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Huskers.com
Nov. 08, 2010
 
Lackadaisical is the word used to decribe win over Bellevue.
 
Lincoln. — Behind a 17-point effort from sophomore center Brian Jorge Diaz, the Nebraska men's basketball team wrapped up the exhibition portion of its schedule with an 82-58 win over Bellevue University Monday night at the Devaney Center.

The Huskers now look ahead to the 2010-11 regular season, which begins Friday night when NU hosts South Dakota at 7 p.m.

Diaz led all scorers by hitting 8-of-10 shots from the floor to surpass double figures for the second straight game. Thirteen of his points came in the first half, as Nebraska raced to a 43-25 halftime lead before maintaining a comfortable margin throughout the entire 40 minutes.

The Huskers connected on 58 percent of its field goal attempts (29-of-50) to better its 46 percent (24-of-52) shooting performance in last Wednesday exhibition opener.

The Bruins pulled to within 12 points at the 15-minute mark, but the Huskers pulled away, shooting 67 percent (12-of-18) from the floor in the second half. Junior guard Kamyron Brown dished out a game-high six assists, including three in the first eight minutes of the second half to help NU hold its double-digit advantage and cruise to a comfortable win.

The Huskers held Bellevue to just 30 percent from the floor, including 9-of-35 from 3-point range.

The Bruins' comeback hopes ended at the 13-minute mark when sophomore guard Ray Gallegos intercepted a BU pass and flushed a two-handed dunk to help ignite a 10-0 spurt that gave NU a 61-39 lead after a Diaz basket.

Gallegos finished with 10 points, including seven in the second half, while Andre Almeida added 10 points and six rebounds off the bench.

Nebraska was in control from the tipoff, racing to an 11-2 lead in the first five minutes, including six points from Diaz. The Huskers shot 53 percent in the first half (17-of-32) and grabbed its biggest lead of 18 points on a Brown baseline jumper with 40 seconds remaining to take a 43-25 advantage into the locker room.

Diaz and Brown hooked up three times in the final six minutes of the half to expand a 21-18 lead to a significant margin by ending the half on a 22-7 run. Sophomore forward Brandon Ubel ignited the run with a pair of field goals, before the Diaz-Brown show took over. Leading 31-20, Brown delivered a no-look pass to a cutting Diaz in the lane for a one-handed slam, while the pair connected twice more to expand the lead.

While Diaz led all scorers with 17 points, he was also the top defensive force by tallying three of Nebraska's eight blocked shots.

Ben Imig led Bellevue with 14 points, including four 3-pointers.

The Huskers move on to Friday night's season opener against the Coyotes at the Devaney Center. The game will be televised by Fox Sports Net Midwest and carried on the Husker Sports Radio Network.

Doc Sadler Postgame Quotes 11/8

Opening Statement: "I thought we did some good things in the first half but the second half was as bad of basketball as you can play. I don't think it was anything Bellevue did; it was more of what we had done. You can't start your second half off with four or five turnovers in a row, and then to get beat like that on the offensive glass, that's just guys on the other team playing harder than you did. So I guess that's something that they did do. It gets frustrating for some of our guys to be out there defending smaller guys but that's what you have to do.

I think the two games we've played helped us a little more on the perimeter defense more than anything else. You don't get into a lot of situations with guards having to defend ball screens with other guards and that's what this team did, so that's a good thing for us.

Our shooting percentage was ok, but this basketball team has to get a mentality to start defending even when you are up 20. You've got to really, really start defending, and we shouldn't be there right now but at times we are a good defensive team."

On Brandon Richardson: "Hopefully he'll be able to go a little bit on Wednesday, and hopefully he'll be ready by Friday, but I'm not going to rush it because we have a huge week next week also."

On how important this year's depth is: "I think you got a chance to see that tonight. Brian got into some foul trouble, and it's not like we don't have someone to put in to help him. There's no question the depth helps in a lot of areas. I think it hurt Toney (McCray) and Brandon more than it hurt us. They needed to play to get into game shape."

On how Lance Jeter will progress this season: "I thought Lance played pretty good. He got into foul trouble but Lance has got to have a good year; the seniors got to have a good year, and I think he will. He works extremely hard and he's got his weight down, so I think Lance will have a good year."

On the most concerning thing about the 25 turnovers: "Just lackadaisical and just not being into the game. That's all it is. You can't make unforced errors like that. To sit there and turn the ball over 25 times, you've got to be kidding me. You have to be down to 8 or 9 at the most. The one reason I didn't want to full court press was because I wanted the game to stay closer longer, and it didn't stay closer longer. This team can't make those kind of mistakes, they got to enjoy and take advantage of every play."

Brandon Ubel: On what he takes from the game tonight: "I thought we played pretty well the first half. We played with some intensity and played good defense but the second half we kind of came out without a lot of energy. Like coach said, we played lackadaisical on defense and handling the ball. It got frustrating at times knowing that we should have played a little harder but I guess I'd rather do that now than Friday."

On what he thinks of the 25 turnovers: "I'm surprised. I think we haven't really been doing that much. We just didn't come out with the same energy in the second half that we did in the first. That's really all. We were sloppy with the ball. We didn't' cut hard or get back on defense. We were just lackadaisical all around.

On what senior Lance Jeter brings to the team: "He is definitely our leader. He is the general out there on the floor. He really runs the show. To have him in foul trouble kind of hurt us a bit. I think he got his fourth pretty early and that didn't help with turnovers. We didn't have our primary ball handler out there. But the nice thing is we have a guy like Cam (Kamyron Brown) to back him up. I think the turnovers should be better come Friday."

On the added depth and how it will help the team: "In practice it makes us compete every day. Red team, white team, it doesn't matter. It is competitive and even. It gets everybody better. And then in games some guy might not be on his game or in foul trouble and somebody can fill in and fill that void that's left. It really helps with everything I think."

Jorge Brian Diaz: On if today was a true test of size: "It is a test on our defense. On the screens, you need help a lot and have to move your feet faster. It is a challenge and I like it actually. It's different."

On the pressure he feels to produce offensively with injured players on the bench: "All of those guys can score a lot of points and when they are out we definitely miss them but we have other guys that can score too. We use everybody and I just try to score when I have it without a double team. I'll go hard for it."

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.