NU takes down Missouri
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BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Players roaming Nebraska’s locker room seemed to be answering more questions about facing Kansas than their just-completed game against Missouri.
Gee, can’t a guy just enjoy a victory?
“We’ve got to soak this one in,” Nebraska’s Ade Dagunduro said, “for as long as we can.”
After all, victories at the Big 12 Tournament never come easy for the Nebraska men’s basketball team.
Heck, they rarely come at all.
Thursday’s 61-56 triumph over Missouri before 18,758 fans at the Sprint Center marked only the second time in nine years the Huskers have won their first Big 12 Tournament game.
Now, of course, comes Friday’s quarterfinal game against No. 5 Kansas, a team that’s dominated Nebraska four straight times in the Doc Sadler era.
But first, more soaking.
Nebraska survived a hard-fought battle thanks to salty defense, including two stops in the final 33 seconds, when Missouri, down three points, could’ve tied the game.
DeMarre Carroll, with the shot clock approaching zero, was short on a three-point try over Ryan Anderson. Then Sek Henry missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw opportunity, giving the Tigers another chance with 21 seconds left.
Two shots in the lane were errant, the second of which senior center Aleks Maric snagged. Jay-R Strowbridge made two free throws with 8.8 seconds left to seal the victory, virtually assuring the Huskers a spot in the National Invitation Tournament, at least.
“It shows the character of our team,” Dagunduro said, “being able to pull that game out.”
Nebraska, the No. 7 seed, improved to 19-11 with its second victory in three tries against Missouri, which fell to 16-16.
The Huskers held the Tigers to a season-low point total and a season-worst 31.6 percent shooting figure. Shooting-wise, it was Nebraska’s best defensive performance against a Big 12 team this season.
Missouri averages 78 points.
“If you hold Missouri to 56 points,” Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said, “you’ve got to be really, really excited as a basketball coach.”
It started with Maric’s work on forward Leo Lyons, who scored seven points on 2-of-12 shooting. He’d been averaging 21.5 points over Missouri’s previous four games.
Maric, who missed only one shot, led Nebraska with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
“It was very, very hard to score,” Maric said. “I mean, we used the shot clock as much as we could, we had to mix things up.”
Missouri, led by Keon Lawrence’s 15 points, made nine three-pointers. That troubled Sadler, who told his players before the game they’d have to take away the three-point shot.
That didn’t hurt the Huskers, though, because Missouri could do absolutely nothing inside against Maric, Chris Balham and Anderson. The Tigers were 9-of-38 on two-point attempts.
That’s 23 percent.
“It just seemed like we couldn’t throw it in the ocean today,” Missouri coach Mike Anderson said.
Said Carroll, who had 10 points: “It’s nothing Nebraska did. We just beat ourselves. We just shot ourselves in the foot.”
Nebraska separated itself from the Tigers thanks to two key plays from junior guard Steve Harley, who had 14 points.
Harley barely beat the first-half buzzer on a short jumper in the lane that gave the Huskers a 30-28 halftime lead. It came on a pass from Cookie Miller, who’d driven the length of the court in 4.3 seconds.
Then, late in the game, with the Huskers clinging to a 57-56 lead, Harley scored on a point-blank layup off an inbounds pass from Henry, putting Nebraska up by three.
How’d he get that open?
“I don’t know. You can ask Missouri,” Harley said, smiling. “I really don’t know. I got lucky.”
Nebraska built its lead to 10 points in the second half, and despite 12-of-21 free-throw shooting for the game, never lost it.
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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