Tigers’ second-half rally prevents Nebraska forward from celebrating a victory on his birthday.
LINCOLN, Neb—It was Nebraska forward John Turek’s birthday on Saturday. He turned 21, but the Missouri men’s basketball team had designs to spoil his party.
Missouri defeated Nebraska 56-53 and left Turek to celebrate a birthday without being able to celebrate a victory.
Turek and Nebraska center Aleks Maric dominated Missouri around the basket early, outrebounding the Tigers 16-14 and pulling down six offensive rebounds they put back for baskets.
But Missouri toughened up under the hoop in the second half, eliminating Nebraska’s second chances and holding Turek to two second-half points.
Turek finished with 10 points.
At least Turek got some help from teammates, including a fast-break assist from guard Charles Richardson in the first half, which Turek flushed home for a monster dunk.
The Cornhuskers kept giving. When Turek’s attempt at a buzzer-beating jumper rolled in and out at the close of the first half, Nebraska guard Jason Dourissau jumped up and tipped it in just as the clock expired.
It wasn’t a power failure.
As the Tigers stood bewildered on the court, the Jumbotron showed a two minute montage of Nebraska basketball highlight footage to the screeching strains of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.”
When the lights came back up, the Tigers stood confused for a few seconds before resuming the drill where they had left off.
The Nebraska state championship tournament for high-school wrestling ended minutes before the Missouri players took the court for warm-ups. There was no time to take down the signs and barely enough to empty the wrestling crowd out before basketball fans started filtering in.