CHADRON – Both Chadron State College basketball teams will be seeking their first victories of the season this weekend when they open their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference schedules at home against a pair of Colorado teams.

Colorado Mesa, located at Grand Junction, will visit Friday night, while Western State, which is in Gunnison, will be the opponent Saturday night.  The women’s games will open the action at 6 o’clock, followed by the men’s contests at about 8.

The CSC men are 0-4 after also playing some rugged non-conference foes. Transfer Zac Bargen is averaging 15.8 points and 6.3 rebounds to lead the Eagles in both categories. Freshman point guard Justyn Anderson is next in scoring at 10 points a game.

Three more Eagles, transfer Grant Stone, junior David Downey and senior Josh Hatcher, are averaging between 6.8 and 8.5 points a game.

Kyle Vinich, a part-time starter last year as a true freshman, joined the team over the weekend after being given a week off following the football season.  Coach Brent Bargen said he believes the 6-4 Vinich will give the Eagles a more physical presence in the middle and help with the rebounding.

Both Colorado Mesa teams have their seasons off to a good start.

The Mesa women are 4-0 and the Mavericks’ men are 3-1.

The Mesa men opened their season by beating Fresno Pacific 82-81 in overtime and losing to Dixie State of Utah 77-65. But last weekend, the Mavericks overwhelmed Northern New Mexico 84-51 and avenged the earlier loss by topping Dixie State 80-61 during a tournament in Grand Junction.

Colton Burgon, a 6-8 senior, leads coach Jim Heaps’ club with averages of 15.5 points and 7.3 rebounds.  He’s also blocked nine shots.

Also scoring in double figures are 6-4 senior Jeff Hart at 12.8 points and 6-5 sophomore Mike Melillo at 12 points even.

Melillo is not afraid to shoot 3-pointers.  He’s 6 of 23 from behind the arc this season. The Mavericks have an almost 11 per game rebounding bulge over their foes.

The Western State teams are off to a rather slow start this winter. The Lady Mountaineers are 0-4 and have been outscored by an average of 67 to 43.8 points while the Western men are 1-3, but they’ve played two Division I opponents.

There’s something unique about the Western State men’s team.  The roster includes both Charles Joseph and Joseph Charles.

But aside from the reversal in names, there’s not much similarity between the two.  Charles Joseph is a 6-8, 300-pound center and Joseph Charles is a 5-11, 175-pound guard.

Joseph, the center, was on the team last year and led the Mountaineers when they played in Chadron in February by scoring 19 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, although the Eagles won the game 83-58.  So far this season, he’s averaging 12.0 points and 7.0 rebounds.

Charles, the guard, transferred to Western from Northeastern Junior College at Sterling, and is averaging 14.3 points.

The team’s leading scorer is Terrence Boyd, who is averaging 15.3 points a game. Travis Shepherd, the team’s leading 3-point threat (11-25), is close behind at 13 points a game.

The Mountaineers opened the season against Wyoming and the Air Force Academy and lost by scores of 62-42 and102-68, respectively.  Since then, they have edged Northern New Mexico 70-68 and lost to Panhandle State of Oklahoma 91-88, despite 27 points by Boyd, 19 by Shepherd, 15 by Joseph and 11 by Charles.

2012 Daktronics All-Super Region 4 Football Team

CHADRON – Chadron State College’s Kevin Lindholm and Trelan Taylor have each been placed on the Daktronics 2012 All-Super Region 4 Football First Team, which was announced Thursday.

In addition, Chadron State left tackle Garrett Gilkey and defensive end Keifer Burke were named to the second team.

The teams, which are sponsored by Daktronics, are voted on by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Both Lindholm and Taylor will advance to the national ballot.

Lindholm, a senior linebacker from Eads, Colo., and a three-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference First Team selection, led the Eagles with 122 tackles this season. He added 20.5 tackles for a loss and he also had 4.5 sacks and three fumble recoveries.

He was named the RMAC Defensive Player of the Year and finished his career with 299 tackles, the ninth most in school history. His 37.5 tackles for loss in his career ranks him fifth at CSC.

