Huskers no match for No. 15 Purdue in 81-62 loss
In the final home sendoff for seniors Shavon Shields and Benny Parker, the same issues that have plagued Nebraska since the start of Big Ten Conference play reared their heads one more time on Tuesday night.
Similar to the first meeting with Purdue in West Lafayette back on Jan. 30, the 15th-ranked Boilermakers seemingly put the Huskers in a lose-lose situation every time they had the ball, scoring at ease in the low post against one-on-one defense and then burning them from beyond the arc with seven 3-pointers whenever NU would double team down low.
As a result, PU lead by as many as 21 points midway through the first half and then kept Nebraska at arm’s reach on through the second en route to an 81-62 victory on the Huskers' Senior Night.
Shields definitely did his part in the loss, scoring a game- and season-high 32 points on 11-of-19 shooting and a perfect 8-of-8 clip from the free throw line. But it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome 20 points from Vince Edwards and 16 more from A.J. Hammons.
"This is a game where we're out-matched physically, there's no question," head coach Tim Miles said. "I think at the end, whether it was resignation or frustration or disappointment, you kind of get that. But the middle run in the first half was what frustrated me the most. We didn't make multiple efforts, and when you're out-matched - when you're physically disadvantaged - you've got to have this urgency and intensity on the ball, everywhere. We just didn't have that."
Following an emotional Senior Night ceremony honoring Shields and Parker, the game could not have started any worse for Nebraska. As Purdue continued to get east shots in the paint while knocking down 3-pointers, the Boilermakers used a 23-4 run to go up by as many as 30-9 with just over eight minutes left in the first half.
Nebraska didn’t do itself any favors early on, either, starting just 3-of-18 from the field and 1-of-7 from 3-point range through the first 12 minutes.
"We're better than that," junior guard Tai Webster said
Just when it seemed like the game had completely fallen apart, Shields put the team on his back one more time. After scoring a game-high 25 points last time out at Penn State, Shields responded by scoring seven straight points to sparked a 12-2 run for the Huskers.
An And-1 finish followed by a 3-pointer from Shields closed the gap to 39-31 with 39 seconds to go in the half, but a foul on freshman Ed Morrow with just 0.7 seconds left allowed Dakota Mathias to add two more free throws and send the Boilermakers into halftime up 41-33.
Shields ended up scoring 19 of his 32 points in the first half alone on 7-of-11 shooting from the field, but Purdue countered by once again lighting it up from beyond the arc and hitting 41.7 percent (five total) of its 3-pointers.
"I just thought Shields was really good," Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. "A couple times, we didn’t take up his space, but he isn’t a high volume three-point shooter, and he made a couple tough ones. You want to do your best to keep him in front of you and score over you, but he was getting some angles and doing a good job of getting Raphael (Davis) on his hip and then hitting that little floater that he’s known for."
Nebraska was able to keep within single digits through the first five minutes of the second half, but every time it seemed to be making a push the Boilermakers would answer with a monster dunk from one of it’s bigs or a dagger 3-pointer.
In fact, a dunk by Hammons and then back-to-back threes by Ryan Cline and Mathias broke it back open into a double-digit game and eventually turned into a 14-3 Boilermaker run that pushed their lead back up to 66-49 with 8:43 left to play.
The Huskers wouldn’t get any closer than that from there, as their offense came too few and far between while Purdue continued to make one winning play after another down the stretch and led by as many as 20 before the final horn sounded.
"They were getting whatever they wanted," Shields said. "They were getting easy layups, wide-open threes, stuff like that. When you leave a good team like that wide open, good things don't happen. That's pretty much what happened."
Nebraska ended up shooting just 40 percent from the field and 23 percent from 3-point range, while Purdue hit a staggering 65.2 percent of its shots in the second half and finished at 56.6 percent for the game.
Tai Webster had nine points but got them off just 3-of-14 shooting, while Morrow ended up with a decent night with eight points while going 4-of-5 from the field.
"I don't know if quite frankly we were intimidated with some of our guys or what it was, but I didn't have them in the right place mentally, obviously," Miles said. "The one thing we have to do is we have to be able to fight."
With the loss, Nebraska drops to 14-16 overall and 6-11 in league play, while the Boilermakers improved to 23-7 and 11-6 as they push on to the NCAA Tournament.
The Huskers also drop a game back behind Penn State and Northwestern in the Big Ten standings, meaning they’re currently positioned to be the No. 11 seed and face Rutgers in the first round of the conference tournament next week rather than earn a first-round bye as the No. 9 seed.
Around the rim
***Shields' 32 points topped his previous best of 28 set two other times, most recently against No. 11 Michigan State on Jan. 20.
***Shields is averaging 28.5 ppg in his last two games since returning to action following a concussion on Feb. 6.
***Shields now has 1,560 points, moving past Cookie Belcher for ninth place on NU’s career scoring list.
***Webster finished with eight rebound, matching his career high set vs. Cincinnati on Nov. 27.
***Nebraska falls to 1-8 against ranked foes this season.