Second-half rally falls short in 68-59 loss to UCF

It was a game where Nebraska looked like to two entirely different teams from the first half to the second, and unfortunately for the Huskers their post-halftime turnaround proved to be too little, too late in a 68-59 loss to Central Florida on Thursday night.

After trailing by as many as 18 points in the first round of the AdvoCare Invitational in Orlando, Fla., NU was able to rally back and out-score the Knights 39-32 in the second half.

But after trimming the deficit down to six with 20.5 seconds remaining in the game, the comeback would end up falling short. The Huskers will face the winning of West Virginia/Marist on Friday night at 6 p.m. Central.

"If we would have played as hard the first half as we did the second half we'd have a good ball game," head coach Tim Miles said on his post-game radio show on the Husker Sports Network.

It was a slow and somewhat sloppy start to the game through the first eight minutes, but Central Florida made the first push with a 10-0 run that led to a technical foul on Miles, who was voicing his displeasure with the officiating.

That UCF spurt grew to 19-0 while the Huskers sputtered through a more than seven-minute scoring drought and fell behind 27-12 with six minutes left in the half.

The Knights’ lead grew to as many 18 before settling on a 36-20 advantage going into halftime. It was 20 minutes the Huskers undoubtedly will want to forget, as they shot just 25 percent from the field (7-of-28) and 15.4 percent from 3-point range (2-of-13).

They also turned the ball over nine times and got out-scored 26-6 in the paint, which included nine points at the rim by 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall on 4-of-5 shooting. That all led to NU posting its lowest point total in a half this season.

A 6-0 run out of the gates to start the second half got it down to 39-28 with 15 minutes left to play, but once again the Huskers’ shooting would go ice cold. Nebraska would go on to miss seven of its next eight shots to get UCF back in control.

But Nebraska would come back with another charge and cut the deficit to 43-33 on a 3-pointer by junior forward Isaac Copeland with just over 12 minutes to go.

It wasn’t until a 3-point by junior guard James Palmer with 6:39 to play that got the Huskers back to within single digits at 49-41 for the first time since midway through the first half.

A basket by sophomore center Jordy Tshimanga cut it to six with five minutes left, and it was 53-47 with just over three minutes to play. But Tshimanga missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and A.J. Davis knocked down a 3-pointer to push UCF’s lead back up to nine.

A three by Palmer made it 61-54 with 53.4 seconds remaining, and then senior guard Evan Taylor got it back to a six-point game with a trey with 20.5 seconds left. That would be as close as it would get, though, as UCF closed out the win.

While it wasn’t good enough to pull off the rally, Nebraska’s play was significantly improved across the board in the second half. The Huskers shot 43.5 percent from the field, and Palmer ended up scoring 20 of his game-high 22 points after halftime.

"I thought the second half obviously was much better," Miles said. "We forced 17 turnovers, we mixed man, zone - you name it. We just didn't get to the foul line enough, we got hurt in the paint, and just those dry spells killed us."

Watson was the only other NU player in double figures with 11 points and dished out seven assists, while Tshimanga had six points and 10 rebounds before fouling out late in the game.

Fall finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and four blocks for UCF, as the Knights ended up with a 36-20 edge in points in the paint.

1. Huskers get shell-shocked again on the road

Just like the first road game of the season at St. John’s last week, Nebraska completely shut down offensively as soon as adversity hit early in the first half, and it ended up costing them the game.

After taking a 7-6 lead, the Huskers suddenly lost all focus with the ball and went more than seven scoreless minutes and more than 10 minutes with just one made field goal. With every missed shot you saw the team’s confidence and energy deplete further and further.

The one silver lining was that NU was able to regroup in the second half to chip away at the lead and make the game competitive, but Miles and his staff have to figure out why their team gets so easily overwhelmed as soon as things stop going their way on the road.

2. Massive scoring droughts continue to plague Huskers

As bad as that 7:33 first-half scoreless stretch was, it ended up being one of a handful of extended offensive lapses for Nebraska on the night.

The Huskers also opened the game without a point through the first two minutes and then closed the first half going the final 2:18 without a field goal.

There was another stretch in the second half where NU made just one basket in nearly seven full minutes of play.

This team has too many capable scoring options to have those types of droughts, let alone multiple instances within a single game.

Part of the issue is just players making shots, but the Huskers also need to figure out better schemes in the half court to get the ball to the rim far more often.

3. Too much Tacko

The story all week was how Nebraska was going to handle facing literally its biggest challenge of the season in Fall, UCF’s 7-6 center.

Fall clearly changed the dynamic of the Huskers’ offense from the opening tip, as he not only blocked four shots, he also altered several others just with his daunting presence in the paint.

It wasn’t just on the defensive end of the floor, either. Fall was nearly unstoppable when he got the ball around the basket, as nearly all of his 11 points came off of easy dunks.

Fall was an element for which NU just didn’t have an answer all night, but the good news is the Huskers likely won’t ever have to worry about a task that tall from here on out.

“It was an interesting game, and there won’t be any like it all year because of Fall,” Miles said.