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Huskers roll past North Texas in 86-67 rout

Nebraska improved to 2-0 on the year with a lopsided win over North Texas on Monday night.
Nebraska improved to 2-0 on the year with a lopsided win over North Texas on Monday night. (Associated Press)

After an exhibition and then season opener that were both a bit closer than they probably needed to be, Nebraska finally put it all together from start to finish in an 86-66 rout of North Texas on Monday night.

Junior guard James Palmer led the way with 18 points while junior guard Glynn Watson followed up with 15, as the Huskers controlled the game from the opening tip to the final whistle.

It’s not as if NU lit it up from the field, though, as a blistering first half ended with a second half that saw 36 combined free throws and 31 total fouls. In all, there were 56 fouls called in the game, and Nebraska ended up going 33-of-45 from the charity stripe.

“I thought that we were locked in…” head coach Tim Miles said. “We had two goals tonight: pass the ball and guard the ball, and I thought we did that for a long time. We jumped way out on them … and you know when you’re up that early there’s always that kind of impending, ‘OK, here we go.’ ... (But) we played a really solid 32 possessions of defense.”

Nebraska came sprinting out of the gates and made six of its first seven shots to take an early 15-2 lead. While the Huskers kept on rolling, North Texas didn’t make its second basket of the night until the 10:26 mark and finally reached double figures with 5:30 left in the half.

As a result, NU ended up leading by as many as 28 points before a layup by Watson at the buzzer sent the Huskers into halftime up by a commanding 52-30 advantage.

That marked the most points Nebraska had scored in a first half since getting 53 vs. Southeast Louisiana in 2015-16, and only the third time it has scored 50-plus in a first half under Miles.

“I think this game we just focused on coming out strong,” Palmer said. “The last two games we came out a little sluggish … but today we finished the first half strong.”

Nebraska’s shooting cooled off considerable to start the second half, scoring only one point through the first four minutes while making just 3 of its first 19 shots from the field and starting 0-of-8 from 3-point range.

Even so, the Huskers were able to keep the Mean Green at arm’s length the rest of the game, and junior forward Jack McVeigh finally knocked down NU’s first 3-pointer of the second half with 2:40 left to make it an 82-60 lead.

“I think everybody just came out and played hard and didn’t think about making shots or anything, and that took care of itself,” Watson said. “I think that was the main key tonight, just coming out and playing hard.”

Senior guard Evan Taylor finished with 12 points while going 10-of-12 from the free throw line, while sophomore forward Isaiah Roby added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Junior Isaac Copeland shot just 1-of-7 from the field for eight points but made still made his presence felt with a team-high eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Five different Huskers had scored in double figures, with Copeland nearly making it six.

Nebraska returns to action on Thursday night for its first road game of the year, as it travels to take on St. John’s as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games. Tip time is set for 5:30 p.m. Central and will be televised nationally on FS1.

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3-POINT PLAY

1. No redshirts this season

Miles has already announced last week that none of his three true freshmen decided they wanted to redshirt this season, and those decisions became all but permanent on Monday night.

Guard Thomas Allen had already made his debut in the season opener, but fellow freshmen Nana Akenten and Thorir Thorbjarnarson both saw the court for the first time this year vs. North Texas.

As far as standard redshirts go, all three players have now lost their eligibility for this season.

They and every other player are still potentially eligible for a medical redshirt if they suffer a season-ending injury while having played in fewer than 30 percent of the team’s games.

2. Zone gives NU good test

One of the biggest differences between the start of the game and the start of the second half was North Texas decided to switch to a zone defense - mainly a 1-1-3 - and Nebraska clearly struggled to adjust.

Miles said the Huskers hadn’t worked against zone for at least the previous four-to-five days because Eastern Illinois - their opponent on Saturday night - ran almost exclusively man-to-man, and UNT hadn’t shown much zone either.

The good news that the sudden switch forced NU’s players to have to adjust on the fly and figure out how to score. After an early scoring drought, the Huskers were able to force the issue and attack the rim, drawing numerous fouls and free throw attempts.

“You’ve just got to let those guys figure it out sometimes,” Miles said. “It didn’t make for beautiful basketball, unfortunately.”

3. Welcome to the block party

We knew this team was going to be long and athletic on the defensive end of the floor, and that has definitely played out as a major advantage.

With nine blocks on Monday night, the Huskers have now registered a total of 18 blocks in their first two outings of the year. Those nine-blocks performances tied for the highest single-game totals under Miles, and they’ve come from a variety of sources.

Roby recorded the most blocks by a Husker since 2005 with six in the season opener, and then Copeland set a career-high with four vs. UNT. Senior center Duby Okeke, who left Winthrop as the school’s all-time block leader, added three of his own on Monday night.

THEY SAID IT

"I’m going to hear whistles in my sleep."
— Head coach Tim Miles on the 56 combined fouls called in the game
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