Taylor, a junior safety from San Diego, finished the season as the RMAC leader in interceptions with eight and he was the Eagles’ third-leading tackler with 74. He also forced two fumbles and was named to the all-conference first team on defense and the all-conference third team at punt returner.

For the season, Taylor averaged 12.2 yards on 22 punt returns and he tied a school record by scoring on an 86-yard punt return. He also returned an interception for a touchdown and compiled 376 all-purpose yards.

Ashland quarterback Taylor Housewright is the Super Region 4 Offensive Player of the Year, while Ethan Westbrooks, a defensive end from West Texas A&M, is the Defensive Player of the Year.

The RMAC led all conferences in Super Region 4 with 17 selections.

Alex Helmbrecht, Sports Information Director

The University of Nebraska Coliseum will experience its final NCAA sporting events Thursday and Friday when the Nebraska volleyball team hosts first and second rounds of the NCAA volleyball tournament.

The Coliseum, which opened in 1926, was the home of University of Nebraska basketball until 1976.  It also was the site of the state boys basketball and wrestling tournaments, several UNL graduations, and many other functions, including visits from entertainer Bob Hope and President Richard Nixon, both in 1971.

In March of 1975, when the Coliseum was preparing to host its final state boys basketball tournament, Randy York, a 1967 graduate of Alliance High School, wrote the following column for the Lincoln Journal-Star newspaper.  Today, York is the director of creative service and senior writer for Huskers.com of the UNL athletic department.

Prep Panorama

By Randy York

March 15, 1975

Tears of Nostalgia

Surly, tears will be shed for the losers Saturday in the Coliseum.

Personally, sometime Saturday night, I might shed a couple for the Vine Street Barn itself.

The thought of the last prep basketball championship game in the Coliseum has to mean something special for those who have experienced it.

Granted, the bleacher seating is uncomfortable. By most any modern day standards, the Coliseum is a dismal-looking structure with poor lighting.

But we all know physical appearance is superficial. It’s what’s inside that counts and the memories of past Coliseum state basketball tournaments will linger forever.

I know press facilities at the University of Nebraska Fieldhouse for next year’s state tournament will be better. Fans will have more elbow room, be more comfortable.

You’ll be able to get to the rest rooms quicker and you won’t have to wait as long for the hot dogs, which might even be prepared with the mustard and ketchup already on them, thanks to improved concession stands.

But will it be better? Will it be more fun?

Perhaps, but probably not. It’ll take some time to break the fieldhouse in, to give it the appeal of the Coliseum’s musty atmosphere.

Skyward Ice Cream Bars

A few years ago, the Coliseum lost the best ice cream bar salesman you’ll ever find. Remember the guy in the red Nebraska letter sweater who’d throw an ice cream bar up to the top of Mt. Everest if you waved your hand at him?

Then you’d pitch your dime back and he’d catch it with one hand while preparing to launch another skyward shot with the other hand.

Those were the days. He must have sensed things would never be the same in a new, more modern facility. So, he left his ice cream gold mine to other, less aggressive salesmen.

All fans are bound to feel the intensity of a state championship game, but the high school students are the ones who get caught up in the atmosphere the most.

Twenty, forty, sixty years from now they’ll be recounting the memories they experienced in the Coliseum and the accompanying charisma in the barn.

Is the last stat tournament game in the Coliseum really Saturday night? Ah, Central and Prep … what a way to exit.

Lincoln’s Stan Johnson remembers the first state tournament played in the Coliseum in 1926. Construction was incomplete for the first state tourney, he recalls.

Money was tight then, too, remembers Johnson, a furniture salesman and father of Lincoln Star staff writer Cindy Johnson.

A group of students attending Jackson High in Lincoln figured out a way to beat the system that first state tournament.

Good Old Yankee Ingenuity

They pooled their money to pay one members way into the game. He, in turn, headed for the rear of the Coliseum where bricks still were not firmly in place.

There, he chipped a small entryway for others to squeeze through and collected dimes from those crawling into the Coliseum for reimbursement. 

It was a prime example of Yankee ingenuity, according to Johnson.

Nebraska’s Coliseum isn’t the only one slated for its last state championship basketball game Saturday night.

