Lincoln-Larry Florence scored nine of his career-high 21 points in a 19-5 second-half run as Nebraska defeated previously undefeated Creighton, 76-60, in front of a season-high crowd of 10,581 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Wednesday evening.

The Huskers, who improved to 6-3 on the season, avenged an 84-73 loss to the Bluejays last season in Omaha. NU leads the all-time series 20-11, and have won all 12 meetings at the Devaney Sports Center. The Bluejays' last win in Lincoln came during the 1931-32 season.

After Creighton cut the Nebraska lead to 57-55 on a Doug Swenson layup with 6:52 remaining, NU went on a 10-1 run on two baskets and a pair of free throws by Florence and two baskets by Cookie Belcher, who finished with 15 points, six assists and five rebounds, to give the Huskers a 67-56 lead. CU cut the lead to 67-60 on two Swenson free throws with 2:52 remaining, but NU held the Bluejays scoreless the rest of the contest.

Trailing 35-32 at halftime, NU a 12-3 run to regain the lead, as Belcher and Hamilton combined for eight of NU's 12 points to give the Huskers a 44-38 lead. Hamilton, a 6-10 senior, finished with 20 points, including 10-of-11 from the foul line and added eight rebounds. Hamilton also became the 20th Husker to reach the 1,000-point mark on Wednesday night and now has 1,018 career points. Florence's previous career best was 20 points against Vanderbilt last season.

The Huskers led 53-41 before the Bluejays (6-1), sparked by senior center Doug Swenson used a 14-2 run to cut the Husker lead to 57-55. Swenson had eight of his team 18 points in the spurt, shooting 8-of-11 from the floor.

Ben Walker and Rodney Buford also finished in double figures with 13 and 10 points, respectively. Buford, CU's leading scorer at 19.3 points per game, was held to just 3-of-9 shooting from the floor.

The Huskers, who have won three straight games, travel to Fort Collins, Colo, to face Colorado State this Saturday at 8 p.m

Post Game Quotes

Nebraska Head Coach Danny Nee
ON THE GAME
I am very proud of my team right now. They all played hard and played great defense for us tonight.

ON LARRY FLORENCE
Our success started with Larry Florence. He did a tremendous job guarding and shutting down Rodney Buford. We were fortunate to guard him well tonight. He just never got into a rhythm.

ON ANDY MARKOWSKI
I thought Andy did a very, very nice job. He had 13 rebounds in the game. You just can't ask anymore from him.

ON CREIGHTON
I think Creighton has a chance to go to the tournament this year as well as do very well in their conference. This was really a big win for us, beating a team with a lot of potential, like Creighton.

Creighton Head Coach Dana Altman
On the game:
Nebraska came to play tonight. They outfought, outrebounded and outplayed us all night. We were stuck in neutral most of the time and they werein high gear.Our defensive effort was not nearly as good as it could have been, I'm disappointed in myself and my team.

On Rodney Buford:
Rodney didn't play hard or good tonight. He didn't make a difference and he had a lot of defensive breakdowns. I thought someone else would step up to help him out, but no one did.

Nebraska Player Quotes
NU Center Venson Hamilton
On the effort:
In practice, we worked real hard and practiced well yesterday. Everyone played with a real high intensity and it paid off for us tonight. It carried over for us.

NU Guard Cookie Belcher
On Florence:
Larry had a big game for us tonight. I think that was the best game Larry has played, both offensively and defensively. I think he was ready for the challenge. He is our defensive stopper and tonight proves how good of a defensive player he can be. We wanted to limit his open shots and Larry did a good job getting a hand in his face.

On the win
We needed this game real bad. We knew we had a challenge going in. We had a great practices and it showed on the court tonight.

NU Forward Larry Florence
On the win:
It means a lot for us. It is an in-state game and we have two more hard games coming up. Everyone was intense and we showed how we can play. The way we played tonight is the way we expected to play all year.

On shutting down Buford
I wanted to go out and play hard because I knew it was going to be a battle. We wanted to keep him from getting off to a good start because last season, he (Buford) got going early. I wanted to limit his open shots and keep him from driving in the lane.

Nebraska Postgame Notes
Nebraska improved to 12-0 all-time at the Bob Devaney Sports Center against Creighton and pushed their lead in the overall series to 21-10