LACEY LOWDOWN

Jack Salt had zero points (not surprising as he didn’t put up any shots), 3 rebounds, a steal plus a couple of blocks as the University of Virginia Cavaliers comfortably beat Virginia Tech 71-48 on Thursday.

On the face of it those are not stunning numbers but post game Virginia coach Tony Bennett made a telling comment, “Jack (Salt) and Isaiah (Wilkins) are the ultimate team players….I have been blessed to have so many service orientated players. Jack and Isaiah have been good, so we’ve been getting good play when our frontline is in there.”

For those of us that have followed the career of Salt it comes as little surprise to hear Bennett endorsing the unselfish attitude of his sophomore centre. Throughout his school and age-group career Salt always displayed a team first philosophy and now it is being recognized at a premier basketball college (Virginia are ranked No 9 in the nation).

Also playing at a premier school is Tai Webster and he became the 28^th player in the school’s history to score 1,000 points for Nebraska in the 81-70 loss at Iowa on Sunday – Webster scored 14 points in that one.

 Webster had claimed a game high 18 points on Friday as the Huskers went down 72-61 against Michigan State. A small matter of 15,821 turned out at Pinnacle Bank Arena to not only see the Huskers but also to pay respect to Tyronn Lue (coach of the NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers) as he was in attendance to have his jersey retired.

Lue had a distinguished collegiate career at Nebraska before becoming a first-round NBA draft pick in 1998. Lue played three seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers and 11 seasons overall with seven franchises. A first-team All-Big 12 player, he won two NBA titles with the Lakers in 2000 and 2001, then guided the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA Championship.

Jarrod Kenny made 6 points and provided a team high 4 assists as the Perth Wildcats took a step closer to a play-off berth with a comfortable 94-63 victory against Brisbane Bullets on Friday night. Perth is aiming for a remarkable 31st consecutive appearance in the play-offs.

 In Spain Isaac Fotu scored 14 points and added 6 rebounds as Zaragoza improved to 7-12 for the season with a 102-99 victory in the Spanish League. Fotu made 5 from 8 from the field and 4 from 5 from the free throw line – collectively Zaragoza made an impressive 33 from 37 from the charity stripe.

Mike Karena continued his good form notching 23 points (11/16FG) as Sammic ISB beat Albacete 90-83 to remain top of the LEB Silver standings, the Spanish second division, with a healthy 14-5 record. It’s the third 23 points haul of the season for the Canterbury Rams forward.

The Nebraska Huskers broke a five game losing streak with a hard earned 83-80 victory against No 20 Purdue on Sunday. Nebraska began Big Ten Conference play with a hiss and a roar winning three straight games so will be relieved to get back in the winners circle.

Since that opening salvo, despite Tai Webster’s outstanding form, they had been unable to claim another W until Sunday. Webster made 15 points and added 8 rebounds and 6 assists as the Huskers improve to 4-5 in Big Ten action.

On Thursday Webster posted a game high 23 points for the Huskers, his eighth 20-point game of the season, as they went down 73-61 against Northwestern.

Jack Salt had 4 points and 3 rebounds for Virginia Cavaliers in a high octane Atlantic Coast Conference encounter. Unfortunately for Salt No12 Virginia fell to No. 1 Villanova 61-59 to a buzzer-beater tip-in. The Cavs are now 6-3 in Conference games.

Sacramento State improved to 4-4 in the Big Sky Conference after recording an 80-77 overtime win against Portland State. Izayah Le’Afa contributed 5 points, 3 rebounds, a pair of assists and a steal for the Hornets.

Reuben Te Rangi is punching above his weight for the Brisbane Bullets at present. Due to an injury crisis at the Bullets Te Rangi is having to play a lot of minutes in the power forward spot and is making a pretty good fist of it. He played 19 minutes in the 80-77 loss against Sydney Kings on Friday scoring 6 points without missing a shot – 2/2FG and 2/2FT’s.

Jarrod Kenny made a couple of key plays as the Perth Wildcats point guard kept their play-off hopes alive with a narrow victory against Melbourne United.

 In Spain Zaragoza’s slide down the Liga Endesa table continued as they lost 81-77 at Bilbao. Zaragoza (6-12) are now 13^th on the 17 team ladder.

Isaac Fotu received the Best Sixth Man award from Gigantes del Basket a leading basketball publication in Spain. The Tall Blacks forward, in his third season in the Liga Endesa and his second season with Zaragoza scored 4 points and garnered 7 rebounds against Bilbao.

Fellow Tall Blacks forward Mike Karena scored 12 points as Sammic ISB cruised to a 93-57 win against Navarra in the Spanish second tier competition. Sammic, with a 13-5 record, now head the LEB Silver standings.

The numbers don’t do him justice (5 points, 6 rebounds and 1 block) but Jack Salt impressed everyone including coach Tony Bennett as Virginia beat Georgia Tech 62-49 to improve to 5-2 in Atlantic Coast Conference play on Sunday.

“There were some great stat lines, but I don’t think there were any better than the way Jack impacted the game. Statistically, he had six rebounds and played 35 minutes. Ben Lammers (Georgia Tech centre) is a good player and he made him earn everything. He played with his hands free, he fought his position and showed his strength, and that was impressive. I love seeing that, and it was a huge key for us in the game because that guy can score and make some big plays,” said Bennett.

Salt logged a career high 35 minutes and admitted to some weariness post game, “I was pretty tired, I hadn’t played this much in a long time, but I was very happy to be out there. It was so good to be out there and guard a good player. I was excited for the challenge, because his offense means a lot of one-on-one defense.”

Nebraska suffered the agony of a single point defeat twice in four days to slip to 3-4 in Big Ten conference action.

Tai Webster had a game high 18 points, as the Huskers were edged 67-66 by Ohio State on Thursday. He followed that with a team high 14 points as the Huskers lost 65-64 to Rutgers at the weekend.

Isaac Fotu’s form seems to be mirroring that of his team Zaragoza. The Tall Blacks forward contributed just a single point and a pair of rebounds as Zaragoza went down 82-77 at home to Unicaja and they have now lost five of their last seven games in the Spanish League.

In the Australia NBL Brisbane Bullets bounced back from a 33 points mauling at Adelaide on Thursday to upset Melbourne United 88-71 on Saturday. Reuben Te Rangi is finding buckets hard to come by (just 2 points across the two outings) but is doing a fine job defensively as he spends some time in both the small forward and guard spots – he had 3 rebounds in each game.

The same can be said for Jarrod Kenny. The Perth Wildcats point guard didn’t trouble the scorers last week as Perth won at home against Cairns and lost at Vector Arena on Sunday against the Breakers.