LINCOLN, NEBRASKA – Kyle Hittle's (New Braunfels/New Braunfels HS) baseline jumper with 3.2 seconds quieted the 10,586 fans at Pinnacle Bank Arena and  capped off a huge upset victory over Nebraska on Wednesday night, 74-73. (Click here to see ESPN Highlights)

In a game that could have gone either way, the ball bounced the way of the Cardinals (6-1) a few times in the last moments of the game.  UIW was down 67-60 after a Terran Petteway three-pointer with 2:32 remaining in the game, but never gave up.  "Our guys really hung in there together especially after Denzel (Livingston) fouled out," said UIW head coach Ken Burmeister.  "It is a great win for UIW, Dr. Agnese and the city of San Antonio." 

Freshman Jontrell Walker (Aurora, IL/West Aurora HS) got the comeback started with a three-pointer to answer Petteway, but they still trailed 71-66 with 33 second left after a free throw by David Rivers.  Traylin Farris (Pearland/Manvel HS) cut it to three points with a lay-up and then Shawn Johnson (Gretna, LA/Alief Hastings HS) stole a pass and was fouled attempting a three-pointer.  He made 2-of-3 to cut the lead to one point.  UIW quickly fouled the Cornhuskers (5-3) and Shavon Shields knocked down a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left.

On the ensuing possession, Johnson was once again fouled on a three-point attempt.  He made the first free throw, missed the second and knocked down the third to make it 73-72 Nebraska with 6.7 seconds left.  The Huskers could not get the ball in bounds and threw it away without anyone touching the ball.  Hittle got the ball off the in-bounds play for UIW, took a dribble to the baseline, rose up and knocked down a tough 13-footer with 3.2 seconds to play.  Petteway's desperation three-pointer was off the mark for Nebraska.

The win was the first ever for the Cardinals against a power conference school.  Even though they started the game slowly falling behind 8-0, they led by one point at the half.  There were a total of five ties and three lead changes in the game.  The Huskers led by 10 points with 12:59 remaining in the game.

The Cardinals shot 48.1 percent from the field, made 8-of-24 from three-point range and were 16-of-22 at the foul line.  Walker led the team with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting.  Hittle finished with 18 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and Johnson added 13 points.  Denzel Livingston (Houston/Waltrip HS) added 12 points, six rebounds and five steals before fouling out in the final minute.  Farris came off the bench to score 12 points in just 16 minutes.  Those five players scored every point for the Cardinals.

The Huskers, an NCAA tournament team in 2013-14, shot 42.3 percent from the field, made 5-of-17 from three-point range and were 24-of-32 at the charity stripe.  Shields had 19 points, nine rebounds and was a perfect 9-for-9 at the foul line.  Petteway added 18 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals.  Nebraska had 10 more rebounds than the Cardinals, but also committed two more turnovers.

This was the second of seven consecutive games on the road for UIW.  The Cardinals are now off for a week before heading to Grand Canyon University next Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game.


Post Game Quotes from Coach Burmeister

Opening Statement 

"Really proud of our guys. I think our president Dr. Agnese is using Division I athletics to brand a great University of the Incarnate Word. It is a great school, great campus and people across the street don't even know we exist. We have just over 8,000 students, so for us to do this is great for our program, but it might be even greater for the university in the future." 

 

On where this game ranks in his career

"I think when anytime I was at Iowa we went to the Final Four twice, and to be part of that and to be help a hall of famer, Coach Olson, was pretty special. To go to Arizona—a down program, and to turn that around and recruit guys like Steve Kerr and Sean Elliott and they go to the Final Four. Then to go to UTSA and turn a down program in—that has kind of been the motto, keep turning programs around. Fortunately when you do that, you make some people unhappy and sooner than later they dispose of you and push you out the door. With new presidents and new athletic directors. We have a great president at UIW, who has a mission. We have a 28 million dollar student union going up, we have a medical center and after that is athletics—that is a lot of money for a private school. It ranks high for the university." 

 

On being down by 10, what was his message to the team

"Down 10, up 10, the way we shoot 3's I don't think you are ever out of a game, and I don't think you ever have a game won because of the way we play. Our style of play is pretty open as you can see. If we pass it three times, that is probably the extent of it. Sometimes five times. That is our style, we have tried to copy Gonzaga, Butler and private institutions that have been successful in Division I. Now Butler has changed their program, they are really physical now, but they shot the ball real well and played the gap defense. We are trying to do it like that." 

 

On the end of the game, fouls on three pointers, Petteway throwing the ball away

"We had the right shooters, Shawn (Johnson) the freshman, won a high school game. I saw him make 19 free throws in a row in a high school game. Really, I thought he was going to make all six, and when he didn't it was a little bit disappointing. We got the ball on the inbounds for Kyle, and he got into his legs and I don't know how he shot it, it looked like it was over the back board and he got hit pretty good, and I thought we were going to get two free throws. When the ball went in, that was happiness. Then you are always nervous on the last play, fouling or something goes wrong. We had a lot of freshmen out there. Happy to have a win, and really appreciate Nebraska playing us in front of a great crowd, great arena. You are always happier to win, but kind of our branding is we want to play a Big Ten team every year, a Big 12 team every year, and go New York and west coast. Like next year we play Purdue and Oklahoma. The following year, hopefully Michigan State and UNLV. So we really have a death penalty, because when you have the transition just like Nebraska-Omaha is going through right now, we talked to the guys about them beating Marquette. We have four years we can't go to the tournament, it is really hard to recruit—even my son didn't want to come. He didn't want to come, he said 'dad I can't go to the postseason' it means a lot to people. We kind of bounded together and hopefully we can go to the CIT Tournament. We thought we were going last year, we beat Texas A&M Corpus-Christi and Sam Houston, and Stephen F. Austin had a tip in over us at the buzzer and Oral Roberts had a jump shot at the buzzer. We had 21 wins and beat those teams and they selected them. Hopefully this type of win can get us over the hump."  

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