Déjà vu all over again for NU in 81-64 loss to Badgers

On the heels of one of its best 40-minute efforts of the season, Nebraska returned home for a Saturday afternoon tip against Wisconsin with a chance to finally earn a desperately needed victory.

Instead, the Huskers' struggles reached a new low in an 81-64 defeat to the Badgers at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

After trailing by one at halftime, Nebraska saw UW break the game open with a 21-2 run to start the second half that pretty much wrapped things up with 12 minutes still to play. Wisconsin, which hadn’t scored more than 70 points in the previous five games, led by as many as 18 before all was said and done.

It was almost a carbon copy of Wisconsin’s previous win in Madison on Jan. 21, in which the Badgers turned a 39-38 halftime lead into a blowout win with a 20-2 run to start the second half.

After making a school-record 18 3-pointers in the first meeting, Brad Davison scored a career-high 30 points and set a program record with eight made threes in the win. The Badgers hit 15-of-31 from behind the arc as a team, giving them 33 made 3-pointers (at a 50.7 percent clip) in two games vs. Nebraska.

The 15 threes were the most UW had ever made in a road or neutral site game.

As a result, NU fell to 7-18 on the year and 2-12 in Big Ten play, and it matched its longest losing streak since 1962-63, when the Huskers – coached by Hoiberg’s grandfather, Jerry Bush – also dropped 10 in a row en route to a 6-19 finish.

Nebraska went blow-for-blow with Wisconsin (15-10, 8-6) out of the gates and even jumped out to a 24-17 lead with an early 9-2 run. The Badgers quickly answered and tied it back up at 31-31 on a 3-pointer by D’Mitrik Trice with 4:38 left in the half.

Wisconsin only led for a total of 2:43 in the first half, but a three by Davison in the final seconds sent the Badgers into halftime up 39-38. Davison scored 15 of his 30 points, as he and Micah Potter combined for 26 of UW’s 39 points on 10-of-14 shooting in the first half. The rest of the Badgers were 5-for-19 from the field for 13 points.

“I thought we came out with great energy and urgency in the first half,” Hoiberg said. “I thought the shots that (Wisconsin) hit in the first half, a lot of them were well-contested. I thought the ball was moving exceptionally well in that first half, and we were kind of getting what we wanted against one of the top defensive teams in the country…

“Then the second half, the urgency wasn’t there.”

Just like in the first meeting in Madison, where Wisconsin took over with a 20-3 run to start the second half, things blew up on Nebraska after the break. The Badgers took their biggest lead yet at 62-45 with a 21-2 run through the first eight minutes.

Wisconsin finally cooled off a bit, and the Huskers pulled back within 10 with 7:45 remaining. But Davison drilled two more 3-pointers to spark an 8-0 UW run that put the game away for good.

Trice finished with 15 points on five made 3-pointers while Potter added 15 points and seven rebounds. The Badgers shot 53 percent from the field and were 9-of-13 from behind the arc in the second half alone.

Haanif Cheatham led Nebraska with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while Mack posted eight points, nine rebounds, and eight assists. Yvan Ouedraogo came off the bench and scored eight with 10 boards, as NU only shot 38.5 percent overall and 32 percent in the second half.

Nebraska will return to action on Thursday to host Michigan State for a 7:30 p.m. CT tip on FS1.

“We’ve just got to keep grinding, man,” Hoiberg said. “The first half was really good basketball for us. Again, the broken record of sounding the same every game with the consistency of our team, we’ve got to play 40 minutes. If we’re going to have any chance at all, we have to play a consistent 40 minutes of basketball.”

1. New verse, same song

The similarities between Saturday’s loss and the 82-68 defeat in Madison were almost eerie, as both games played out nearly identically.

Nebraska played well in the first half in both meetings and only trailed 39-38 at halftime each time. Then Wisconsin completely took the game over with record 3-point shooting while the Huskers imploded offensively in the second halves.

Second-half collapses are nothing new for NU this season, but they’ve been especially bad against the Badgers. After being outscored by 13 in the second half at the Kohl Center, Nebraska was beaten by 16 after halftime today.

Hoiberg and his players seemed flummoxed by the constant inconsistency that has plagued the Huskers all season. The drastic changes in performance and effort between games, halves, or even media timeouts has been arguably the most maddening aspect of the year for NU.

“I don’t know what it is right now, but it’s been a problem all season,” Cheatham said. “It’s all up and down. We come out one game good in the second half; the next game we come out horrible. It’s just like, you never know what’s going on. That happened again today, and it’s been a problem for us all season.”

2. Illness continues to take its toll on Huskers

As if the road hadn't already been rough enough for Nebraska this season, the Huskers' locker room has also been fighting illness all week.

Dachon Burke, who didn’t travel to Maryland while dealing with the flu, was questionable to miss his second straight game but was able to play through it on Saturday. The junior guard gave 21 minutes off the bench and finished with 10 points.

“Dachon got his first workout yesterday, and he was pretty worn out,” Hoiberg said. “He hadn’t done anything since the day before Maryland when he got sick.”

The bug spread to Mack on Friday night, as he got so sick that he needed an IV to be able to suit up in time for the 1:15 p.m. tip. Hoiberg said freshman walk-on Bret Porter also came down with the same illness this week.

To Mack’s credit, he battled through to play a team-high 36 minutes and nearly posted a triple-double.

“Cam was throwing up all last night,” Hoiberg said. “He came in and watched the walk-through this morning and then went to the doctor… So he was a game-time decision."

“I’m proud of those guys going out and trying to grind it out," Hoiberg added. "We’ve got that kind of going through the locker room. Hopefully it doesn’t affect the rest of the guys.”

3. Kavas injures shooting hand

Matej Kavas had been on the court for a whole 1:13 before his day came to a sudden end with a left (shooting) hand injury with roughly 10 minutes left in the first half.

The senior guard immediately went to locker room and did not play for the rest of the game. When Kavas came back to the bench to start the second half, his hand was heavily wrapped, and he didn’t even participate in warmups.

Hoiberg said Kavas suffered a “soft-tissue” ligament injury and he would undergo an MRI on Monday to get a more conclusive idea on his status.

“I’m not exactly sure what the extent of it is at this point,” Hoiberg said. “He got an X-ray after the game and the initial diagnosis was a soft-tissue injury to a ligament in his left hand.”

Nebraska’s starting five and already thin bench will be stretched even further if Kavas is forced to miss any extended time. Mack (36) and Cheatham (34) both played over 30 minutes vs. Wisconsin, while Thorir Thorbjarnarson (29) and Jervay Green (25) were over 20.

Only Burke (21) and Ouedraogo (19) played more than 12 minutes off the bench.