KANSAS CITY—Nebraska’s basketball players spent the week telling themselves their season started over at the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
The mentality clearly paid off Wednesday. These Huskers looked nothing like the team dogged by a mediocre 14-17 record.
Led by an efficient, balanced scoring attack and more than a few missed shots from its opponent, Nebraska upset No. 5 seed Missouri 75-60 in the first round of the league championship at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.
The Huskers never trailed and never let up, and they became the second-ever No. 12 seed to advance to the Big 12 quarterfinals. They’ll face No. 4 seed Texas A&M at 2 p.m. today.
“It’s a first start for us,” NU guard Ryan Anderson said. “We’ve been through a lot this season, and this is a new beginning.”
After losing to Missouri twice this season by an average score of 16 points, the Huskers controlled their offensive tempo, stuck to their game plan and shot 55 percent from the field.
“Today, we just made some plays and we shot the basketball well,” NU coach Doc Sadler said. “The last couple of days, we’ve talked heavily about offensive execution, and it looks a lot better when you shoot the ball.”
Nebraska committed 13 turnovers on the day, but the team rarely had trouble with the Tiger’s full-court presses and traps.
“With the style Missouri wants you to play, if you don’t execute your offense, you’re going to turn the ball over and make a lot of mistakes,” Anderson said. “If you execute and make them gamble, they do a lot of switching, and you get the shots you want.”
The Huskers got plenty of shots from beyond the arc and made Missouri pay with an impressive inside-outside game. Nebraska shot 8-of-14 from 3-point range, including 3-of-4 in the second half.
The Huskers jumped out to a 26-9 lead in the game’s first 10 minutes and never looked back. Anderson said NU’s early scoring success brought out the confidence his team has tried to play with all season.
“I think we prepared really well coming down here,” Anderson said. “I think we’ve had that confidence all year, and today we just came together as a team and made it happen.”
Four Huskers scored in double digits on the day, led by 16 from Anderson and a career-high 19 points from Brandon Richardson.
Missouri had a chance to come back when Nebraska went more than six minutes without scoring late in the second half, but the Tigers never took advantage.
Missouri scored eight points but missed five shots during that span, and the Tigers cut the deficit to 10 points with 4:01 left in the game.
Then Richardson knocked down the shot that seemingly put the game out of reach.
Nebraska got the ball inside to a double-teamed Jorge Brian Diaz, and he dished outside to Richardson on the left wing. The sophomore guard buried down a 3-pointer while getting fouled, triggering an eruption from the crowd.
Richardson hit his free throw, and the four-point play killed any remaining Missouri momentum.
“That guy can play, man,” Anderson said of Richardson. “You guys will enjoy him for years to come here at Nebraska.”
Missouri was the defending Big 12 Tournament champion but shot 19-of-56 from the field Wednesday. Tiger coach Mike Anderson admitted after the game things couldn’t have gone much worse for his 22-10 team.
“If you told me, ‘Hey coach, you’re going to have four turnovers and we get beat by 15,’ I’ll be scratching my head,” he said. “What could go wrong did go wrong.”
Kim English, Missouri’s leading scorer, shot 2-of-11 from the field and scored a mere seven points. Fellow starting guard Zaire Taylor was worse – seven points on 2-of-14 shooting. Forward Laurence Bowers led the team with 11.
The Tigers were missing starting forward Justin Safford, whose season was ended last month when he tore his ACL, and his absence was evident down low as Nebraska out rebounded MU 38-22.
“It’s one of those games where everything went right for them,” Anderson said. “Seemed like every loose ball, they got. I thought they came out and they were a little bit more relaxed. They played loose and had fun, I guess.”
Nebraska hasn’t played Texas A&M since its conference season-opening 64-53 loss in College Station on Jan. 9, but Richardson knows the NU team that’s playing right now can give the Aggies a fight.
“If we can execute on offense like we did today and make shots, we’ll put ourselves in position to win,” he said. “As long as you can leave it on the floor and give it your all, that’s all you can really ask for.”
maxolson@dailynebraskan.com
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