Arkansas Nails Nebraska 74-65

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 13, 1998 / 2:00 AM EST / CBS Sportsline

The football school still can't win an NCAA basketball tournament game.

Nebraska fumbled away a 10-point second-half lead Thursday night and lost to Arkansas 74-65 in a first-round slop-fest that featured 43 turnovers.

Pat Bradley scored 19 points for the sixth-seeded Razorbacks, including 4-of-4 free throws in the final 2 minutes, 7 seconds. Arkansas (24-8) broke away from a 61-61 tie with a 13-4 run over the final three minutes to advance to a second-round game against Utah on Saturday.

All of Arkansas' points in the final four minutes came on 15-of-16 free-throw shooting. For the game the Razorbacks, 64 percent from the line this season, were 19-of-21.

"We're the worst free-throw shooting team in the United States," incredulous Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson said, "but tonight we were not."

Arkansas' 22 turnovers resulted in 31 Nebraska points, but that wasn't enough to prevent the 11th-seeded Cornhuskers (20-12) from falling to 0-6 in NCAA tournament play. Nebraska had 21 turnovers resulting in 23 Razorbacks points.

At halftime, Arkansas had 13 turnovers.

"We played one of the sloppiest halves and still won the game," Richardson said. "You get the kids and watch this game and say, 'This is what you don't do.'"

Kareem Reid added 17 points and Tarik Wallace 13 for Arkansas, back in the tournament after a nine-year NCAA run came to an end last season. Tyronn Lue, Nebraska's smooth point guard, scored 18. Venson Hamilton added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Cornhuskers.

For most of the night, Lue was an oasis of wizardry in a ball-handling wasteland. But the junior, who is considering a jump to the NBA this year, had a costly turnover, one of only three in the game for him, down the stretch.

"I got tired in the second half, and I didn't get a chance to handle the ball that much," said Lue, who played all but three minutes of the game.

Nebraska was up 40-33 at the half and 47-37 with 16:45 to play before Wallace sank two 3-pointers to ignite a 10-0 run that tied it at 47-47 with 13:30 remaining.

Then Lue took over for a while. He had an assist to Larry Florence for a basket, then scored his team's next eight, including two 3-pointers, to put Nebraska back on top 57-50 with 8:17 to go.

Arkansas rallied again, taking the lead 61-59 on Bradley's fifth 3-pointer, with 4:06 to play. It was the Razorbacks' last field goal, but the way they were shooting from the line, it didn't matter.

"They wore down a little bit," Bradley said. "That zone they had in the second half, we were able to hit some shots against it and that's a backbreaker at times."

Andy Markowski, a 37-percent free-throw shooter this season, made two from the line for Nebraska to tie it one last time at 61-61 with 3:46 remaining. Ali Thompson and radley each made two free throws after Cornhuskers turnovers to make it 65-61 and Arkansas didn't trail again.

Lue had six assists and three steals, and teammate Cookie Belcher had six steals. But the Cornhuskers, who shot 53 percent from the field in the first half, cooled off to 33 percent in the second.

"You've got to execute for 40 minutes, and we played 20," Nebraska coach Danny Nee said.

The Cornhuskers were 3-for-16 from 3-point range.

"We just got tired," Nee said.

Reid had six of his team's turnovers and just two assists, but the Razorbacks had no turnovers during the late run that gave them the win.

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