The Denver Coliseum will bid a fond farewell to its smelly old Coliseum Saturday night, too, as the Colorado prep tournament moves to plush McNichols Arena next year.

“It will be a little like a last ride in your favorite old car, the one you saved up for and bought when you were a senior in high school,” Denver Post sports writer Mike Monroe predicted.

Cruising Main one last time.

Anyone who’s gone to high school knows the feeling.

“This place gets to me,” fellow prepwriter Chuck Sinclair remarked Friday while covering the Omaha Burke-Omaha Central semifinal. “I’m really going to miss it.”

(Huskers.com) –The No. 21 Nebraska women’s basketball team returns to the Bob Devaney Sports Center for a top-25 clash with No. 11 Maryland in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Wednesday, Nov. 28. Tip-off the between the Huskers (5-1) and Terrapins (3-1) is set for 6 p.m. (MST) at the Devaney Center with live national television coverage on the Big Ten Network. Kevin Kugler and Debbie Antonelli will provide the call for BTN.

The Husker Sports Network will provide a live radio broadcast of the game with Matt Coatney and Jeff Griesch on the call, including AM 1400, KCOW, Alliance. A free live audio stream will also be available on Huskers.com.

The Huskers will try to improve to 5-0 at the Devaney Center this season, while notching their 10th victory over a top-15 opponent since Dec. 20, 2009, when they face Maryland. NU’s game with the 2012 ACC Tournament champion Terrapins will be the first regular-season meeting between Nebraska and Maryland, but the Huskers and Terps do have history. Maryland, which will join the Big Ten in 2014-15, knocked Nebraska out of the 2008 NCAA Tournament in College Park, Md. The Terps, who won the 2006 NCAA championship, defeated NU 76-64 in the 2008 NCAA second round.

Maryland, which advanced to the 2012 NCAA Elite Eight, returns four starters from a team that went 31-5. The Terrapins feature national player-of-the-year candidates Tianna Hawkins, Alyssa Thomas and Laurin Mincy. Nebraska adds a pair of national player-of-the-year candidates in Lindsey Moore and Jordan Hooper, putting five of the nation’s top-50 players on the floor at the Devaney Center.

#21 Nebraska Cornhuskers (5-1, 0-0 Big Ten) 3 – Hailie Sample – 6-1 – So. – F – 5.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg 23 – Emily Cady – 6-2 – So. – F – 10.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg 35 – Jordan Hooper – 6-2 – Jr. – F – 16.5 ppg, 9.0 rpg 00 – Lindsey Moore – 5-9 – Sr. – G – 15.3 ppg, 4.0 rpg 13 – Brandi Jeffery – 5-7 – So. – G – 6.0 ppg, 2.5 rpg Off the Bench 21 – Sadie Murren – 5-8 – Fr. – G – 4.0 ppg, 1.5 rpg 1 – Tear’a Laudermill – 5-9 – So. – G – 3.6 ppg, 1.8 rpg 55 – Adrianna Maurer – 6-3 – Jr. – C – 3.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg 14 – Katie Simon – 6-2 – So. – F – 3.0 ppg, 0.6 rpg 24 – Rachel Theriot – 6-0 – Fr. – G – 2.8 ppg, 1.7 rpg 10 – Meghin Williams – 6-1 – Sr. – F – 2.3 ppg, 2.8 rpg 22 – Courtney Aitken – 5-9 – Fr. – G – 0.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg Head Coach: Connie Yori (Creighton, 1986) 11th Season at NU (195-127); 23rd Season Overall (390-267)

#11 Maryland Terrapins (3-1, 0-0 ACC) 21 – Tianna Hawkins – 6-3 – Sr. – F – 19.5 ppg, 9.5 rpg 25 – Alyssa Thomas – 6-2 – Jr. – F – 10.5 ppg, 8.0 rpg 13 – Alicia DeVaughn – 6-4 – Jr. – C – 13.0 ppg, 8.3 rpg 1 – Laurin Mincy – 6-0 – Jr. – G – 6.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg 15 – Chloe Pavlech – 5-9 – Fr. – G – 2.8 ppg, 2.0 rpg Off the Bench 4 – Malina Howard – 6-4 – Fr. – C – 9.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg 22 – Tierney Pfirman – 6-4 – Jr. – F – 8.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg 40 – Katie Rutan – 5-8 – Jr. – G – 7.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg 00 – Sequoia Austin – 5-5 – Jr. – F – 3.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg Head Coach: Brenda Frese (Arizona, 1993) 11th Season at Maryland (255-87); 14th Season Overall (312-117)

