Buckeyes hand Huskers brutal last-second defeat, 67-66
Nebraska had already suffered its share of tough losses this season, but none were quite as brutal as the one Ohio State handed it on Wednesday night.
After senior guard Tai Webster scored the go-ahead basket with 34.7 seconds to play to give the Huskers a 66-65 lead, the Buckeyes had one last chance on an inbounds pass under the basket with 1.9 remaining.
Nebraska’s defense completely busted, as sophomore Glynn Watson fell down and OSU forward Marc Loving was left wide open under the hoop for an easy game-winning layup with 0.6 left to hand the Huskers a 67-66 defeat.
"This is what I told the guys in the locker room: If you can past the emotion of the last-second play, let's just look at our body of work," head coach Tim Miles said. "We played a really good first half... Then you come out in the second half and we get seven field goals, they get 17. They get a 30-10 (advantage) in the paint. We don't force a turnover. That's the problem. Then we don't close the game...
"A lot of young mistakes. Guys that are freshmen, sophomores that were making them. But I guess you learn by putting your hand on the burner, and that's what we did tonight. We got burnt."
The game got off to a rocky start for Nebraska (9-9 overall, 3-3 Big Ten), as they quickly fell into a 5-0 foul disadvantage within the first four minutes, including two fouls each on bigs Michael Jacobson and Jordy Tshimanga.
The Huskers were able to regroup and go on a 9-0 run to take a 13-9 lead with 13 minutes left. That eventually turned into NU’s biggest edge of the half when Webster drained a 3-pointer at the top of the key to make it 33-21 with 4:56 left.
Ohio State (12-7, 2-4), which just set a season-high with 10 made 3-pointers last time out vs. Michigan State, knocked down five from behind the arc in the first half to keep pace, but sophomore Jack McVeigh got the last laugh with a three to send Nebraska into halftime up 40-32.
"I think our pace was good," Webster said. "We were moving the ball around... Once we really moved it and got back to scoring buckets out of our transition, that's when we were able to get out and get the lead. We didn't quite come out in the second half with that same pace."
Despite racking up 10 team fouls in the first 20 minutes, including three on Tshimanga and two each on Jacobson, Glynn Watson and Nick Fuller, the Huskers countered by scoring 10 points off the Buckeyes’ 11 first half turnovers.
Ohio State was able to chip away at the deficit with the help of a 3:37 scoreless drought by Nebraska, which opened the second half shooting just 1-of-7 from the field.
The Huskers’ didn’t do themselves any favors offensively, making just two of their first 12 shots during OSU’s rally and scoring just eight points in a span of nine minutes.
The Buckeyes would eventually take their first lead since the 15:03 mark of the first half on dunk by Trevor Thompson that made it 53-52 with 8:40 left to play.
Despite going another 3:35 without making a field goal, a 3-pointer by Webster got NU back within 63-62 with 3:18 remaining.
Thompson scored a put-back to get OSU back up up by three, as Nebraska missed two layups and two free throws that could have tied it up or given it the lead.
But Jacobson knocked down two free throws to cut it to 65-64 with 1:12 left, and the Huskers got the defensive stop they needed. Webster then came up with a drive and bucket in traffic to give NU the lead with 34.7 left.
The Huskers got another stop on a missed three by OSU, but the Buckeyes grabbed the rebound and got a timeout with 1.9 remaining.
The one thing that Nebraska couldn’t allow to happen then happened, as Loving didn’t have a defender near him and he laid in the game-winner with less than a second to go.
"Regardless of that play, you've got to think about how you got there," junior guard Evan Taylor said. "If we go back to the beginning of the second half and everything leading up to that, you think, 'How did we put ourselves in that position?' When you don't take it seriously and you get in that position, anything can happen."
Webster led NU with a game-high 18 points, while Jacobson and Taylor both added 11 points and eight rebounds each.
The Huskers return to action on Saturday when they travel to take on Rutgers for an 11 a.m. tip on ESPNU.
“I feel like they got away with one tonight,” Webster said. “But if it was the other way around, I would’ve felt like we got away with one.”
3-POINT PLAY
1. Watson’s stumble led to wide-open game winner
After the game, Miles described what happened on the final inbounds play: “We called timeout to see what they were lined up in, and they were lined up in kind of a play where they cross a big and they kind of circle out their other big, and then they kind of cross their wings and they send one of those wings out. I just felt like it was going to be Loving or Kam Williams coming off for a jumper. So we have two different types of inbound defense, and we decided to switch screens. We switched it out just fine, and they were watching the first option, which was the guys coming off the single (screen). But Glynn lost his feet, and he’s down on his hands and knees and can’t get back in front of Loving… I don’t care what you run, if you fall down, you’re going to give up a layup. That’s what happened… When we lost our feet, well, you’re dead.”
2. Morrow’s absence continues to loom large
Nebraska played its second game without sophomore forward Edward Morrow in the lineup, as he continues to sit out with a lingering foot injury. It’s no coincidence that the Huskers lost both of those match-ups. Without their only consistent source of low-post offense and by far their best rebounder, NU was out-rebounded 45-37 - including 15-9 on the offensive glass - and gave up 38 points in the paint to Ohio State. Foul trouble plagued Nebraska’s front court all game, but outside of Jacobson the rest of the bigs combined for just 14 points and five rebounds. Morrow’s absence was especially glaring in the second half, as OSU scored 30 of its 35 points in the paint along with 12 second-chance points.
3. No more room left for error
Coming into the week Nebraska openly admitted its games against Ohio State and then Rutgers were must-wins in order to keep their pace towards a run to the NCAA Tournament. Well, with one of those games now in the books as a loss, the Huskers have essentially lost all of the momentum they gained from their 3-0 start to Big Ten play, and things are only going to get harder from here. Rutgers now truly becomes a must-win situation, as the next three games on NU’s schedule are at Northwestern and then home tilts vs. Purdue and Michigan State. Nebraska has used up all of its room for error, and now staying above .500 in league play could be its last chance at the Big Dance.
AND-1
"I felt like we had control of the game the entire first half, and maybe had some chances to put them away and we didn't. To come back and play that bad in the second half and end up with an L - especially in a tight conference this year, now we're .500 and feel like we should be better than that."
- Sophomore forward Michael Jacobson