Huskers roll past Rutgers in Big Ten tourney
INDIANAPOLIS - In a game Nebraska was favored to win by as many as 15 points, the No. 11-seed Huskers did what they needed to do and rolled past No. 14 Rutgers 89-72 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday night.
While things got off to a bit of a shaky start early on, NU’s offense took off in the second half and had five players score in double figures, led by a game-high 20 points from senior Shavon Shields.
Though the game was tied a few minutes after halftime, the Huskers blew the door open with a 17-2 run and never looked back.
The win, which ended a streak of five straight regular-season losses coming in, sends Nebraska to a second-round meeting with No. 6 Wisconsin.
"It's been hard on everybody losing, but everybody showed up and got better," Shields said. "When you can get good minutes out of Mike (Jacobson) and Ed (Morrow) like we did tonight, it really helps us and takes us to a new level. When Glynn (Watson)'s making shots and making plays for other people and everybody's contributing, it makes it a lot easier on everybody."
After two straight dismal starts in its past two games, Nebraska actually came out fairly hot and took an early 8-4 lead on back-to-back baskets by junior Andrew White.
But the strong shooting would quickly fade, as the Huskers followed up by missing six of their next seven shots and allowing the Scarlet Knights to hang with them the entire first half.
The teams traded leads 12 times through the game’s first 20 minutes, but NU was able to get the last laugh at halftime on a 7-2 run, including a tip-in by freshman Michael Jacobson with just 12.2 seconds on the clock to go into the locker room with a 37-33 lead.
Junior Tai Webster scored 11 of his 18 points in the first half, while Rutgers certainly didn’t do itself any favors by spotting Nebraska 16 points off of 11 turnovers.
"We needed Tai," head coach Tim Miles said. "He was really strong in the first half, and we did need that, because we were awful at the rim. One thing about Rutgers: Shavon wasn't going to get anything clean at the rim. They were going to put bodies on him. It was the old (Michael) Jordan rules, and should have been, right? ... I think our guys were a little taken aback, but what do you expect? These are desperate times for teams. This is a one-and-done deal."
Rutgers wasted little time erasing that lead to start the second half and tied it up on a 3-pointer by freshman Corey Sanders three minutes in. But two straight buckets by Jacobson and a 3-pointer by White helped the Huskers go on a 7-0 run and take their biggest lead of the night at 50-43 with 15:35 to go.
That rally would eventually extend all he way up to 17-2 after an alley-oop lay-in by freshman Edward Morrow with 11:51 to play that made it a 60-45 NU lead.
"It was just getting getting stops," Shields said. "For them to only get two points on a run like that, it means you're getting stops... Forcing turnovers and running out in transition really sparked us."
When all was said and done, Nebraska would out-score Rutgers 26-11 from the 16:38 mark to 8:40, when a layup by Shields pushed the lead up to 69-54 for NU’s largest advantage yet. The Huskers wouldn’t take their feet off the gas pedal the rest of the way, leading by as much as 19 before settling on the 17-point victory.
White finished with 16 points before fouling out late in the second half, while Jacobson posted a career-high with 14 points and six rebounds and Morrow added 10 points off the bench, all of which coming in the second half.
Thursday night’s showdown with Wisconsin will tip-off at 8 p.m. CT. The Badgers won the lone regular-season meeting 72-61 in Madison, though that was also NU’s first game without Shields following his concussion.
"We're happy to get the win and to play Wisconsin," Miles said. "It's (UW head coach) Greg Gard's first day on the job officially, so I'm sure he'll be nervous. Hopefully we can take advantage of that."
Around the rim
***Morrow's contributions in the second provided Nebraska with a big lift, and many fans wondered during the game why he didn't play a single minute in the first half. Miles said Morrow is still dealing with a lingering foot injury, so they were trying to be careful with how much he played on Wednesday night.
"Ed was so strong in the second half," Miles said. "We're just trying to get by with his foot, so we're trying to limit his time. To have 10 points in seven minutes is really good. Hopefully we can use him tomorrow again, too."
***The win snapped NU’s three-game losing streak in the Big Ten Tournament dating back to 2013.
***Nebraska’s 89 points was its highest total since scoring 90 in the first meeting at Rutgers on Jan. 9.
***Shields posted his first double-double of the season and the sixth of his career with 20 points and a season-high 11 rebounds. It marked Shields’ first double-double since last year’s Big Ten Tournament loss to Penn State.
***With 20 points, Shields moved into seventh place on NU’s career scoring chart, passing Tyronn Lue (1,577) and Erick Strickland (1,586). Shields now has 1,591 career points.
***Shields has reached double figures in his last 14 games, the longest stretch of his career.
***Webster reached double figures for the 16th time this season with 18 points.
***With two steals, Benny Parker moved into 10th place on NU’s career steals list with 131.
***NU’s 11 steals was the team’s second-highest total of the season.
***NU put five players in double figures for the first time since Nov. 28 (vs. Tennessee) and the third time this season.
***With three 3-pointers, White became the sixth Husker to have 80 or more 3-pointers in a season.