Huskers hold off Hoosiers for 66-57 victory

In a game Nebraska absolutely had to win to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive, the Huskers overcame a sloppy start for a strong finish to hold off Indiana 66-57 on Sunday night.

While the Huskers shot 40.3 percent from the field and were 6-of-22 from 3-point range, they made up for it by forcing the Hoosiers into a season-high 19 turnovers and scoring 41 of their 66 points in the second half.

James Palmer Jr. led the way with 15 points, while NU hauled in 19 offensive rebounds - its most in Big Ten play - and scored 26 points off of IU turnovers.

With the win, Nebraska improved to 21-9 on the season, marking its highest win total since 1995-96 and tying for the fifth-highest single-season win total in program history.

The Huskers also moved to 12-5 in Big Ten play, matching a school record for most conference wins in a season. The only other NU team to win 12 league games were in 1915- 16 (Missouri Valley) and 1965-66 (Big Eight).

“It was a must-win," sophomore forward Isaiah Roby said. "Can’t lose any more. If we want to go to the (NCAA) Tournament, we have to build our resume... Today was a big game for us to win.”

Nebraska started the game by committing four turnovers and going scoreless for three of the first four minutes, but it was eventually able to settle in and jump out to an early 9-4 lead.

The Huskers’ offense would suddenly go stone cold, though, as they managed just nine points over the next 10 minutes and eventually fell behind 19-16 on a layup by Robert Johnson with just under six minutes to go in the half.

But four straight points by Isaac Copeland would spark a 6-0 run and get NU back on top, but Nebraska would end up making just one field goal over the final four minutes of the first half and go into halftime down 26-25.

Not only were 15 of Nebraska’s 35 first-half shot attempts from 3-point range (it only made three), it ended up turning the ball over seven times and didn’t shoot a single free throw in the first 20 minutes.

The only good news was Indiana wasn’t much better, shooting 1-of-6 from behind the arc and committing nine turnovers.

"I thought the first half we were really jittery, again," head coach Tim Miles said. "We shot 15 threes and no free throws, which is not like us. At halftime (the players) talked about playing with confidence and this, that, and the other thing.

I'm like, 'Guys, nobody's game has changed in three weeks. What's changed is the circumstance, but you should embrace that.' That's kind of what an upstart has to do. They have to win a game like this to gain that confidence."

A 10-5 start to open the second half helped NU go up 35-31, but Indiana answered with a 10-2 rally of its own to take its biggest lead yet at 41-37 with 13:50 to play.

An And-1 finish by Evan Taylor helped breathe some life back into a struggling Nebraska offense, and it ended up leading to a 10-0 spurt that put the Huskers up by their largest lead at 47-41 with 9:25 remaining.

Roby knocked down an important 3-pointer with 5:32 left to keep NU up 56-51, and then a steal and finish by Taylor pushed the lead to 60-53 with three minutes to go.

A minute later Roby buried a jumper as the shot clock expired to cap an 8-0 run and give Nebraska a 64-53 lead with 1:51 remaining in the game.

That was more than enough to put the game away, as Indiana managed just four points over the final 4:30, which included a meaningless basket as the final buzzer sounded.

"The important part was to finish the game with a great defensive stretch and control the ball on offense, stretch that lead out from five to 11," Miles said. "That's one of those things that, the first half with the way we played, I wasn't sure it was going to end like that."

Copeland scored 13 points, and Roby finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. Jordy Tshimanga played 12 minutes off the bench and added four points and a season-high nine boards, including six on the offensive glass.

Johnson and Justin Smith scored 16 points each to lead Indiana, which dropped to 16-13 overall and 9-8 in conference play.

Nebraska will close out the regular season on Sunday when it hosts Penn State for a 4:15 p.m. tip on Big Ten Network. That game will also be the team’s Senior Night, where the Huskers will honor seniors Taylor, Anton Gill, Duby Okeke, and Malcolm Laws.

1. Huskers stifle Hoosiers' 3-point shooting

Nebraska had less than 48 hours to implement its scouting report for Indiana leading into Tuesday night’s game, so the game plan had to be fairly clear-cut.

At the top of the list for the Huskers was perimeter defense and containing a Hoosier squad that had just made 14 3-pointers in a win over Iowa three days earlier.

Specifically, NU wanted to contain Johnson, who knocked down a school-record nine of those threes vs. the Hawkeyes.

Miles said once they realized they could manage standout forward Juwan Morgan (13 points on 5-of-11 shooting) one-on-one, the Huskers turned up the defensive pressure on the perimeter.

Not only did Nebraska hold IU to shoot just 3-for-14 from behind the arc, it also limited Johnson to two treys on five attempts.

“That was the No. 1 priority,” Roby said. “When you have got a guy like Johnson, he made nine last game. That had got to be a No. 1 emphasis. It was our goal to slow him down, slow down their point guard (Devonte Green, 0-for-1), and we did a pretty good job of that.”

2. Nebraska made the winning plays

While the offense was inconsistent at best, Nebraska made up for it by doing everything else it had to accomplish in order to win the game.

Whether it was playing tough defense, creating offense through turnovers, winning the rebounding battle, or extending possessions with extra effort plays, the Huskers delivered the winning plays in one way after another.

“We did not hustle the way we needed to in the first half, but we did in the second half,” Miles said. “We really did a much better job… Just everything about the game in terms of our aggressiveness and the right way to play, you could see in the stat sheet, but you’ve got to look for it.

“As a coach, and you guys see it as fans, you see that extra effort, and it will show up in the right places.”

3. Watson bounces back with solid night

One of the biggest concerns following Nebraska’s loss at Illinois on Sunday, aside from the blow it delivered to NU's NCAA Tournament hopes, was Glynn Watson having one of his worst individual outings of the season.

The junior point guard scored just three points on 1-of-9 shooting and didn’t look anything like his usual self vs. the Fighting Illini, and there were questions of whether the Huskers should take him out of the starting lineup to close the year.

Tuesday wasn’t his best effort by any means, but it was a strong bounce-back performance in almost every sense.

Watson finished with eight points and a game-high five assists while adding two steals and only two turnovers in 32 minutes of work.

“I just came out with the same mindset and be aggressive,” Watson said. “Coach Miles wants me to be aggressive. My teammates want me to be aggressive, so that’s what I’ve been doing.”