Huskers fall to Iowa State
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BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
AMES, Iowa — Iowa State’s centennial celebration Saturday was supposed to highlight 100 years of Cyclone men’s basketball, not set the game back a century.
But the Cyclones, playing before 14,376 fans at Hilton Coliseum, including more than 100 former players and coaches, did more of the latter by scoring 11 first-half points against Nebraska.
Even that dismal performance wasn’t enough to boost the wounded Huskers.
Nebraska, despite holding Iowa State to a Big 12 Conference- record low for points in a half, squandered a 15-point lead in its 60-52 loss.
“It’s tough,” Nebraska senior Aleks Maric said. “No question about it.”
It’s the second “shoulda-coulda-woulda” defeat of the week for the Huskers, who lost at home to Missouri in overtime on Wednesday.
Nebraska falls to 14-9 overall and 3-7 in the Big 12.
Is there any worry about team confidence?
“You would think so, but you would’ve thought so after losing to Missouri,” Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said. “But I’m not (worried). And I won’t let it happen.”
Iowa State (14-12, 4-7) ended a four-game losing streak, including two straight at home, and avenged a 64-56 loss in Lincoln.
The Cyclones, who shot 4-of-21 in the first half, committed 15 turnovers and trailed 24-11, needed only seven minutes to catch the equally offensive-challenged Huskers.
Nebraska went 7 minutes, 28 seconds without a field goal to begin the second half. Meanwhile, a couple of unlikely heroes supplied Iowa State with some offensive pop.
Junior guard Sean Haluska, who before Saturday was 5-for-36 on the season from three-point range, was 3-for-3 in the second half. He averages 2.2 points but scored 12.
“It’s college basketball,” said freshman Cookie Miller, who led Nebraska with 14 points. “If you leave anybody open that’s wide- open, it’s about a 75 percent chance.”
Bryan Petersen, another junior guard who averages five points, also had open looks early after halftime. He sank back-to-back three-pointers, as Iowa State scored the first eight points of the second half.
“It’s not that they scored, it’s that they scored by us making mistakes,” Sadler said. “I knew they’d get back in the game, but … it’s frustrating. We have no room for error.
“We weren’t helping out on the ball side, and they kicked it out on ball side consecutive times and they hit threes. That’s not supposed to happen.”
It happened again with 2:12 remaining, when Haluska made a three-pointer from the corner to push Iowa State’s lead to 51-44. Only seconds earlier, Steve Harley was at the free-throw line, shooting a one-and-one with Nebraska down four.
He missed the first shot — the second time in the final eight minutes the Huskers missed the front end of a one-and-one. Ade Dagunduro did it, too, less than a minute after Jay-R Strowbridge’s three-pointer cut what had been a nine-point ISU lead to 39-35.
Nebraska never got closer than four points.
“We knew they were going to go on a run in the second half, we just had to match that run and not get down,” Miller said.
“You’ve got to tip your hat off to them. They did a good job in the second half of adjusting.”
Iowa State tied the game 25-25 with 13:02 remaining. Miller gave the Huskers a brief lead with a driving basket, but Haluska answered with a three-pointer to give the Cyclones the lead for good at 28-27.
They hadn’t led since it was 5-4. That’s when Nebraska went on an 11-0 run for a 15-5 lead.
Nebraska’s biggest lead was 24-9. That came during a stretch of more than 10 minutes when Iowa State didn’t score a field goal.
Maric had his sixth straight double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds, but was 4-of-10 from the floor, with three turnovers.
“I should’ve stepped up and made some not necessarily offensive plays, but defensive plays down the stretch when they made their run,” Maric said. “I really thought I let my team down in that section.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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