Daily Nebraskan

Issue date: 12/3/07 Section: Sports

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Frustration comes in many forms.

For the Arizona State men's basketball team, it came in the form of expired shot clocks and turnovers.

The culprit? Nebraska's defense.

The Cornhuskers (5-1) put the clamps on the Sun Devils' offense early and pulled away late in a 62-47 win Sunday afternoon at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

"That's probably about as well as we can play right now," NU Coach Doc Sadler said after the game, which was part of the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series that pitted teams from two of the nation's strongest basketball conferences.

The Huskers' second-year coach was especially pleased with his team's defense, an area he expressed displeasure with after Nebraska's victory over Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne in its previous game.

The Sun Devils (4-2), who came into Sunday's contest averaging 73.6 points an outing, were held to their lowest point total of the season. And though they managed to shoot 42.1 percent against the Huskers, they committed 19 turnovers and often were forced to shoot when the shot clock was nearing zero.

"That's the first time I've seen us work as well together like that," said NU junior guard Ade Dagunduro. "I think that was our best display of team defense. Everybody was after it, and we did our assignments perfect."

But defense wasn't the only thing working for the Huskers.

Midway through the first half, Arizona State was leading 17-10. That's when Dagunduro scored nine straight points to bring the Huskers within 21-19, and sophomore guard Ryan Anderson's 3-pointer gave Nebraska a 22-21 advantage with 6 minutes, 16 seconds left before halftime.

The Huskers never trailed again in what Sadler called their most complete game of the season.

"Early we struggled a little bit, and then Ade made two or three baskets to keep us in the game," Sadler said. "Then we got in a flow."

Dagunduro scored a game-high 15 points, while Anderson and senior center Aleks Maric chipped in 14 apiece.

Maybe more importantly, though, no Arizona State player scored more than eight points.

James Harden, the Sun Devils' freshman guard who had been averaging 17.6 points per game, was limited to eight. And the Huskers hounded the former McDonald's High School All-American, forcing him to turn the ball over seven times in 23 minutes.

In the second half, as Nebraska's lead ballooned to as many as 26 points with nine minutes still remaining, Arizona State players started bickering with each other on the court.

Frustration had visibly set in for the Sun Devils, and Husker players took notice.

"Right then and there, we knew we had them," Dagunduro said. "We just kept the pressure up and they got frustrated."

Note: Sadler announced after the game that four NU players will redshirt this season. The coach said sophomore forward Alex Chapman and freshman forward Alonzo Edwards, along with freshman guards Toney McCray and Brandon Richardson, will sit out this season.

BENGOULDSMITH@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM

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