Creighton used full-court defense to take a 27-point halftime lead, then held on for a 74-62 victory in Omaha.
BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, November 23, 2007 6:00 pm
OMAHA — Doc Sadler, walking to his postgame radio show, was answering reporters’ questions about his team’s fight. Nebraska had just outscored and outplayed Creighton in the second half. Steve Harley was pulling up and swishing jumpers. Cookie Miller drew some “oohs” with a couple of acrobatic drives for baskets. The defensive intensity had increased.
How’d the Huskers do it?
The Nebraska coach stopped and grinned.
“I don’t want this to sound wrong,” Sadler said, “but we took the crowd out of the game.
“But it was because they were up 27.”
That, of course, is of greater concern to Sadler.
Creighton, more intense, more energized and more focused to start the game, built a 47-20 halftime lead.
Nebraska trimmed the margin to nine points but lost its first road game 74-62 Saturday before 17,004 fans at Qwest Center Omaha. The crowd included Nebraska interim athletic director Tom Osborne, who, hours after firing football coach Bill Callahan, watched some hoops from a corner suite.
“We let the crowd get into it, and it really messed our head up,” said freshman point guard Miller, who led Nebraska with 19 points. “Everybody started doing their own thing, weren’t doing what the coaches were doing.
“Second half, we came out with a little bit more energy and showed what Nebraska’s all about.”
It’s that Nebraska — minus Aleks Maric’s subpar performance — that Sadler hopes to see in future games.
Sadler wasn’t pleased with his senior center, who scored nine points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-9 shooting from the free-throw line. Maric, after committing his fourth turnover, exited with 4 minutes, 8 seconds to play, and didn’t return.
In the final seconds, Sadler crouched in front of Maric, seated on the bench, and appeared to be giving him a good scolding.
“He’s a guy that’s got to carry us, and he’s got to have a much better effort than what he gave us,” said Sadler, who made Maric off-limits for postgame interviews.
“If we’re going to have any success at all, he’s got to be our star.”
Miller and Harley combined for 33 points, equaling their combined point total through Nebraska’s first three games.
Twenty-five of those points, and all 14 of Harley’s, came in the second half, when the Huskers (3-1) crawled within 61-52 with 6 minutes, 55 seconds remaining.
“It gives you confidence that you know our guys are going to continue to play,” Sadler said. “That’s good. I hope we’re not going to be in that situation again, but I’ve been in this long enough to know that we probably will be.”
Nebraska’s first-half situation was the result of 17 turnovers — a variety of travels, bad passes, bad catches, against a full-court press and in half-court — which Creighton turned into 25 points.
“Just carelessness on our part, and nervousness,” Sadler said. “Their defense was solid. They played without fouling, and we just didn’t react the way we need to.”
The Huskers had four turnovers on their first five possessions. Even then, Creighton led only 4-2.
But then the Bluejays (3-0) began hitting three-pointers and used a 27-3 run to go ahead 40-13 with 5:29 left before halftime. During that run, Creighton had as many three-pointers (six) as Nebraska had turnovers.
The Bluejays, led by Dane Watts and Cavel Witter with 14 points apiece, had nine three-pointers in the first half … and none in the second half.
“It could’ve got really bad,” Sadler said. “They could’ve gone after our throat. They just started missing some shots, otherwise they would’ve.”
Nebraska returns here in three weeks to play No. 12 Oregon. Nebraska assistant athletic director Marc Boehm said roughly 11,000 tickets have been sold.
It’s another big game in which Sadler may take a different pregame approach than he did Saturday.
“I made a point to myself to be really, really loose, and that was probably a mistake on my part,” Sadler said.
“I wanted to show them that it’s just a ball game. And that’s all it is. To some, it may be more, but to me, that’s all it is, and we’re going to have a good time — if we play hard.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.