The Nebraska men's basketball team harassed sharp-shooter Leemire Goldwire throughout the night and routed Charlotte 67-48 Wednesday night in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 7:00 pm
The Devaney Sports Center public-address system began playing “New York, New York” after Wednesday night’s game.
There are apparently no memorable songs about Mississippi.
That’s where the Nebraska men’s basketball team is headed for the second round of the National Invitation Tournament after its 67-48 victory against Charlotte before 9,427 fans.
Nebraska improved to 20-12 — its first 20-win season since 1998-99 — and will play at Mississippi on Monday night, with the time to be announced. Win that, and the Huskers will be one game from New York’s Madison Square Garden.
“We would like to be NIT champions,” Nebraska’s Jay-R Strowbridge said.
Defense, they say, is key to any championship, and the Huskers had plenty of that against an athletic Charlotte team that finished 9-7 in the Atlantic 10 Conference, and won at Clemson.
Nebraska held sharp-shooting Leemire Goldwire to six points on 2-of-13 shooting. That included 2-of-9 from three-point range.
Goldwire entered the game averaging 19 points, and he’d made 126 three-pointers on 362 attempts for the season.
Yet the same guy who chucked up 20 threes in a game earlier this season went 10 minutes in the first half without even attempting a shot. That’s because Strowbridge, Sek Henry and Steve Harley — limited to 17 minutes because he’s battling the flu — stuck on Goldwire and denied him the ball.
“We just tried to stay in his face, tried not to let him catch it,” Henry said. “He’s got a quick release.
“As soon as he’s catching it, he’s ready to shoot. We tried to stay really, really close to him and not give him any space.”
It worked. Goldwire made a three-pointer on Charlotte’s second possession. He didn’t score again until 1:21 remained in the game.
“They guarded us aggressively, as I knew they would,” said Goldwire, a 5-foot-11 senior. “We got frustrated due to their defense.”
Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said the game was a mirror image of the Huskers’ season as of late — very good defense, good-enough offense.
“Our defense was about as good as you’re ever going to play,” said Sadler, whose team held Charlotte (20-14) to 31.5 percent shooting.
That included a 4-of-13 mark from Lamont Mack, the 49ers’ second-leading scorer. As a team, Charlotte was 6-of-29 from three-point range.
“Part of it was us,” Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz said of his team’s offensive woes, “but a lot of it was Nebraska.”
Ade Dagunduro paced Nebraska’s offense with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
“I’m definitely a lot more comfortable,” Dagunduro said. “It’s taking what the defense gives me and not really forcing it.”
Nebraska’s lead was a mere six points with 3 minutes, 26 seconds remaining in the first half. But before halftime, Paul Velander and Cookie Miller each had a three-pointer against Charlotte’s zone, and the Huskers had extended their lead to 12.
“A lot of us were nervous before the game started because this was new to us,” Henry said. “But we had fun and we were successful tonight.”
Senior Aleks Maric, the only Husker who’d played on Nebraska’s NIT team two years ago, had nine points and 10 rebounds, allowing him to reach two milestones.
Maric climbed into fifth place on Nebraska’s career scoring chart. His 1,612 career points move him past Jaron Boone, who scored 1,609 points. Maric also became only the second Nebraska player to surpass 1,000 career rebounds.
Maric reached his scoring milestone on a second-half dunk, that coming on a no-look pass from Miller. Maric, fouled on the play, made the free throw for a 47-25 lead — Nebraska’s biggest to that point — with 12:28 remaining.
Maric, likely playing his final home game, exited with 2:21 remaining to a standing ovation.
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.