Huskers drop another heartbreaker in 65-64 loss to Rutgers
It seemed hard for Nebraska to feel much worse than it did following its last-second loss to Ohio State on Wednesday night. Yet the Huskers managed to one-up that sting at Rutgers on Sunday.
Leading 64-63 with 40 seconds left to play, senior guard Tai Webster dribbled the ball off his foot for a turnover, giving the Scarlet Knights possession with nine second left.
Corey Sanders, who scored a career-high 25 points, missed a good look on a jumper but managed to come up with his own rebound and banked in the game-winner with just one second on the clock.
The Huskers’ final inbounds heave was tipped out of bounds, sealing a second-straight defeat in the final second of play and extending NU’s losing streak to four games. For Rutgers (12-8, 1-6), it marked its first conference win of the season and just its second victory in its past 41 league games.
“They made the play,” head coach Tim Miles said on his post-game radio show on the Husker Sports Network. “The plays we didn’t make are we fouled twice at the end and we turned it over twice. That’s our errors, not that play.”
Both teams started out cold to open the game, as Nebraska (9-10, 3-4) made just two of its first 10 shots while Rutgers went 2-of-4 from the field through the first four minutes of play.
The Huskers finally got going with the help of five points off the bench from freshman Jeriah Horne, and NU ended up making four of its next five attempts from the field to take a 17-12 lead.
That, however, would be as good as it got for Nebraska the rest of the half.
Suddenly the Huskers couldn’t buy a bucket, as they missed their next 17 shots from the field and managed just four free throws over the next 10:25 to help Rutgers close the half on an 18-4 run and take a 31-21 lead into halftime.
When the halftime buzzer finally sounded, NU had shot just 8-of-36 (22.2 percent) from the field and 1-of-10 from 3-point range. The Huskers also managed zero second-chance points off of 10 offensive rebounds, and only six points off seven Scarlet Knight turnovers.
“We did not play good offense in the first half and did a lot of things wrong,” Miles said.
Luckily some halftime adjustments paid immediate dividends for Nebraska, as it made its first three shots from the field and quickly cut the deficit to 33-28 just 90 seconds into the second half.
An And-1 by Webster then tied it up at 37-37 with 14:54 to play, and less than two minutes later NU took first lead since the 7:41 mark of the first half on jumper by sophomore guard Glynn Watson with 13:30 to go.
Webster and Watson led the charge in the Huskers’ rally, scoring 15 of NU’s first 23 points of the second half.
“We tried to get the ball in the hands of Glynn especially, and Glynn got it going pretty good to start the second half,” Miles said. “Then a lot of guys contributed out of that.”
Two free throws by junior guard Evan Taylor made it 51-44 to give Nebraska its biggest lead yet with 8:53 to go, but Rutgers answered with a 9-2 run to tie it at 53-53 with two free trows by Sanders with 6:53 left.
Needing someone else beside Webster and Watson to step up, sophomore forward Jack McVeigh answered the call by knocking down three straight 3-pointers to put the Huskers up 64-59 with just 1:31 to play.
“The story of the game if this ends up running out of time two seconds earlier is McVeigh,” Miles said. “I thought that was really critical.”
Once again, though, Rutgers quickly found an answer. C.J. Gettys scored and then Webster lost the ball on the other end for a turnover. That led to two free throws by Deshawn Freeman to cut the lead to 64-63 with just 40.3 remaining.
Webster again gave the ball up by dribbling off of his foot, and Sanders came up with it to set Rutgers up with one last chance to win it after a timeout with nine second seconds.
Nebraska couldn’t haul in Sanders’ first missed jumper, and the sophomore guard corralled the rebound and put in the game-winner off the glass one second before the final buzzer.
Webster led NU with 14 points while Watson scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half. McVeigh finished 4-of-7 from behind the arc for his 12 points, and Taylor chipped in 10 points and six rebounds.
The Huskers will now go on the road to Northwestern next Tursday and then host Purdue and Michigan State in the span of a week.
“The only thing I worry about is we can’t let our guys hang their heads,” Miles said. “We’ve got to keep teaching, stay positive. Nobody feels positive right now after these last two, but we’ve just got to stay with it. You can’t lose your way.”