ISU Hosts Nebraska In Big 12 Home Opener
Media Relations
Iowa State (10-5, 1-0) vs. Nebraska (11-3, 0-0)
Jan. 10, 2007 • 7 p.m. • Ames, Iowa • Hilton Coliseum (14,092)
Radio: Cyclone Radio Network; John Walters (pxp), Eric Heft (color)
Television: Cyclone Television Network; Dave Armstrong (pxp), Paul Splittorff (color)
Television Affiliates: WOI (Ames/Des Moines), KWKB (Cedar Rapids/Waterloo), KYOU (Ottumwa), Mediacom (Mason City), Cox Cable (Omaha/Council Bluffs)
The Iowa State-Nebraska game will be offered on the ESPN Fullcourt package
Gameday Quick Facts
Iowa State (10-5, 1-0), winners of three-straight games, plays its first Big 12 contest at home, hosting Nebraska (11-3, 0-0) Wednesday evening in Hilton Coliseum...the Cyclones are aiming to begin the conference season at 2-0 for just the fourth time since the Big 12 formed in the 1996-97 season (1997, 2000, 2004)...
ISU has won its Big 12 home opener in seven of the 10 seasons of the league’s existence.
Cyclone-Husker Quick Facts
Nebraska leads the all-time series against Iowa State at 128-96...the Cyclones own the series lead in games played in Ames at 57-48...for three years (2002-2004), the home team won each game, however the last two seasons have proven to be quite different...
ISU has won the last two meetings in Nebraska, but the Cornhuskers have defeated
ISU two consecutive times in Hilton Coliseum, including last season’s 73-63 Cornhusker victory where Aleks Maric scored 37 points (13-of-15 FG) and grabbed 16 rebounds...NU has not won three-straight games in Ames since winning six consecutive contests in Hilton Coliseum from 1976-81...no Big 12 team has won three-straight games in Ames since the league formed in 1996-97...NU head coach Doc Sadler is one of six new coaches in the Big 12 and will be making his Big 12 coaching debut Wednesday night...five of the six new Big 12 mentors coached in their first league game on Saturday...only two (
ISU’s Greg McDermott & OSU’s Sean Sutton) were successful...Nebraska freshman Sek Henry and Iowa State freshman Wesley Johnson went to the same prep school, The Patterson [N.C.] School...Johnson did not compete for the team because he transferred to the school during the middle of the season after his other prep school (Eldon Academy [Mich.]) shut down.
Cyclone Update
Wesley Johnson scored four points in the final 11 seconds, including a putback with 1.6 left on the clock as Iowa State overcame a 16-point second-half deficit to win Greg McDermott’s and its Big 12 opener Saturday at Missouri, 66-65...the 16-point comeback win was
ISU’s second-largest second half come-from-behind victory since
ISU rallied from an 18-point second half deficit to down No. 2 Oklahoma State (84-83) in 1992...
ISU was actually down by six points (65-59) with less than a minute remaining...Mike Taylor hit a clutch trey to cut it to three followed by a Jessan Gray steal that led to a Johnson layup to close the gap to one-point with :11 seconds remaining...on MU’s next inbounds play,
ISU trapped MU’s Stefhon Hannah in the corner and forced a traveling violation to setup Johnson’s heroics...it was
ISU’s first buzzer-beater win since Omar Bynum scored on a lay-up as time expired to beat Kansas State, 73-71 Feb. 23, 2002...the win was
ISU’s second Big 12 Conference road opening victory since 1997 when the Cyclones downed Missouri 68-65 in Columbia...
ISU relied on two freshmen to engineer its brilliant comeback...Johnson tallied 12 of his 14 points in the second half and tied a career high with 13 rebounds to record his seventh double-double of the season...Johnson is averaging 10.6 rebounds in his last eight games and has the fourth-best rebounding average (8.7 rpg) among all NCAA freshmen...Dodie Dunson, who was celebrating his 20th birthday, tallied 16 of his career-high 19 points after intermission...Dunson was 4-of-7 from 3-point range, making all three of his 3-point attempts in the second half...Jiri Hubalek came off the bench to record his second consecutive double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds...Taylor finished the game with 17 points...Hubalek’s and Johnson’s efforts on the boards helped
ISU outboard the Tigers, 43-33...
ISU has outboarded seven of its last eight opponents by a +8.5 margin...the only team to outrebound
ISU in the last eight games was No. 5 Ohio State, who won the battle of the boards by just one carom...the Cyclones recovered from a poor shooting first half, where they were below 30 percent (29.6%) in a half for just the second time this season...
ISU hit 48.5 percent after intermission...the Cyclones recorded nine steals in the game, the second-best effort of the season...Rahshon Clark led the way with three steals and Wesley Johnson had two.
Nebraska (11-3, 0-0)
Nebraska plays its Big 12 opener against Iowa State on Wednesday...the Cornhuskers are off to a 11-3 start in the Doc Sadler era after an 82-71 win over Western Kentucky on Saturday...Jamel White led all players with 23 points (7-of-10 FG) and six assists, as the Huskers scorched the nets for a 62.2 percent outing from the field...Sadler is one of six new coaches in the Big 12...the Huskers ride the strength of veteran post player Aleks Maric, who leads the team in scoring at 18.1 ppg and has a team-high 7.5 rebounding average...Maric has five 20-point games this season, including a season-high 29 vs. Nebraska-Omaha...Maric, at 6-11 and 270 pounds, uses his wide body to get excellent post position...he currently leads the Big 12 in field goal percentage at 63.8 percent...Maric was virtually unstoppable the last time he played in Hilton Coliseum...Maric scored a career-high 37 points on 13-of-15 shooting from the floor, as Nebraska defeated
ISU, 73-63...he also grabbed 16 boards in the game...freshman guard Ryan Anderson has been a pleasant surprise for the Huskers...Anderson ranks second on the team in scoring (13.3 ppg) and has made 48.9 percent of his 3-point attempts...Anderson scored a career-high 29 points in a 81-72 loss at Hawaii earlier this season...senior guard Marcus Perry has given the Huskers a spark from the bench, averaging 8.4 ppg...Perry tallied 17 points behind a 5-of-7 effort from 3-point range in an 81-53 win over Savannah State last week...Perry leads the team with 24 3-pointers, making 49.0 percent from beyond the arc...senior guard Charles Richardson his having a strong start to his senior season...Richardson has excelled in Sadler’s up-tempo style, ranking second in the Big 12 in assists at 6.36 apg...Richardson, who averages 8.4 ppg, leads the team and ranks third in the league in steals with a 2.2 spg average...Nebraska has been an extremely efficient team on the offensive end...the Huskers are hitting 51.5 percent of their shots from the field (ranking second in the Big 12) and 40.7 percent of their shots from downtown (ranking fourth in the league)...NU leads the league in rebounding defense, with its opponents averaging just 29.2 rebounds per game...Sadler arrives at Nebraska after coaching two seasons at UTEP, compiling a 48-18 record.
ISU Hosts Nebraska In Big 12 Home Opener 
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