Huskers Fall to No. 9 Texas

Lincoln --- Freshman Joe McCray picked up his first career double-double, but the Huskers were held to 30.5 percent from the floor as No. 10/9 Texas came from behind to pick up a 63-53 victory Saturday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

Nebraska, which had a season-best four-game winning streak snapped with its first conference loss of the season, came out firing and ran to a quick 11-0 lead to open the game. McCray hit a pair of three-pointers in the run and had all five of his treys in the opening period. It was the fourth time this season he has had at least five treys in a game and second straight in league action.

While McCray was launching from downtown, the Huskers (8-5, 2-1 Big 12) were holding the Longhorns in check at the other end of the court. Texas (13-3, 2-1 Big 12) was held without a point in the first 5:29 of the contest as UT hit just 3-of-11 attempts from the floor to open the game.

LaMarcus Aldridge finally got the Longhorns on the board with a putback to cut the lead to 11-2. McCray then pushed Nebraska ahead by 10 again with two more three-pointers, including one at the 11:11 mark to make it 19-9 in favor of Nebraska.

Texas fought back with a 12-0 run including back-to-back three-pointers by Sydmill Harris. Kenny Taylor’s layup off a long skip pass from P.J. Tucker put Texas up for the first time at 21-19. NU came back with three straight points from Marcus Neal Jr. to take a 22-21 lead before the teams went into the locker room tied at 26-26.

After the break, Nebraska trailed 36-32 on Daniel Gibson’s floater with 14:32 to play before the Huskers used a 6-1 run to take a 38-37 lead with 10:44 to left. Texas had been up by four points on two occasions before Aleks Maric pounded home a dunk off a nice McCray assist and Neal hit a big three-pointer with 12:50 left to knot it at 37-all. Turek then hit 1-of-2 free throws for the lead.

The teams were tied three more times, including the eighth and final time of the game when Gibson hit a jumper in the lane with 6:48 left to knot the score at 45-all. Gibson, a high school All-American last year, recorded all of his points in the second half, including nine straight over a three-minute span. Gibson led the Longhorns with 12 points, while Sydmill Harris adding 11 and Aldridge ? who missed the final seven minutes with an injury ? added 10 points with eight rebounds.

Gibson’s final basket of the stretch put UT ahead by three, 52-49, with 3:41 to play before Kenny Taylor hit the biggest shot of the game.

Taylor rebounded a Nebraska miss and P.J. Tucker got his own rebound on the other end before finding Taylor on the wing. Taylor then burried a three-pointer for Texas’ biggest lead of the game, 55-49, with 2:37 left. Taylor, who finished with nine points and seven boards, added another jumper 43 seconds later to put UT ahead by eight.

Nebraska, which started the game by hitting 5-of-10 from the floor, missed nine of its last 10 field-goal attempts while scoring eight points over the final seven minutes. NU ended the game hitting a season-low 30.5 percent from the floor, including 29.6 percent from three-point range, while Texas hit 40.8 percent overall and just 22.2 percent from long range.

The Huskers held a 42-38 advantage on the glass and an 18-11 lead in second chance points while limiting UT to 21 points below its season average. UT came into the game fifth in the nation in scoring offense at 84 points per game.

Along with McCray, Turek finished with 13 points and a season-high tying eight boards while Neal added 12 points. Neal tied his career high with six assists for the fourth time in seven games while adding five boards.

The Huskers return to action on Wednesday, Jan. 19, against the No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence, Kan. The game tips off at 7 p.m. and can be heard on the Pinnacle Sports Network and Huskers.com. The game will also be televised in the state of Nebraska on FSN Midwest.

Official Basketball Box Score
Texas vs Nebraska
1/15/05 12:47 p.m. at Lincoln, Neb. (Devaney Center)

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VISITORS: Texas 13-3, 2-1

                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
23 Aldridge, LaMarcus.. f  3-5    0-0    4-4    4  4  8   3  10  0  1  2  2  19
30 Tucker, P.J......... f  2-7    0-0    1-4    2  5  7   0   5  1  2  1  2  27
21 Klotz, Jason........ c  1-5    0-1    0-0    0  2  2   4   2  0  0  0  0  20
01 Gibson, Daniel...... g  4-9    0-3    4-5    0  3  3   2  12  3  1  1  0  30
10 Taylor, Kenny....... g  4-8    1-4    0-2    0  7  7   1   9  2  0  0  1  27
03 Dowell, Dion........    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  0  0  0  0   2
12 Paulino, Kenton.....    1-1    1-1    2-2    0  0  0   0   5  1  1  0  1  18
13 Harris, Sydmill.....    2-8    2-8    5-6    0  1  1   1  11  1  0  0  0  24
22 Buckman, Brad.......    3-5    0-1    2-2    2  3  5   5   8  1  3  2  0  22
40 Williams, Mike......    0-1    0-0    1-2    1  0  1   0   1  0  0  0  0  11
   TEAM................                            4  4
   Totals..............   20-49   4-18  19-27   9 29 38  17  63  9  8  6  6 200

 

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-27 40.7%   2nd Half:  9-22 40.9%   Game: 40.8%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  3-10 30.0%   2nd Half:  1-8  12.5%   Game: 22.2%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  1-4  25.0%   2nd Half: 18-23 78.3%   Game: 70.4%    4

 

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HOME TEAM: Nebraska 8-5, 2-1
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
44 Turek, John......... f  4-8    0-0    5-9    5  3  8   4  13  2  2  2  0  34
01 Dourisseau, Jason... g  0-0    0-0    0-0    0  2  2   0   0  1  1  0  0  12
02 McCray, Joe......... g  7-19   5-12   2-5    2  9 11   4  21  1  3  0  1  36
10 Neal, Marcus........ g  4-17   3-12   1-2    1  4  5   2  12  6  0  0  0  37
12 Muhleisen, Jake..... g  0-3    0-2    0-0    1  1  2   3   0  2  1  0  1  31
03 Richardson, Charles.    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  0  0  0  0   1
11 Wilkinson, Wes......    0-1    0-1    0-2    3  0  3   4   0  0  1  1  0  12
21 Simms, Corey........    1-2    0-0    1-2    0  1  1   0   3  0  0  0  1  12
31 Maric, Aleks........    2-9    0-0    0-0    2  2  4   4   4  0  1  0  0  25
   TEAM................                         4  2  6
   Totals..............   18-59   8-27   9-20  18 24 42  22  53 12  9  3  3 200

 

TOTAL FG% 1st Half:  9-24 37.5%   2nd Half:  9-35 25.7%   Game: 30.5%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  6-13 46.2%   2nd Half:  2-14 14.3%   Game: 29.6%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  2-6  33.3%   2nd Half:  7-14 50.0%   Game: 45.0%    5

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Officials: Steve Olson, Rick Randall, Terry Davis
Technical fouls: Texas-None. Nebraska-None.
Attendance: 10203Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Texas.........................   26   37  -   63
Nebraska......................   26   27  -   53