Huskers Stop Cyclones

Ames, Iowa --- Jason Dourisseau scored 17 points in the second half to lead five Huskers in double figures as Nebraska ran past Iowa State, 76-69, Sunday at Hilton Coliseum. With its second straight win, the Huskers improved to 13-12 on the season and 6-8 in league play, while the host Cyclones fell to 15-10 on the year and 7-7 in conference action.

 

Dourisseau hit 7-of-14 field-goal attempts and 5-of-7 from the free throw line to pace the Huskers with 19 points, his second-highest point total in conference play this season. Wes Wilkinson came off the bench to score 16 points, while Aleks Maric recorded his third double-double of the year with 13 points and 12 boards. Joe McCray added 11 points and Marcus Neal Jr. had his best game in weeks by coming off the bench for 10 points and seven assists without a turnover.

 

After Nebraska carried a 30-28 lead into the locker room, the teams went back and forth over the first four minutes of the second period, although Nebraska fekt as it was on the losing end when it was hit with eight quick fouls. The Cyclones had just two fouls called against them in the same 3:22 frame to open the second half, but the Huskers did not get rattled.

 

ISU went ahead by five points, 43-38, on a Tasheed Carr layup with 13:02 to play and took a 45-41 lead on Jared Homan’s basket at the 11:48 mark. The Huskers responded with an 8-2 run to take a 49-47 lead on Wilkinson’s conventional three-point play. Neal sparked the run as he hit a three-pointer at the 11:21 mark to pull NU within one, and then dished out assists on the next two trips down court. Dourisseau had scored the previous seven points for the Huskers before Neal’s trey got NU untracked.

 

Neal then got the Huskers started on their game-turning run just two minutes later.

 

Neal found McCray on the wing in transition, when McCray buried his second three-pointer of the game and started a 12-0 run to push Nebraska athead 65-54 with 7:09 to play. ISU missed two shots and had two turnovers while committing three fouls during the run. Nebraska hit 3-of-4 field-goal attempts and all five charity shots in the run. NU finished the game hitting 40.0 percent from the floor, including 50.0 percent in the second half, while the Cyclones connected on just 37.7 percent, and just 34.2 percent in the second frame.

 

IowaState countered with a quick 5-0 run and eventually cut the Husker lead to three points, 67-64, with 4:48 to go on a Homan three-point play. After each team missed on its next trip down, the Huskers used three offensive boards over the next two minutes to keep the ball in their end and start working the clock.

 

Wilkinson made the lead five points with a jumper at the 2:54 mark and Dourisseau pushed the lead back to seven, 71-64, with 2:09 remaining. The Huskers then missed five of 10 free throw attempts in the final minute but ISU could not capitalize. The Cyclones missed three shots and a free throw attempt while adding a turnover in the final 60 seconds as Nebraska won at Ames for the first time since 1998, snapping a six-game road losing streak against ISU.

 

While Dourisseau was silent in the first half, Maric was tearing up the paint as he posted a double-double in the first half with 11 points and 10 boards. The 6-11, 265-pound Aussie tied the NU freshman record with his third double-double of the season, equaling the mark set by Ron Taylor in 1973.

 

ISU scored the first five points of the game before Dourisseau got NU on the board at the 16:35 mark, his only points of the opening frame. Dourisseau then picked up his second foul of the game with 16:33 left in the opening period and finished playing just six of the first 20 minutes with two points and two boards.

 

From there, Maric then scored six straight with the last basket starting an 11-1 run that ended with NU ahead 17:12 on a Wilkinson jumper at the 8:20 mark. Maric and Wilkinson each had four points in the run while McCray added a three-pointer, as he became just the fourth player in NU history to record at least 70 treys in a season.

 

McCray’s 11 points on the day moved him into second place on the NU freshman points scored chart, as he now has 378 points on the year. He passed Eric Piatkowski (372 points) and Jerry Fort (376), and now looks to join Dave Hoppen (432) as the only Husker freshmen with at least 400 points in their rookie season.

 

IowaState countered with a 7-1 run to pull even at 21-all on Stinson’s jumper with 4:25 left before half. Stinson, one of the Big 12’s top scorers, was held to nine points on 3-of-12 shooting. Homan, who had two points against the Huskers in the first matchup, led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting while Will Blalock added 15 and Rahshon Clark had 11.

