Huskers hold off Butler in emotional 80-76 NIT victory
The rumors concerning Tim Miles’s future at Nebraska reached a boiling point just hours before Wednesday night’s National Invitation Tournament opener vs. Butler.
But he and the Huskers delayed that decision a few days longer with a wild 80-76 victory despite using just six players in the game.
After coming back from a 12-point deficit early in the game, Nebraska nearly let a 12-point lead of its own vanish in the closing minutes. But the No. 4-seeded Huskers made enough plays in crunch time to survive and advance to the NIT’s second round, where they will travel to play No. 1 TCU on Sunday night for an 8:30 p.m. CT tip.
Junior Isaiah Roby put up a career-high 28 points while seniors James Palmer Jr. and Glynn Watson added 23 and 17, respectively, as the short-handed Huskers shot 50 percent from the field, scored half of their points in the paint, and went 23-of-27 from the free throw line.
“Probably these last couple games since Iowa I think everybody has been playing with a lot of emotions,” Watson said. “A lot of guys have been stepping up. Johnny (Trueblood) made some big plays. Roby was great all night and got us going. We started off slow, but we got going, got some stops, and we didn’t look back.”
Butler opened the game by hitting four of its first seven 3-pointers while Nebraska started 1-of-6 from the field to give the Bulldogs an early 14-2 lead. But Roby would end up scoring NU’s first 11 points of the night, including a personal 7-0 run to trim the deficit to five midway through the first half.
Nebraska followed that with an 11-3 rally and tied the game back up at 22-22 on a 3-pointer by Watson with 5:49 left in the half. A pair of free throws by Palmer equaled it again at 27-27, and then Palmer gave NU its first lead on a layup with 1:10 left.
“They came out hot, and we came out kind of lackadaisical,” Roby said. “Like most games we come out slow, we weren’t doing the game plan and weren’t taking advantage of the easy stuff, and they were taking advantage of everything we gave them. Later in the game we just started to execute the game plan better.”
A highlight dunk by Roby with 30 seconds to go sent the Huskers into halftime up 31-30 despite trailing by as many as 12 just minutes earlier. Roby scored 17 of his 28 points in the first half alone, helping Nebraska overcome Butler matching its season average with eight made 3-pointers on 16 attempts.
Palmer scored 10 points in the first five minutes of the second half to extend NU’s lead to 46-42, as the trio of Palmer, Roby, and Watson combined to score Nebraska’s first 46 points of the game.
“The glue guys: Isaiah, James, and Glynn, they’re really important,” Miles said. “If they’re not going to score, we’re not going to score… Isaiah really carried us in the first half, that’s for sure.”
Butler wouldn’t go away quietly, though, as a 3-pointer by Paul Jorgensen – followed by a taunting “shush” to the PBA crowd - put the Bulldogs back on top at 51-50.
That wouldn’t last long, as the Huskers responded with a 14-run and took their biggest lead of the night at 66-54 after a pair of Watson free throws. Just when it seemed like NU was ready to coast to victory, though, Sean McDermott knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to trim the lead to 66-60 with 3:46 remaining.
Butler would pull within four a minute later, and an And-1 by Jordan Tucker made it a 71-70 game with 1:31 to play. But a tough basket by Roby was followed by a steal by Watson on the other end, which Watson turned into two free throws to put Nebraska back up 78-72 with 16.2 on the clock.
Two more free throws by Roby would put it away for good, as the Huskers held on for their fourth win in the past five games.
Senior Tanner Borchardt finished with six points and seven rebounds, while Trueblood set career highs in points (six), rebounds (seven), assists (five), and minutes (31) as NU’s lone bench option.
Six Bulldogs scored nine or more points in the loss, but none had more than 14. Butler finished 12-of-28 from behind the arc, with 28 of its 57 shots coming from behind the arc.
“We’re playing with a different edge right now, and that’s helping us win these games,” Roby said.