Huskers Drop 68-60 Decision to Colorado

Lincoln ? A drought of over five minutes late in the second half proved costly, as Nebraska fell to Colorado, 68-60, in front of a season-high crowd of 8,316 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Wednesday evening.

The Huskers, who dipped to 10-3 on the season and 0-2 in the Big 12, led 55-54 on John Turek’s basket with 6:54 remaining, but then were held scoreless for a span of 5:07, as the Buffaloes took control in the final minutes.

Colorado (9-4, 1-1) took the lead for good at 56-55 on two free throws by Glean Eddy with 5:35 remaining. NU, which suffered its first home loss in 10 home games this season, shot just 33 percent in the second half. Eddy’s two free throws were the 16th and final lead change in a see-saw battled that saw neither team lead by more than six points until the latter stages.

Michel Morandais led three Buffaloes in double figures with 18 points, including 14 in the first half, while Blair Wilson and Lamar Harris added 15 and 12 points, respectively. Harris hit all six shots from the floor.

Turek and Nate Johnson tied for team-high honors with 13 points apiece, as Nebraska placed four players in double figures in the losing effort. The loss snapped the Huskers’ 11-game home winning streak dating back to last season.

In the first half, Colorado built its largest lead at 32-26 on David Harrison’s dunk with 2:43 remaining, but the Huskers, who struggled in the closing minutes of the first half in Saturday’s loss at Iowa State, would come right back. Cory Simms started the NU spurt with a mid-ranger jumper before a three-point play by Johnson and an Andrew Drevo tip-in with 34 seconds remaining in the half gave the Huskers a 33-32 halftime lead.

Morandais provided most of the offense for Colorado, hitting 4-of-7 shots from the floor, including a trio of three-pointers, to score 14 points in the first half. Nebraska, despite early foul trouble for John Turek and Tony Wilbrand, took advantage of its own success from long range, hitting 5-of-6 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes.

In all, NU hit 9-of-16 from long range, but struggled inside, connecting on 13-of-39 shots inside the arc while getting out-rebounded 36-33.

The teams would trade the lead back and forth throughout the second half. CU took a 45-41 lead, only to see NU come right back on three-pointers from Brian Conklin and Johnson to regain the lead at 47-45. CU would come right back with a 6-0 run of its own to extend the lead to 51-47 on Harrison’s three-point play with 10:36 remaining, before NU answered back with Conklin three-pointer and Johnson putback to go ahead 52-51 with 8:13.

Turek would score NU’s next four points, including a soft hook shot to give the Huskers their final lead at 55-54 with 6:54 left before Nebraska went into a dry spell offensively.

The Huskers will travel to No. 18/16 (AP/Coaches) Texas on Sunday, Jan. 17. Airtime for the ESPN Regional game in Austin is set for 12:30 p.m.

Nebraska Head Coach Barry Collier quotes
"The game was really a hard-fought game. Both teams went at each other. The game could have gone either way for a large portion of it. The difference in the game was Colorado's ability to get the extra possession with offensive boards and they shot the ball well from three. Morandais did a nice job in the first half. I thought they got inside on us too much. In the end that was the difference. The last six or seven minutes of the game they really shut us down. They made some difficult shots and they were able to rebound at inopportune times."

On Morandais and Wilson's shooting
"Morandais jumped up and shot it in over us. He's a great athlete and most of his shots were off the dribble. We were into him, but he made great plays. He's a very good player. He can drive and shoot off the dribble. Obviously with us giving extra help inside on Harrison, it gave them the opportunity for Morandais and Wilson to move around a little bit more. You kind of pick your poison there and we were trying to do both. The biggest thing overall was that we were trying to start by taking away the inside and they made us pay on the perimeter."

John Turek quotes
On starting conference play 0-2
"It hurts because it was two games we thought we had a pretty good shot at winning. It just means we have to work hard and get better each and every day. We can't dwell on the past, we just have to pick up a few more games."

On how much emphasis there was on stopping David Harrison
"I don't think we put too much emphasis on him, we just didn't execute other parts of the game plan that we worked on in practice."

Jake Muhleisen quotes
On CU's defense at the end of the game
"I don't think they had any more defense than they had in the rest of the game. They just got used to our pattern and covered our shots."

On whether NU has lost some momentum after two recent losses
"It takes some momentum away, but we'll work hard and get things done in practice and try for the win in Texas."

Colorado Head Coach Ricardo Patton
On the game
"I think one of the things that helped us was that we changed our defense a lot. We played three different defenses. We didn't think we could give them one steady diet of any particular defense. The best thing about this win is that we did it without David Harrison scoring a lot of points for us. That means other guys stepped up for us. I thought Lamar Harris played like a man the whole game, getting the huge rebounds."

On CU's balanced attack
"We had more guys step up and make plays, and that's what you've got to have. You can't have a team of three guys-David, Michel, and Blair."

On CU's progress
"I'm still trying to figure out our team. Even our older guys are a puzzle sometimes."

On winning a Big 12 road game
"It gives us hope. It also will hopefully convince the guys that what we've been preaching, as far as being patient, having discipline, and playing defense (is right) and it will sink in."

Colorado Center David Harrison
On the game
"It's our first road win, so we've already matched last year's output in the Big 12. This is big. We're not 0-2, we're 1-1. It's a great team win."

On CU's keys to victory
"Everything was working tonight, except for me. We played hard on defense and rebounded well and just wouldn't die tonight. We put two halves together and we won."

Nebraska postgame Notes
**Nebraska's 11-game home winning streak, tied for the 11th longest in school history, was snapped with the 68-60 loss to Colorado. NU had not dropped a home contest since losing to Texas, 75-63, last season.

** Nebraska has led at halftime of every home game this season, including 33-32 tonight against Colorado. This marked the first time this season Nebraska was not ahead by at least 10 points at the intermission, and the first time NU lost after leading at the break.

** Nebraska finished the game hitting 9 of 16 from three-point range, including its first five straight. NU's 56.3 percent from behind the arc tied for the second-highest shooting night from downtown this season.

** The Huskers are now 69-64 in the all-time series vs. Colorado that dates back to 1902-03. It is the Huskers second-longest series against a conference opponent. Despite the loss, NU has won seven of the past nine in Lincoln and owns a 23-6 record vs. CU in the Devaney Center.

** Nebraska's bench outscored the Buffs' bench 17-8 and has outscored the opponents bench in 12 of 13 games this season.

** The loss was just the fourth against an unranked opponent at home under Coach Collier. NU owns a 38-17 record at home during his tenure.

** NU snapped a streak of six straight games scoring at least 70 points, the longest such streak since 1996-97. NU has averaged 73.1 points per game at home through 10 contests.

** Brian Conklin hit 3-of-4 three-pointers to lead NU beyond the arc. He has hit 11-of-15 (73.3 percent) over the past four games combined. Conklin also tied his season high with six rebounds.

** Andrew Drevo added 10 points, eight rebounds (one off season high), with a team-high three assists. Drevo also tied his season highs with two blocked shots and two steals in 29 minutes.

** NU's 40.0 percent shooting from the floor was the Huskers' second-lowest this season, trailing only the 39.7 percent NU shot in a victory over Pac-10 foe Arizona State. NU had hit at least 45 percent from the floor in five straight games.