No. 3 Kansas Too Much for Huskers

Lincoln ? Jason Dourisseau scored a career-high 24 points, but it was not enough, as Nebraska fell to No. 3 Kansas 78-65 in front of a sellout crowd of 13,821 at the BobDevaneySportsCenter Saturday afternoon.

 

Dourisseau, a 6-foot-6 junior from Omaha, hit 8-of-12 shots from the floor and added five rebounds and a career-high tying three steals. He topped  his previous high of 21 against Lipscomb on Dec. 22, 2002 and his season high of 18  against Texas Southern in late November.

 

Dourisseau was one of three Huskers to finish in double figures.  Wes Wilkinson had 12 points,  including a trio of  three-pointers, while John Turek added 12 points and seven rebounds, as the Huskers dropped to 10-9 overall and 3-5 in Big 12 action.

 

Keith Langford paced Kansas (18-1, 8-0 Big 12) by matching his career high with 27 points, including 3-of-6 shooting from  three-point range. He eclipsed  his season high of 24 set against Louisiana-Lafayetter on Dec. 11 while Wayne Simien finished with 18 points, on 9-of-13 shooting, and pulled down 14 rebounds. The Jayhawks enjoyed a 38-33 advantage on the boards and held NU to just 36.5 shooting from the floor.

 

The Huskers, who nearly topped the Jayhawks before losing 59-57 in the first meeting at Allen Fieldhouse last month, used the shooting of freshman Joe McCray to take an early lead. The 6-foot-5 freshman guard scored all seven of his points in a 9-2 Husker run that staked Nebraska to its largest lead at 19-12 lead on a Dourisseau jumper with 10:06 left in the half.

 

Kansas quickly responded, as  three-pointers from Aaron Miles and Langford keyed a 12-1 spurt for the visitors, including an 8-0 run capped by Langford’s layup that gave the Jayhawks a 20-19 advantage with 8:48 before halftime. After a Turek free throw tied the game, jumpers by Michael Lee and Simien pushed the Jayhawk advantage to 24-20, a lead they would not relenquish over the final 27 minutes.

 

The Jayhawks eventually built the lead to 32-26 after a Simien jumper with 4:14 in the half before a Turek jumper and a Wilkinson  three-pointer sliced the Husker deficit to 32-31 with 2:28 left in the half. That would be as close as the Huskers got in the final minutes of the half as a free throw by J.R. Giddens and a three-pointer by Michael Lee with 4.3 seconds left in the half sent the Jayhawks to the locker room with a 36-31 lead.

 

Langford, who had 16 of his 27 points in the second half, came out firing  after the intermission. KU hit  a pair of  three-pointers to quickly push the margin to 42-31 just two minutes into the half.

 

Dourisseau, who scored 18 of his points in the final 20 minutes, kept the Huskers within striking distance. But Kansas kept the lead hovering in double digits until the final seven minuts.

 

Trailing 62-50, Wilkinson’s  three-pointer started an 8-2 Husker run that pulled NU within six points, at 66-58 and ended with a pair of Wilkinson free throws with 4:31 remaining.

 

That would be as close as Nebraska got. A pair of baskets by Christian Moody and a two Giddens free throws helped KU run off six unanswered points, pushing the margin to 70-58 with 1:52 remaining. The Huskers had only one field goal in the final six miutes  --  a  three-pointer by Dourisseau with three seconds remaining to cut the defict to 78-65.

 

The Huskers end a three-game homestand on Tuesday, Feb. 8, as the Huskers play host to Iowa State beginning at 7:05 p.m. Tickets for the game are available by calling the Nebraska Ticket Office at 800-8-Big Red or on-line at Huskers.com.

 

Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Kansas vs Nebraska 2/5/05 11:02 a.m. at Lincoln, Neb. (Devaney Center) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Kansas 18-1, 8-0 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 11 Miles, Aaron........ f 3-9 2-5 0-0 3 1 4 4 8 7 3 0 0 36 15 Giddens, J.R........ f 2-8 0-5 3-5 0 3 3 3 7 4 1 3 2 30 23 Simien, Wayne....... f 9-13 0-0 0-0 4 10 14 2 18 1 1 2 1 36 34 Moody, Christian.... f 4-7 0-0 0-2 4 2 6 3 8 1 2 1 0 26 05 Langford, Keith..... g 10-17 3-6 4-4 0 4 4 3 27 2 3 0 3 34 01 Hawkins, Jeff....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 24 Kaun, Sasha......... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 2 0 0 1 0 0 8 25 Lee, Michael........ 3-4 1-2 1-1 0 1 1 1 8 3 1 0 0 19 55 Niang, Moulaye...... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 2 0 1 0 0 8 TEAM................ 2 2 1 Totals.............. 32-60 6-18 8-12 11 27 38 19 78 18 15 6 6 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 16-34 47.1% 2nd Half: 16-26 61.5% Game: 53.3% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-11 27.3% 2nd Half: 3-7 42.9% Game: 33.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 1-2 50.0% 2nd Half: 7-10 70.0% Game: 66.7% 2

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska 10-9, 3-5 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 3-10 3-5 4-4 2 1 3 3 13 1 2 2 2 27 44 Turek, John......... f 5-7 0-0 2-3 4 3 7 3 12 1 1 1 0 32 02 McCray, Joe......... g 2-10 1-7 2-2 1 0 1 1 7 0 2 0 0 19 10 Neal, Marcus........ g 0-3 0-1 0-0 0 3 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 20 12 Muhleisen, Jake..... g 3-11 1-3 2-2 2 6 8 4 9 3 2 1 2 37 01 Dourisseau, Jason... 8-12 1-2 7-12 3 2 5 3 24 0 3 0 3 26 03 Richardson, Charles. 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 9 15 Schliep, Bronsen.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 21 Simms, Corey........ 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 20 31 Maric, Aleks........ 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 7 TEAM................ 1 1 Totals.............. 21-58 6-19 17-23 14 19 33 15 65 8 14 4 7 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-29 41.4% 2nd Half: 9-29 31.0% Game: 36.2% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-10 40.0% 2nd Half: 2-9 22.2% Game: 31.6% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 3-4 75.0% 2nd Half: 14-19 73.7% Game: 73.9% 2

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Mike Thibodeaux, Rick Randall, Gerry Pollard Technical fouls: Kansas-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 13821 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Kansas........................ 36 42 - 78 Nebraska...................... 31 34 - 65