Huskers get job done in 86-62 win over Titans

It wasn’t Nebraska’s most impressive effort, but all that mattered was that the Huskers did more than enough to avoid December buy-game disaster and routed Cal State Fullerton 86-62 on Saturday.

James Palmer Jr. led the way once again with a game-high 23 points, Isaiah Roby followed with a career-high 20 points and eight rebounds, and Glynn Watson posted a double-double with 10 points and a career-best 10 assists. In all, six total NU players finished with nine points or more.

That helped make up for the fact that the Titans dominated that glass with a 49-38 rebounding edge and out-scored the Huskers 38-22 in the paint, while Nebraska shot just 24-of-38 (63.2 percent) from the free-throw line.

Regardless of the numbers, NU still comfortably improved to 10-2 on the season, marking its best start to a season since 2010-11.

“There’s probably nine things we could take from that game and try and get better at, but at the end of the day, I thought we did a good job of slowly extending the lead,” head coach Tim Miles said. “That Fullerton team is really athletic; they’re quick to the ball. They do some things that we knew we’d struggle with…

“But we were able to turn them over; we were able to get to the foul line, make enough threes – all the other stuff to make up for it.”

Palmer carried the load to start the game by scoring eight of Nebraska’s first 10 points, as the rest of the Huskers started a combined 1-of-7 from the field.

Thomas Allen, who was held out of the starting lineup after missing a film session earlier this week, capped a 7-0 run with a layup to give NU an early 15-7 lead. The Huskers would steadily go up by as many 12 before heading into halftime up 36-25, despite going the final four minutes of the half without a made field goal.

Palmer scored 14 of his 23 points in the first half as Nebraska went 4-of-9 from 3-point range, but the Titans held a 22-17 edge on the glass (including 8-4 on offensive boards) and a 20-8 advantage in points in the paint.

“We started off slow, but we picked it up and came out with a win,” Watson said. “We got it done.”

Nebraska came out a little more assertive to start the second half, opening on a 9-2 run and taking its biggest lead yet at 45-27 on an And-1 finish by Roby.

A beautiful outlet pass from Watson to Isaac Copeland for a breakaway jam served as the exclamation point, as the Huskers would eventually go up by 21 with 11 minutes remaining.

Another brief lapse allowed CSFU to go on a 9-0 run and close the gap to 12 points, but Nebraska would quickly get the game back under control after a Palmer 3-pointer and never looked back.

Copeland finished with 12 points and four rebounds while Allen and Nana Akenten both added nine on a combined 7-of-9 shooting and a 4-of-5 clip from behind the arc.

The Huskers will close out non-conference play next Saturday when they play host to Southwest Minnesota State for a 1 p.m. tip on Big Ten Network.

“You have to come out, compete your best and play well,” Miles said. “We did a lot of things right, but there’s a lot of things we could do better.”

1. Watson runs the show

Palmer and Roby may have stolen the headlines with their 20-point efforts, but it was Watson who once again made everything go for Nebraska’s offense. While he ended up with a modest 10 points, his career-high 10 assists were the most by a Husker since Lance Jeter back on Feb. 5, 2011. The senior point guard is now averaging a whopping 4.08 assists over the first 12 games, putting him on pace for the highest assist-per-game average since Jeter (4.5) in 2011. His double-double was also the first to come via points/assists since Jeter in '11.

2. Akenten makes the most of another opportunity

A week after earning his first career start in place of Allen (illness) vs. Oklahoma State, Akenten was back in the starting five on Saturday. His opportunity again came at the expense of Allen, who was benched to open the game after being late for a film session earlier in the week. The sophomore wing again made the most of his opportunity, scoring nine points on 3-of-4 shooting from downtown in a career-high 20 minutes of action. Allen will likely return to his place in the top group next time out, but Akenten took another step towards establishing himself as the top option off the bench.

3. Nebraska got the job done

Even with an impressive crowd of more than 15,000 packing Pinnacle Bank Arena, Nebraska struggled at times with its focus and intensity against an otherwise overmatched opponent. The Huskers got out-worked on the glass and didn’t win nearly the number of 50/50 balls it had in recent outings. But unlike previous NU teams that had been bitten by lackadaisical late-December performances, this squad was able to dial in and do what it needed to secure a convincing 24-point victory. That winning characteristic might end up being one of the biggest differences between these Huskers and those of the past.