[Husker] Nebraska 73, Iowa State 63

[NUStLNorris at aol.com]

Nebraska put forth a tremendous effort tonight, lead by center Aleks Maric’  
career-night performance of 37 points and 16 rebounds, and picked up a  
tremendous, critical win in Ames.  NU improves to 16-8 on the year overall,  6-5 in 
Big XII play, and are just a Sooner-win-in-Boulder-away (and it’s  getting’ 
late in that one) from being tied for fourth place in the  conference.  
Nebraska now heads home for back-to-back games against Texas  Tech and Colorado.
 
The Cyclones had no answer for Maric.  And credit the coaches and his  
teammates, because I don’t think I’ve EVER seen the Huskers make the post-entry  
pass better than they made it tonight.  And from the start, you could see  that 
NU was going to pound it inside to their big man.  ISU’s got some  talented, 
young post players (good perimeter games from what I’ve seen), but  they were 
not physically up to the challenge of the big 6-foot-11 Aussie.
 
Maric’ 37 points were the fifth best in school history.  NU led 35-26  at the 
half and Maric had 18 of NU’s 35.  His teammates looked for him,  passed the 
ball in to him well … and he finished.  NU shot 56 percent from  the field in 
the first half with only five turnovers (and a 19-10 rebound  edge).  
 
Jamel White hit two 3’s in the first 3 minutes of the game as NU got off to  
a running start at 14-4.  White hit his third trey around the 2-minute mark  
of the first half to put the Huskers up 33-23.  In between it was  all-Maric, 
all-the-time.  I’ve never seen NU deliver the ball to the post  any better than 
they did tonight.  
 
ISU got off and running early in the second half with a 9-2 run  out-of-t
he-chute.  Curtis Stinson probably put up a good number of points  tonight, but he 
was noticeably off of his game.  They were a lot more  balanced when they 
took apart NU in Lincoln earlier this year.  He hit 3 of  his first 11 and didn’t 
ever really get going.  
 
NU countered ISU’s early run as the Cyclones continued to have no answer  for 
Maric.  He came into the night shooting 60 percent from the line for  the 
year, but he’s 10 percentage points better than that.  I don’t know  what the 
deal was -- I suspect all the international ball took a lot out of him  and he 
wasn’t ready at the start of the year.  He went home for the  holidays … and 
appears to be making up for lost time ever since.
 
NU’s seniors Wilkinson and Dourisseau struggled, although Wes did some good  
things in the first half.  Nebraska’s defense against ISU in the first half  
was, I thought, extremely good.  All shooters seemed to have a hand in  their 
face.
 
Charles Richardson is someone who I should’ve mentioned by now.  The  
diminutive little junior point guard really is the floor general for this  team.  ISU 
killed NU with pressure and trapping in Lincoln.   Richardson was great 
tonight.  NU cannot play long stretches of time at  this point in the season, 
without him in the line-up.
 
In the second half, NU turned it over about ten times in the first ten  
minutes (after only five at the half).  It seemed like it was tied forever  and the 
game came to a screeching halt about the time it was 46-46 at the 11:30  
mark.  Marcus Perry hit a big three to make it 49-46 and I don’t think NU  trailed 
after that.  Bronson Schliep, playing in place of an unproductive  B.J. 
Walker, struggled from the line, but he was about the only one.  Maric  drilled 
about four-in-a-row in the last two minutes, or so.
 
ISU gave NU a couple of shots to the gut, but in my opinion, Nebraska  
outplayed the Cyclones in about every area tonight -- much as ISU did to the  
Huskers in Lincoln earlier in the year.
 
Without question, one of the best efforts by the Cornhuskers this year in a  
game they absolutely had to have.
 
Dave Norris