Game Notes: No. 7 Nebraska 61, No. 10 Missouri 56

 

NEBRASKA
All-Big 12 Second-Team member Aleks Maric tallied 17 points and 13 rebounds for his 38th career double-double tying him for fifth in Big 12 history with Kansas' Wayne Simien; He shot 7-for-10 from the free-throw line. The 10 attempts pushed him past Kimani Ffriend for the most attempts in a season in Husker history. His 17 points increased his career total 1,593, pushing him past Tyronn Lue (1,577 points from 1996-98) and Erick Strickland (1,586 points from 1993-96) to move into sixth on the school's career scoring list.

 

With 13 rebounds, Maric surpassed 300 for the season, becoming just the third Husker to achieve that milestone in a season (He finished the game with 308 for the season). Venson Hamilton owns the top two rebounding seasons with 315 in 1997-98 followed by 335 in 1998-99. Chuck Jura grabbed 305 in 1971-72. The 13 rebounds also established a school record for boards in a Big 12 Championship game, breaking his own mark of 12 set last season against Oklahoma State in the first round on 3/8/07.

 

The Huskers dominated inside, scoring 38 of their 61 points in the paint and outscoring the Tigers 38-10 from that area.

 

Nebraska improves to 3-8 against Missouri in Big 8/Big 12 Championship play (won the last two).

 

Cookie Miller handed out only two assists, but that was enough to pass Jake Muhleisen for second place on the Huskers' freshman assist list. Tyronn Lue set the record in 1996 with 144 assists.

 

MISSOURI
Missouri loses a first-round game for the third-straight year after winning nine straight. It is the Tigers' first first-round loss in a Big 12 Championship game played in Kansas City in seven tries.

 

Leo Lyons scored just seven points on 2-for-12 shooting and grabbed only six rebounds. In his previous four games he had averaged 21.5 points per game and 12.8 rebounds per game and shot 58.6 percent from the floor (34-for-58)

 

For the second time this season both Matt Lawrence (4-for-8) and Keon Lawrence (3-5) both connected on at least three 3-point field goals. The other occurrence came on 2/26/08 vs Oklahoma State. In that game, Matt Lawrence hit 3-of-7 while Keon connected on 3-of-5.

 

Until Jason Horton's basket with 2:13 remaining, the Tigers had registered an assist on all previous 17 field goals. Missouri finished with 17 assists on its 18 baskets.

 

Big 12 Championship Notes...
Through three games the combined margin of victory has been a mere 16 points (5.3 points per game), no Big 12 Championship has seen more closely contested games through the first three games in the 12-year history of the league.

 

Nebraska wins as a No. 7 seed for the first time in three tries.

 

Nebraska's last two first-round victories have come against Missouri.

 

Nebraska becomes the first higher seeded team to win in the 2008 Championship.