December 6, 2003

Men’s Basketball Nips ‘Cats

Taukiuvea Lights up Wayne

            Kearney, Neb. – Utah junior Will Taukiuvea had 30 points and North Platte senior Nick Branting added 24 to lead the 24^th-ranked Nebraska-Kearney men’s basketball team to a 90-86 win at Wayne State Tuesday night. UNK, which has won five of the last six games against the Wildcats, improves to 4-0 while Wayne falls to 3-4.

            A transfer from McCook C.C., Taukiuvea hit 10 of 13 shots on the night, including a 4 for 6 effort from three-point land. He was especially hot in the second half when he tallied 25 points on nine of 10 shooting.

            Trailing 43-37 at the break, UNK opened the second half on an 11-2 run that put the Lopers ahead by three. Taukiuvea supplied nine of the points in this stretch.

            The game would see saw back and forth with the teams being tied 13 different times throughout the night. The final tie came at 81 all with 1:22 to play. A three by Wayne’s Brett Watson tied the game at 81 after a Taukiuvea put the Lopers up by three.

            An “old fashioned” three point play by Branting gave UNK an 84-81 lead with 1:02 to play and, after a missed three by Wayne, Taukiuvea added a bucket to push the lead to five with just 17 ticks left. Branting then hit four straight free throws to complete the scoring for the Lopers.

            Branting had a strong night at the line (12 of 13) to reach a double double for the evening as he had a team best 11 rebounds. Grand Island senior guard Chad Sheffield was the other player in double figures, tallying 10 points on five of nine shooting.

            UNK forced 12 Wildcat turnovers while committing just five on the night. That helped negate a shooting edge for Wayne (50.8 to 44.8) that included an 11 of 23 effort from behind the three-point line.

            Center Brett Cain led Wayne with 30 points on 13 of 16 shooting from the floor.

            The Lopers visit UNO this Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.