Four Huskers Set for 40th Straight Start Together Nebraska’s four returning starters Lindsey Moore, Jordan Hooper, Emily Cady and Hailie Sample are expected to make their 40th consecutive start together on Wednesday. Since sophomores Cady and Sample have arrived on campus, they have started every game alongside Moore and Hooper.

Moore is expected to make her 105th consecutive start dating back to the first game of her freshman season in 2009-10, while Hooper expects to make her 71st straight start dating back to her first game as a freshman in 2010-11.

Winston-Salem, N.C. – (Huskers.com) – Nebraska received career performances from Ray Gallegos and Andre Almeida, as the Huskers posted an impressive 79-63 victory over Wake Forest in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods Tuesday evening.

Gallegos and Almeida had 20 points apiece, as the Huskers broke open a close game with a 20-2 second-half surge in posting their largest road win margin since the 2003-04 campaign.

Gallegos scored 17 of his career-high 20 points in the second half, hitting 7-of-8 shots in the final 20 minutes to improve Nebraska’s record to 5-1 on the season. Nebraska scored on 16 of its first 19 possessions of the second half, turning a 28-24 halftime lead to as much as a 24-point lead in cruising to victory.

Nebraska, which scored 51 points in the second half, shot 62 percent in the second half and placed four players in double figures. Gallegos tied a career high with four 3-pointers, including a pair in the second-half surge, to help the Huskers hand Wake Forest its first home loss in seven ACC/Big Ten Challenge games.

While Gallegos was torching the Demon Deacons on the outside, Almeida put together one of the most dominant efforts of his career with his first career double-double. The 6-foot-11 senior matched his career high with 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting, grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds and blocked three shots, as Nebraska held Wake Forest to just 43 percent shooting from the field.

Wake Forest was within 42-37 after an Arnaud Adala Moto basket, before Gallegos and Dylan Talley combined to lead the Huskers on a 20-3 surge over the next six minutes to put the game out of reach. The pair combined for all 20 of the Huskers’ points in the run, as Talley finished the night with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Gallegos, who was 1-for-5 in the first half, got the spurt started by scoring five straight points as NU used a 7-0 run to take a 49-37 lead after a Talley basket. Moments later, the pair helped Nebraska run off eight unanswered points, as the Huskers built a 62-40 lead with 8:05 left, and Wake Forest never got within 13 points the rest of the way.

Madison Jones led Wake Forest (3-3) with 14 points, as NU held Demon Deacon stars Travis McKie and C.J. Harris to a combined 10 points, as the pair entered Tuesday’s game averaging nearly 32 points per game. NU held Harris, who hit the game-winning shot in NU’s 55-53 loss in Lincoln last season, to just two points on 1-of-6 shooting, while McKie totaled eight points on 2-of-11 shooting from the floor.

The Huskers played solid basketball in the opening 30 minutes, holding Wake Forest to 32 percent shooting in the first half taking a 28-24 lead into the locker room.  The Huskers got off to a good start, using an early 8-0 run to build a six-point lead and led 14-6 before Wake began to battle back behind the play of backup guard Chase Fischer, whose shooting provided Wake Forest (3-3) much-needed spark. Fischer scored all eight of his first-half points, including a pair of 3-pointers, in a 13-2 run to give the hosts a 19-16 lead.

Wake led 22-18 before the Huskers closed the half on a 10-2 run to take a four-point lead into the locker room. Gallegos got the run started with a 3-pointer before Almeida’s layup and a jumper from David Rivers capped a run of seven straight points for Nebraska. Rivers, who finished with a career-high seven rebounds, then added a put back to help give NU a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the evening.

The Huskers will be off until they host USC at the Devaney Center Monday night. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. CT.