the Big 12 Championships,
the second fastest time this year, but
because it came on an oversized track, it
doesn’t count.
Chandler, the U.S. Track Coaches
Association Midwest region athlete of
the year, said he has yet to be pushed in
a race.
“I don’t know what it feels like to
run all out,” he said. “I haven’t felt any
pressure in the preliminaries. It was like
I was chillin’,” Chandler said.
He admitted, however, that he was
going to have to run all out this time
around.
“I have to run preliminaries like
they were the finals,” Chandler said.
‘It’ll be balls to die walls; let it all out”
The overwhelming favorite on the
men’s side will be Arkansas. The team
has a whopping 16 entries in the field
compared to the Comhuskers’ seven.
“We still have quite a few bullets,”
Pepin said.
But the team will be without its
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