Huskers roll past Penn State in 82-66 victory

FINAL STATS

Considering the way the season had gone for Nebraska, which had lost eight of its previous nine outings, Tuesday night’s home showdown with Penn State was about as close to a must-win game as it had seen all year.

All the Huskers did was respond with their most dominant performance in months to run away with an 82-66 victory in front of a Valentine’s Day crowd of 13,195.

With four players scoring in double figures, led by 15 each from sophomores Glynn Watson and Jack McVeigh, Nebraska shot an impressive 55.4 percent from the field as a team and scored more than half of their points (46) in the paint.

The 16-point win was NU’s largest margin of victory in conference play and its third-biggest win of the season. The Huskers never trailed in the game, led by as many as 24 points, and held the lead for 38:54.

“We’ve been really emphasizing ball movement and stuff like that," McVeigh said. "When you get everyone working well together and everyone clicking, offense becomes a lot easier. I don’t know what the assist (total) was tonight but I bet you it was pretty decent (18).

"It was good when we had inside presence as well like getting some easy buckets in there. Everything was just working. It was just one of those nights.”

The Huskers came out firing to open the game, knocking down six of their first eight shots from the field to take an early 13-6 lead.

Penn State was able to keep pace by knocking down six shots in a row of its own at one point and eventually cut the deficit to 24-22 on a jumper by Mike Watkins with just over 10 minutes left.

But the Nittany Lions would cool off shortly after, missing six of its next eight shots and allowing NU to take its biggest lead of half at 34-24 with 6:53 left.

Once again, though, PSU answered with an 11-5 run to pull within 39-34 on a 3-pointer by Tony Carr, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half.

Nebraska then gave Penn State a bad steal and layup off an inbounds pass with just four seconds left in the half, but McVeigh provided the Huskers with the last laugh by draining a 45-footer at the buzzer to send NU into halftime up 45-37.

The Huskers shot an its best half of the season at 63.0 percent from the field as a team, with 24 of their 45 points coming in the paint with the help of 10 points from freshman center Jordy Tshimanga on 5-of-6 shooting.

The 45 points were Nebraska’s most in a first half in Big Ten play and tied for its highest first half total of the season (South Dakota).

“Nebraska played terrific," Penn State head coach Pat Chambers said. "They did a great job. It seemed like everything was going right for them. The last time we gave up 45 points in the half, it has been a while.

Nebraska would extend that lead to as much as 13 early in the second half, then back-to-back dunks by freshman wing Isaiah Roby bumped that lead up to 63-47 with just under 11 minutes left to play.

The train kept on rolling from there, and Huskers would go up by their biggest margin of the night at 23 on a jumper by sophomore forward Michael Jacobson with 5:54 remaining in the game.

It was all semantics the rest of the way, as Penn State never got any closer than 16 from that point on.

"The last eight minutes you tried not to get too paranoid," NU head coach Tim Miles said. "But we had such good pace the whole game, and I thought our guys were fairly locked in on the defensive game plan early. We allowed way too many points (in the first half), but I thought we were much better in the second half."

Tshimanga finished with another strong night in posting 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds, while senior guard Tai Webster scored in double figures for the 26th game in a row with 12 points and six assists.

Nebraska will return to action on Saturday when it travels to take on Ohio State for a 5 p.m. tip on Big Ten Network.

1. Jordy's emergence continues

Over the past couple of weeks Tshimanga has looked like a completely different player than he did to begin the year, and that continued once again on Tuesday night. The 6-foot-11, 275-pound freshman scored in double figures for the third time in the past four games, finishing with 12 points and seven rebounds. He has now posted seven or more rebounds in each of the last four contests, and his emergence has made life much easier for every other Husker around him on both ends of the floor.

2. Vintage Watson was on display

While Watson came into the game having scored in double figures in 12 of the previous 14 contests, the Huskers saw the all-around facilitator on Tuesday night that the star sophomore had been for much of the early part of the season. Along with his game-high 15 points, Watson dished out five assists, hauled in four rebounds, shot 5-of-8 from the field and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line, and he did not commit a single turnover in 25 minutes of action. Whenever that happens, NU's chances for success increase dramatically.

3. Roby's injury a potential dark cloud over win

Just as its luck has been all year, once things finally started to go Nebraska's way, something bad inevitably had to happen. That was again the case when with just 1:44 remaining and the game already well in hand, Roby landed awkwardly on his left ankle and immediately fell to the floor in pain. He limped to the bench and quickly was escorted to the locker room. Miles had no clear update on Roby's injury status, but his report didn't exactly sound promising. "I don't know," Miles said. "It looked ugly to our trainer who saw it on video. We just took him out right away and iced him, and we're going to do everything possible to get him ready to go."

"There's no doubt you need a shot of confidence, and a game like this can do it for you. I think these guys understand the hard work that goes into preparation ... and we're beginning to be more steady now. We have a saying that the toughest team sets the rules, and tonight I added that the most disciplined team wins the game. We need both, and we hadn't proven that against some other teams. I thought tonight we were pretty good that way."

- Head coach Tim Miles on what the win over Penn State could do for Nebraska's confidence going forward