 

After the score was knotted for the fourth time of the game at 24-24, Neal pushed the Huskers to a halftime lead with a pair of three-pointers less than two minutes apart. Neal’s first trey broke the 24-all tie, and after the Cyclones pulled within one, Neal drained another long range shot and the Huskers held the lead at the break for the fifth time this season. NU is now 4-1 on the road this year when leading at halftime.

 

After knocking off arguably the two hottest teams in the league in the past week, Nebraska returns to the DevaneyCenter court on Wednesday, March 2 for its regular-season finale on Senior Day. The game will tip off at 7:07 p.m. and can be heard on the Pinnacle Sports Network and Huskers.com. The contest can also be seen in the state of Nebraska on FSN Midwest.

 

Official Basketball Box Score
Nebraska vs IowaState
02-27-05 1 p.m. at Ames, Iowa - Hilton Coliseum
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VISITORS: Nebraska 13-12, 6-8
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
1  Dourisseau, Jason... *  7-14   0-0    5-7    4  2  6   4  19  0  4  0  1  21
12 Muhleisen, Jake..... *  0-3    0-1    0-1    1  2  3   4   0  1  3  0  2  21
2  McCray, Joe......... *  3-13   2-7    3-4    2  5  7   0  11  1  4  0  0  28
31 Maric, Aleks........ *  4-7    0-0    5-6    6  6 12   4  13  1  1  1  0  23
44 Turek, John......... *  2-4    0-0    0-2    2  1  3   5   4  0  1  1  0   9
10 Neal, Marcus........    3-9    3-5    1-4    0  4  4   3  10  7  0  0  1  22
11 Wilkinson, Wes......    6-12   0-3    4-5    2  3  5   0  16  1  1  1  1  28
15 Schliep, Bronsen....    0-1    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   2   0  0  0  0  1   9
21 Simms, Corey........    0-0    0-0    1-2    1  1  2   1   1  0  1  0  0  10
3  Richardson, Charles.    1-1    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   0   2  2  2  0  2  20
45 Wilbrand, Tony......    0-1    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   1   0  0  0  1  0   9
   TEAM................                         5  1  6   1         1
   Totals..............   26-65   5-16  19-31  23 28 51  25  76 13 18  4  8 200

 

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-35 31.4%   2nd Half: 15-30 50.0%   Game: 40.0%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  3-8  37.5%   2nd Half:  2-8  25.0%   Game: 31.3%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  5-9  55.6%   2nd Half: 14-22 63.6%   Game: 61.3%    4

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HOME TEAM: Iowa State 15-10, 7-7
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
1  Stinson, Curtis..... *  3-12   0-1    3-5    2  1  3   5   9  3  5  0  1  36
11 Blalock, Will....... *  4-15   0-4    7-8    2  1  3   2  15  4  2  1  0  40
13 Clark, Rahshon...... *  4-6    1-1    2-2    1  2  3   5  11  0  2  2  1  27
22 Staple, Damion...... *  3-8    0-0    0-2    3  5  8   4   6  0  2  0  2  28
51 Homan, Jared........ *  7-10   0-0    6-8    5  5 10   3  20  1  2  4  2  40
10 Carr, Tasheed.......    2-9    0-4    3-4    0  3  3   4   7  0  2  0  2  23
3  Neal, John..........    0-1    0-1    1-2    0  2  2   2   1  0  0  0  0   6
   TEAM................                         1  4  5
   Totals..............   23-61   1-11  22-31  14 23 37  25  69  8 15  7  8 200

 

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-23 43.5%   2nd Half: 13-38 34.2%   Game: 37.7%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  0-5   0.0%   2nd Half:  1-6  16.7%   Game:  9.1%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  8-14 57.1%   2nd Half: 14-17 82.4%   Game: 71.0%   5,1

 

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Officials: Curtis Shaw, Steve Olson, Verne Harris
Technical fouls: Nebraska-TEAM. Iowa State-None.
Attendance: 14092

Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Nebraska......................   30   46  -   76
Iowa State....................   28   41  -   69

Points in the paint-NU 34,IS 40. Points off turnovers-NU 20,IS 17.
2nd chance points-NU 18,IS 13. Fast break points-NU 4,IS 8.
Bench points-NU 29,IS 8. Score tied-10 times. Lead changed-11 times.
Last FG-NU 2nd-02:09, IS 2nd-01:54.