Huskers give No. 14 Illinois all it can handle, but fall in overtime

Nebraska gave the No. 14-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini all it could handle Sunday night in Champaign.

It just wasn’t enough.

The Huskers’ best road performance against a Big Ten opponent this season — by far — still couldn’t get the job done as the Huskers fell 87-84 in overtime. The loss comes despite Keisei Tominaga finding his groove and scoring a career-high 31 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 5-of-7 from behind the arc.

Nebraska drops to 16-7 overall and 6-6 in the Big Ten. Illinois improves to 16-5, 7-3. Nebraska hasn't won in Champaign as a member of the Big Ten since 2016.

While the loss is still that — a loss — the performance away from Pinnacle Bank Arena against one of the best teams in the country shows the Huskers, and the committee that determines the NCAA Tournament field, they're capable of winning a conference game on the road.

“We showed we can do it, that’s for sure,” Hoiberg told the Huskers Radio Network after the game.

The Huskers, coming off back-to-back overtime games, will play at Northwestern on Wednesday. The Wildcats will be ticked off when Nebraska comes to town — they've lost consecutive overtime games to Purdue and Minnesota. The Huskers won the first matchup Jan. 20 in Lincoln 75-69.

"I thought our energy coming out was where it needed to be," Hoiberg said of Sunday's game. "Now, we have to get over a tough, emotional loss. And two overtime games in a row, and short prep again and another really tough environment against a team coming off a loss, is going to be tough for us. But we have to get ready and get back on it."

Hoiberg often talks about the two areas of the game that are crucial to this year's Husker team: turnovers and rebounding. If you take care of both, you'll win. If you lose both, you'll get your butt kicked. If you do one, but not the other, you'll at least have a shot at a win.

On Sunday, Hoiberg's team took care of business in one of those areas — turnovers. The Huskers committed just nine while Illinois had 14. Nebraska did well capitalizing off those Illini mistakes, turning them into 18 points. The ball security helped keep Nebraska in the game for the entire 45 minutes.

But the rebounding? It was another example of an opponent exposing the Huskers' weakness. Illinois out-rebounded Nebraska 50-33 overall and 17-5 on the offensive glass. Brad Underwood's team won the second-chance-point battle 12-4.

Nebraska didn't have anyone who could consistently compete with Illini forward Ty Rogers on the boards. The 6-foot-6, 210-pounder scored eight points, but grabbed 14 rebounds, five of which were offensive.

“At some point in the second half, we lost our physicality," Hoiberg said. "I thought we played hard. We competed for an entire 45 minutes. But we just lost our physicality out there and got out-rebounded by 17.”

Brice Williams and CJ Wilcher combined to score nine points on 4-of-18 shooting from the field and 1-of-8 from 3-point range.

The Huskers took a 36-34 lead into halftime thanks to a strong first half from Tominaga. The Husker guard had been struggling of late, but Hoiberg clearly wanted to get the Japanese sharpshooter going early.

Tominaga got his first 3-point attempt to fall and wound up scoring 15 points in the first half, which was the most points he’s poured in since 16 at Rutgers Jan. 17. Those 15 points were also more than his scoring total the past three games combined (14).

Nebraska led for over 16 minutes of first-half action. The Huskers gained a seven-point lead on two separate occasions. Even when Illinois went on an 8-2 run to cut a 26-19 edge to 28-27, the Huskers had answers, something that hasn't happened away from PBA. Those answers came in the form of a made 3 from both Rienk Mast and Josiah Allick. Mast finished with 22 points on 8-of-21 shooting and was 4-of-9 from 3.

The Huskers didn’t end the first half well, though, as Illinois finished it on a 5-0 run.

The Illini opened the second half by making their first six shots, and they were attacking the bucket. Five of those six made field goals were either a layup or jam. Hoiberg called a timeout after his Huskers trailed 47-40 with 16:26 left.

The two teams went back and forth the rest of the way until the 3:19-mark of regulation when Williams hit a 3. That bucket started an 11-0 run that brought the Huskers to within 73-72 with nine seconds remaining. Mast connected on a soft-touch right-hand hook over the stretched arm of Coleman Hawkins to get the Huskers within one point.

Illinois guard Marcus Domask had a chance to potentially win the game at the free-throw line with three seconds left, but made just one two free throws, which sent the game into overtime.

Illinois outscored Nebraska 14-11 in the extra five minutes. Terrence Shannon Jr. managed to collect a steal against Mast with seven seconds left and Illinois leading 87-84. Shannon missed both his free throws, giving the Huskers a sliver of hope. But Tominaga's desperation half-court heave didn't go down, and may not have counted anyway as the ball looked to still be in his hand as the buzzer sounded.

"Resiliency is what you need, especially on the road, and I thought our guys showed a lot of that tonight," Hoiberg said.