Huskers shoot past Delaware State in 85-68 rout

Two days after getting all it could handle from Texas-San Antonio, Nebraska took the court for another non-conference buy-game against Delaware State on Friday night.

Things weren’t quite as stressful this time around.

The Huskers took control essentially from the opening tip and maintained it until the final buzzer for an 85-68 victory. Junior guard James Palmer led the way with 18 points as eleven different NU players scored to help improve to 9-5 on the year.

Nebraska ended up making 13 3-pointers, marking the highest total under head coach Tim Miles, and dished out 24 assists on 31 made field goals.

"These Christmas times are just really difficult, and we've been through it," Miles said. "We've got one more to go, so we'll be locked in and find enough guys that can do it, and tonight we did."We had just enough guys that were locked in."

After getting off to a slow start vs. UTSA, Nebraska jumped all over the Hornets with a 20-3 run and led by as much as 19 points during the first half.

The Huskers cooled off a bit from there, though, going five minutes without a field goal before junior guard Glynn Watson stole the ball and dished it to freshman Thomas Allen, who swished a 35-footer at the buzzer to send NU into halftime up 42-26.

"I knew it was going in," Allen said. "I knew it was going in. I just knew it."

That momentum would continue into the second half, as the Huskers quickly took their largest lead yet at 56-35 on an And-1 by Palmer with 15 minutes to play.

But once again Nebraska’s shooting would go cold, as it missed eight straight shots to allow DSU to go on an 11-1 run and cut the lead all the way down to 59-58 with 10:36 left.

A 3-pointer by senior guard Anton Gill with 8:38 remaining helped calm things down and sparked a 12-2 run by the Huskers that got the lead back up to 21 and effectively put the game away.

"We had to play the second half like it was 0-0," Gill said. "We struggled with that a little bit, but we made a run at the end and put the game away. That was good."

Back-to-back 3-pointers by freshman Thorir Thorbjarnarson gave NU its biggest lead of the night at 82-60 with 2:14 remaining to put the finishing touches on the win.

Gill - who had a career-high six assists - and Allen combined for six 3-pointers, and each finished with 14 points off the bench, while junior forward Isaac Copeland added 11 despite playing only 17 minutes.

Sophomore Isaiah Roby only had five points but put up a game-high nine rebounds, four assists, and three blocked shots.

Nebraska will return to action next Friday when it closes out non-conference play at home against Stetson for a 7 p.m. tip.

"We'll have to be mature and ready to build on Stetson and get us ready for the Big Ten season," Miles said.

1. Huskers get a little bit from everyone

In a Christmas break game where Nebraska was the huge favorite, the Huskers needed to find ways to generate their own energy against Delaware State.

While there were a couple of notable lapses in that regard, NU managed to have multiple players step up with big plays on both ends of the floor to keep the night under control.

Whether it was Allen's halfcourt buzzer-beater, Gill's clutch 3-pointer, Palmer's 18 points or Roby's nine rebounds and three blocks, Nebraska got something from almost everyone on its roster on Friday night.

2. Borchardt earns a scholarship

A guest joined Miles for his postgame press conference, as junior center Tanner Borchardt had been awarded a scholarship for the spring semester after the game.

The 6-foot-8, 265-pound native of Gothenburg, Neb., initially joined NU as a walk-on in 2015-16, but then left the team during the offseason. Borchardt them rejoined the Huskers in February of 2017 and finished out last season.

After a summer of hard work to reshape his body and his game, Borchardt has seen action in nine games this year, including three minutes off the bench vs. DSU.

"It's well deserved," Miles said. "Tanner's helped us in games; he's changed his body; put himself in a position where I feel confident when we do need him... We're proud of him and happy to have him ease the load a little bit for the family."

3. Thorbjarnarson comes through for Icelandic cheering section

Thorbjaranarson only played four minutes of mop-up duty on Friday night, but with eight family member who came all the way from his native Iceland in the stands, he made sure to make the most of it.

With back-to-back 3-pointers in the final minutes, the shooting guard from Reykjavik, Iceland, managed to put on a career performance, and Nebraska's bench went crazy after each of his threes went in.

"That was important to me," Miles said. "Eight family members came over from Iceland, so to be able to get him in the game and then him to make those two threes was pretty cool stuff.

"That second one was deep. I thought I was going to be in the way. It was a neat night that way."