Huskers Fall in Australian Tour Opener

Maitland, Australia---In its first contest of a six-game Australian tour, the Nebraska men's basketball team fell to the Hunter Pirates, 102-91, Tuesday at the Maitland Federation Centre.

"Our offensive execution was pretty solid, but defensively there are some things we need to do better and will continue to work on," said Coach Barry Collier. "The competition was very good and that will help us, as we continue to prepare for next season."

Hunter jumped out quick, as it established a physicalness that the Huskers did not match early on. The Pirates used the advantage to run to a 33-20 lead after the first quarter before the Huskers started to round into form.

Nebraska came on strong in the second period as Jake Muhleisen and Wes Wilkinson picked up the pace on the offensive end while the Huskers clamped down defensively. NU took a 10-point advantage in the second frame to pull within three, 53-50, at the intermission. Muhleisen had three three-pointers in the frame and nearly missed out on a fourth as his last-second attempt to beat the halftime buzzer from half court just bounced off the rim.

Nebraska used another strong defensive performance in the fourth quarter to outscore the Pirates 27-19, but the damage was already done, as Hunter had dominated the third period by a 30-14 margin.

Wilkinson and Marcus Neal Jr. each scored 19 points to lead the Huskers, while Muhleisen had 16 points. Jason Dourisseau came off the bench to record 12 points, as nine of 10 Huskers on the trip broke into the scoring column.

John Turek led the Huskers with eight rebounds while adding eight points and three blocked shots despite playing much of the fourth quarter with five fouls. Muhleisen added seven boards and Wilkinson had six although Hunter held a slight, 44-42, edge on the glass.

Under National Basketball League (NBL) rules, the teams played four, 12-minute quarters and players collected six fouls before disqualification.

WIlkinson made his presence felt on the offensive end right from the start and never let up. He hit 8-of-17 attempts from the floor while the Huskers hit 34-of-76 (44.7 percent) overall. Muhleisen connected on 5-of-11 attempts, and Neal hit 7-of-11, along with three treys. Muhleisen, Wilkinson and Neal each nailed a trio of three-pointers, as NU hit 9-of-21 from long-range on the night.

The Huskers suffered a setback at the charity stripe, where Hunter took a commanding advantage. The home team was only called for 19 fouls in the game while the Huskers were tagged for 30 fouls, leading to a 42 to 21 advantage in free throw attempts for the Pirates. Hunter made 36 of its tries while the Huskers hit 14.

Nebraska returns to action Wednesday night against the two-time defending NBL champions, the Sydney Kings.

Official Basketball Box Score Nebraska vs Hunter 8/10/04 7:30 p.m. at Maitland, NSW, Australia -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Nebraska 0-1 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 11 WILKINSON, Wes...... f 8-18 3-6 0-0 2 4 6 5 19 1 2 3 0 23 44 TUREK, John......... f 4-11 0-2 0-0 3 5 8 5 8 1 0 1 1 24 10 NEAL, Marcus........ g 7-11 3-5 2-3 1 2 3 2 19 4 5 0 2 34 12 MUHLEISEN, Jake..... g 5-14 3-8 3-3 3 6 9 3 16 2 5 0 4 37 21 SIMMS, Corey........ g 2-6 0-0 3-3 1 1 2 3 7 0 5 1 0 32 01 DOURISSEAU, Jason... 5-8 0-1 2-6 2 1 3 3 12 5 5 0 1 27 03 RICHARDSON, Charles. 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 14 05 STEGALL, Shuan...... 1-3 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 10 15 SCHLIEP, Bronsen.... 0-5 0-0 3-5 5 2 7 4 3 0 2 0 1 16 45 WILBRAND, Tony...... 2-3 0-0 1-1 1 4 5 2 5 1 2 0 1 23 TEAM................ 2 5 7 Totals.............. 34-80 9-25 14-21 20 32 52 30 91 14 28 5 11 240

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 34-80 42.5% OT: 0-0 0.0% Game: 42.5% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 9-25 36.0% OT: 0-0 0.0% Game: 36.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 14-21 66.7% OT: 0-0 0.0% Game: 66.7% 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Hunter 1-0 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 21 HINDER, Russell..... f 6-10 0-1 8-10 1 6 7 3 20 1 7 0 2 38 30 MELMETH, Ben........ c 7-9 0-0 10-10 2 3 5 2 24 3 2 0 2 23 04 FRANKLIN, Kavossy... g 5-10 0-4 6-8 2 4 6 1 16 2 5 0 2 38 05 CULLEN, Geordie..... g 5-15 0-0 8-10 0 6 6 1 18 1 6 0 1 35 08 SELWOOD, Mitch...... g 2-6 1-2 0-0 0 3 3 3 5 2 0 0 2 30 06 MORGAN, Josh........ 2-6 0-1 0-0 2 3 5 2 4 3 0 0 0 28 07 MCGOVERN, Mat....... 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 14 DAVIDSON, Brad...... 1-5 1-5 4-4 2 3 5 2 7 3 0 0 1 29 9 COOK, Mat........... 2-7 1-5 0-0 1 1 2 5 5 2 1 0 0 18 TEAM................ 2 2 4 Totals.............. 31-69 4-19 36-42 12 31 43 19 102 17 21 0 10 240

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 31-69 44.9% OT: 0-0 0.0% Game: 44.9% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 4-19 21.1% OT: 0-0 0.0% Game: 21.1% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 36-42 85.7% OT: 0-0 0.0% Game: 85.7% 0,2

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Alison Ross, Scott Becker, Sean Myers Technical fouls: Nebraska-None. Hunter-None. Attendance: 350 Score by Periods 1st 2nd OT OT2 Total Nebraska...................... 20 30 14 27 - 91 Hunter........................ 33 20 30 19 - 102 Game 1 of Australian Summer Tour.