Huskers can't keep up with No. 15 Purdue in 82-61 loss

Despite riding a six-game losing streak, Nebraska played with its best effort in weeks on the road against No. 15 Purdue on Saturday night.

But once again, it wasn’t nearly enough.

After trailing by eight points with five minutes left in the game, the Huskers ran out of gas down the stretch to fall 81-62 in a game that felt much closer than the lopsided final score.

Thomas Allen tied his career high with 18 points while coming off the bench, including going 5-of-6 from 3-point range, but the Boilermakers shot 59.1 percent from the field in the second half and got 27 points from star guard Carsen Edwards.

The loss was NU’s seventh in a row and ninth in its past 11 games, further dropping its overall record to 13-11 and 3-10 in Big Ten play. Purdue, on the other hand, picked up its eighth straight win and improved to 17-6 and 10-2.

“They’re a high-level team,” head coach Tim Miles said of Purdue. “We had our chances right up until about the three-minute mark… but the last three minutes they were able to finish on a strong run.”

Nebraska kicked off what was arguably its most complete half of 2019 with an early 6-0 run and eventually led 25-21 after 3-pointers from Nana Akenten, Allen, and James Palmer Jr.

Though Purdue would take advantage of a four-and-half minute NU scoring drought to reclaim the lead and go into halftime up 33-31, the Huskers went blow for blow with the Boilermakers for the first 20 minutes.

Led by Palmer scoring 11 of his points 17 in the first half, Nebraska recorded nine assists on 10 made field goals and made five of its 12 3-point attempts, its most made threes in three full games. On top of that, the 11 bench points in the half were NU’s most in Big Ten play.

A dunk by Isaiah Roby tied it up at 33-33 to open the second half, but things would suddenly get out of hand in a hurry for the Huskers, as Purdue made five straight shots and went on a 14-2 run to jump out to a commanding 47-35 lead.

“That’s my greatest regret,” Miles said. “We were sitting right on the media (timeout) and I just waited too long. I think I waited at least two possessions too long to burn a timeout. I should have known better.”

Luckily for the Huskers, Allen was there to keep his team within reach. The sophomore guard made his first five 3-pointers of the night and three straight after Purdue went up 12 to pull NU within 52-44 with 12 minutes to play.

“I think so, considering the circumstances,” Miles said when asked if Allen played his best game as a Husker. “He’s also played well against some other high-level teams. I was looking for a spark either from Thor (Thorbjarnarson) in the starting lineup or Thomas coming off the bench, and Thomas really did a great job for us, and it was needed.”

Allen would end up scoring 12 points in a row for Nebraska, but the Boilermakers more than kept pace by hitting 10 of 12 shots during that stretch. After a layup by Roby pulled NU to within eight, Purdue went on a 17-5 run to end the game to put the win away for good.

The Boilermakers 50.9 percent from the field, made 19-of-21 free throws (18-of-20 in the second half alone), held a 39-24 rebounding edge, and out-scored NU 34-22 in the paint.

Palmer finished with 17 points while Roby added 10 and four assists. Purdue's Grady Eifert, who came in averaging 4.7 points and 4.7 rebounds, scored 16 points with seven boards.

"He really hurt us,” Miles said of Eifert. “I thought he was the key to the game. It’s hard to say that when Carsen gets 27, but I kind of already had him penciled in for 25 to 30.”

Nebraska will return to Pinnacle Bank Arena on Wednesday to host Minnesota for an 8 p.m. CT tip on Big Ten Network.

1. The fight was there

It’s hard to praise a team’s effort in the wake of a 19-point drubbing, but the final score didn’t reflect how hard Nebraska played on Saturday night. This squad was as mentally beaten down as there was in the conference, and yet the Huskers went into one of the most difficult places to play in the country against one of the hottest teams in the league and went blow for blow for 35 minutes. Even after Purdue’s big run to start the second half, NU kept battling and had the deficit within single digits with just over five minutes left. Purdue’s depth was the difference, but Nebraska’s fight said a lot even in a lopsided defeat. Big Ten Network analyst Mike DeCourcy made the comment that NU probably would have won a couple of other games during its current losing streak had it played with that same effort, and it’s tough to disagree.

2. Then bench gave some life

It certainly helps when you turn a starter into a reserve, but Nebraska got significantly better bench production vs. Purdue than it had in at any point during Big Ten play. Nebraska scored 23 bench points on the night, and as mentioned topped its previous conference high in the first half alone. With Allen serving as the sixth man the past two games, NU has registered double-figure points from its bench in back-to-back games for the first time in league play. It wasn’t just Allen, as Akenten chipped in five points as well. That might not seem like much, but it was an encouraging sight for a guy who had scored just 16 points on 6-of-31 shooting (19.3 percent) shooting through his 115 minutes of Big Ten play.

3. Watson continues to struggle

The good news was Glynn Watson got back in the scoring column after being shutout last time out vs. Maryland for the first time since his freshman year. The bad news was his four points on 1-of-5 shooting at Purdue stood as his second-lowest scoring output of the season. The senior point guard was still NU’s second-leading scorer coming in at 12.2 ppg, but he’s now managed just 15 points on 6-of-37 shooting (16.2 percent) from the field and has made just one of his last 18 3-point attempts over the past four outings. Watson also has 15 points scored to 14 fouls committed during that stretch, fouling out in two of the past four games.