Huskers Fall to No. 10/11 Wildcats

Lincoln - The Nebraska men's basketball team surged out of the locker room to cut a 14-point halftime deficit to seven in less than two minutes, but the tandem of Denis Clemente and Curtis Kelly combined for 22 second-half points to lead No. 10/11 Kansas State past the Huskers, 76-57, Tuesday night at the Devaney Center.

Redshirt freshman center Jorge Brian Diaz led the Huskers (13-9, 1-6 Big 12) with 13 points, while senior guard Ryan Anderson added 10, coming up just a field goal shy of hitting the 1,000-career point mark. Although Diaz and Anderson both reached double figures, the Wildcats had four players with at least 12 points, led by a game-high 23 points from Clemente and 15 from Jamar Samuels.

The Wildcats shot 50 percent from the field in the first half to build a 14-point lead, 42-28, but the Huskers came out firing in the second frame as Nebraska cut the deficit to seven in just 1 minute, 45 seconds. After buckets inside from Brandon Ubel and Diaz, the Huskers used solid ball movement to free Lance Jeter in the corner for a trey that made the score 42-35 with 18:10 remaining.

However, the Huskers scored just two points over the next four minutes while Clemente hit three 3-pointers to put K-State on top 53-37 with 14:39 to go. Clemente added his fifth and final trey with 10:26 remaining to give the Wildcats a 19-point lead at 64-45 and put the game out of reach.

K-State gained its largest lead of 23 points a minute later on a Curtis Kelly dunk.

Neither team was clicking on the offensive end early, including several missed opportunities by Nebraska. Despite the slow start, the Huskers and Wildcats were deadlocked at five points apiece five minutes into the contest. Diaz put Nebraska on the board first with a 19-foot jumper from the top of the key and Jeter hit an open 3-pointer from the left wing to tie the game after K-State held a 5-2 lead.

Kansas State broke open the first half scoring after the first media timeout to take a 14-7 lead, before NU point guard Lance Jeter lobbed a pass inside to Diaz for an old-fashioned three-point play to make it 14-10.

Diaz scored on the exact same play a possession later, but his five points in 45 seconds was in between a pair of Jacob Pullen 3-pointers that quickly gave K-State a 22-12 lead. Diaz scored seven of his team-high 13 points in the first half, but the Huskers could not find an offensive rhythm by shooting 38 percent (8-of-21) from the floor before the intermission.

The Huskers tried to get out of the scoring slump on an Eshaunte Jones 3-pointer with nine minutes remaining in the first half before the Wildcats expanded their lead to 30-15 at the under eight-minute media timeout.

Nebraska's Big 12-best scoring defense was unable to slow down the Wildcats throughout the night, giving up the fourth-most points an opponent has scored this season.

The Huskers continue their stretch against ranked opponents this Saturday when NU travels to No. 1 Kansas on Saturday, Feb. 6. Tipoff between the Huskers and Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse is set for 5 p.m. CST and the game will be seen on ESPNU.