NU dominates Golden Gophers 84-59 for second Big Ten win
Nebraska came into Tuesday night’s home game against Minnesota making it a point not to feel overly confident following a dominating 34-point blowout of Rutgers three days earlier.
After completely running the Golden Gophers out of Pinnacle Bank Arena to the tune of an 84-59 route, it was hard to blame the Huskers if they took some time to enjoy their second consecutive breakout performance.
Senior forward Shavon Shields - who joined Dave Hoppen as only the second Husker ever to make 100 career starts - led the way with a game-high 24 points, including scoring 19 of those in the first half - as NU shot 51.7 percent form the field and led by as many as 38 before all was said and done.
Nebraska was equally as good on the defensive end, holding the Golden Gophers to just 41.2-percent shooting from the field, forcing 16 turnovers, and keeping them without a made 3-pointer until 4:25 left in during garbage time.
"Our No. 1 key for the game tonight was to string together effort and execution," head coach Tim Miles said. "Let's see how many possessions in a row we can play tough and physical and move the ball and share the ball and take good shots and handle the ball well. After that kind of awkward start ... I thought we were really tough."
Nebraska sputtered a bit early against Minnesota's zone defense and fell behind 8-4 after the first four minutes, but a tough drive and bucket by Shields and a 3-pointer by junior guard Andrew White gave the Huskers their first lead of the night and they wouldn’t look back the rest of the night.
In fact, NU ended up going on a 29-4 run from that point and took its biggest lead of the half at 33-12 on a pair of pair of free throws by Shields with 6:30 on the clock. A runner by sophomore guard Nick Fuller with 22 seconds remaining eventually sent Nebraska into halftime with a commanding 47-26 lead.
"I thought Shavon was just terrific tonight," Miles said. "He was on the attack... And he was just like, really good. You could see, he looked like the best guy on the floor for a long time. I was really proud of Shavon."
When the first half finally came to a close, the Huskers had shot 50 percent from the field and 92.3 percent from the free throw line, while the Gophers struggled mightily offensively, going just 8-of-22 from the field (36.4 percent) and missing on six of their 3-point attempts.
The 46 points tied the 46 Nebraska scored in the first half at Rutgers on Saturday for the most points it has scored in a half since 2002.
The Huskers kept on rolling into the second half, making their first seven shots from the field to open the half on a 14-5 run and extend their lead to 64-33 on a basket by junior guard Tai Webster with 14:45 left to play.
That lead would grow to as much as 78-40 on a layup by freshman forward Jack McVeigh with 9:17 left in the game, and Nebraska would clear its bench shortly thereafter for the rest of the night.
White ended up with 15 points and seven rebounds, while three other Huskers - Webster and freshmen forwards Michael Jacobson and Edward Morrow - all finished with nine points.
Nebraska will look to keep things rolling when it returns to action on Saturday and travels to take on Illinois. Tip-off for that game is set for 1:30 p.m. and will be shown on the Big Ten Network.
"I think that was really good for our team, just from a mindset standpoint, a morale standpoint," Shields said. "That was good to get those two (wins). We've got a tough one this weekend at Illinois, so we've got to be ready. We've got to have two good days of prep on Thursday and Friday and then go get one on Saturday."
Around the rim
***Nebraska has won its past two conference games by at least 20 points, the first time that has happened since Jan. 16-30, 1971 (Iowa State and Oklahoma State).
***Nebraska finished with 84 points, the second consecutive game with 80+ points. It marked the first time that happened for Nebraska since 2002 (at Texas A&M; vs. Kansas).
***Shields made his 100th consecutive start, becoming only the second Husker to start 100 straight games. Dave Hoppen, who started all 111 of his games, is the only other Husker to make 100 consecutive starts. Shields is the sixth Husker to start 100 games at Nebraska.
***Shields finished with 2015-16 conference highs in points (24) and rebounds (eight). Shields also went over 1,400 career points tonight and now has 1,405 points and is within 10 points of 11th place on NU’s career scoring list.
***Glynn Watson set his career high in steals with four. He had three each in games against Cincinnati and Tennessee.
***Nebraska’s 47-point first-half was the Huskers’ highest first-half total in conference play since scoring 49 points against Kansas State in 2002.
***Webster had a career high with five assists tonight. He had three other games with at least five assists, the last coming against Arkansas State on Dec. 14, 2013.
***Nebraska shot 50 percent in consecutive conference games for the first time since the 2011-12 season (Illinois; at Purdue).