NU no match for Hammons, Purdue in 89-74 defeat

It was no secret that from a size and physicality standpoint, Purdue would present Nebraska with far and away its biggest challenge of the season in Saturday afternoon’s showdown in West Lafayette, Ind.

While the Huskers did everything in their power to overcome the huge disadvantage against the Boilermakers’ skyline of a front court, 7-foot center A.J. Hammons and Purdue’s bigs were simply too much to overcome in an 89-74 defeat.

Hammons posted his best game of his career with 32 points on 14-of-17 shooting from the field while also hauling in 11 rebounds, four blocks and five assists.

On top of that, fellow 7-footer Isaac Haas added 13 points, and 6-foot-10 power forward Caleb Swanigan finished with six points, 12 rebounds and six assists.

As a team, the Boilermakers (19-4 overall, 7-3 Big Ten) shot 58.9 percent from the field - the most by an NU opponent this season - and 58.3 percent from 3-point range, making the Huskers (12-10, 4-5) essentially have to pick their own poison all day on the defensive end of the floor.

"I didn't think they'd be able to get us that easily (in the post), and I thought they got it easy," head coach Tim Miles said during his post-game radio show on the Big Ten Network. "I've dealt with this kid (Hammons) now for four years, and he's always a tough matchup. But I just thought we - even in man and zone - we didn't quite fight him in his position earlier... So Plan B wasn't as good as we'd hoped and Plan A stunk."

Nebraska’s obvious concern about matching up with Purdue’s size inside played out exactly as it feared from the opening tip. Hammons had his way in the paint and scored 10 of the Boilermakers’ first 12 points, while the Huskers quickly picked up six fouls in the game’s first four minutes.

The perimeter shooting of junior Andrew White and senior Benny Parker helped NU claw its way back from an early seven-point deficit, though, and a 3-pointer by Parker gave it its first lead of the day at 19-17 with 12:36 remaining in the half. Purdue would quickly reclaim the lead, but the Huskers would stay within reach for the next several minutes.

After a 3-pointer by freshman Jack McVeigh got Nebraska to within 37-34 with just under two minutes to go, the Boilermakers would go on to end the half on a 7-1 run and took their biggest advantage yet on a put-back dunk by Hammons at the buzzer that sent them into halftime up 44-35.

Hammons ended up scoring 18 of his 32 points in the first half, Haas added 11 first-half points of his own to help Purdue shoot 51.7 percent from the field as a team. White led Nebraska with 11 points and the Huskers shot a solid 43.3 percent from the floor, but Purdue’s 18 points in the paint and 11-of-14 combined shooting by Hammons and Haas were the difference in the first 20 minutes.

"It motivates you to recruit, doesn't it," Miles joked when asked about Purdue's seemingly endless post depth.

The domination by Hammons inside continued right on into the second half, as he reeled off Purdue’s first eight points after halftime and put the Boilermakers up by a commanding 58-43 lead with 14:43 to play. But when Hammons finally went to the bench for a breather with just over 14 minutes on the clock, the Huskers made sure to take advantage.

An And-1 by junior Tai Webster, a breakaway dunk by senior Shavon Shields and a 3-pointer by freshman Glynn Watson sparked a 12-3 Nebraska run that cut the deficit down to 61-55 with 11:49 still left to play.

That would be as close as NU would get, however, as Purdue was able to find an answer for the rally with an 8-2 run of its own and then pushed the lead back up to double-digits on a jumper by Swanigan with six minutes remaining.

Purdue would go on to lead by as many as 17 points before all was said and done, shooting 66.7 percent from the field and 71.4 percent (5-of-7) from beyond the arc in the second half. On the other side, the Huskers would end the game missing nine of their final 13 shots from the field to close the game.

"This was a disappointing game, obviously," Miles said. "I think we had some chances, and then we went dry at the end quite a bit. I thought for a time we were going to be able to overtake them, get a lead and keep building on it, but just a few things here and there."

White led Nebraska with 18 points and six rebounds, while Webster finished with 17 points and Shields added 16 before fouling out late in the game.

The road won’t get any easier for NU from here, as No. 8 Maryland (17-3, 7-2) comes to town on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

***Hammons' 32 points were the most by a Nebraska opinion since Creighton's Doug McDermott scored 33 in 2013-14.

***With his 16 points, Shields passed Rich King for No. 10 on Nebraska's all-time career scoring list with 1,475 points.

***Webster's 17 points marked his fifth game with 15 or more points.

***With 11 points, Watson has reached double figures in NU’s last six contests.

***Nebraska committed just nine turnovers, the fourth straight game with 10 or fewer turnovers.

***Nebraska’s 10 steals marked the third time this year and the first in Big Ten play that it had at least 10 steals.

***Nebraska put four or more players in double figures for the 10th time this season.