St. John's blows past Huskers in 79-56 drubbing
With three exhibition/scrimmage wins followed by a 2-0 start to the season, Nebraska was starting to build some early momentum in a critical season for head coach Tim Miles and his program.
All of that positivity got dumped into the Hudson River on Thursday night, as the Huskers traveled to New York City and got torched in a 79-56 blowout loss to St. John's.
Nebraska struggled offensively from start to finish, shooting a dismal 28.1 percent from the field, 23.1 percent from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 20 times when all was said and done.
On the other end of the floor, NU had no answer for Red Storm guards Shamorie Ponds and Marcus Lovett, as the duo combined for 36 points and St. John’s held a 50-39 advantage on the boards and a dominating 44-16 edge in second-chance points.
“Beyond disappointing,” Miles said on his post-game radio show on the Husker Sports Network. “At the same time, we got what we deserved. I don’t know if we were overwhelmed by the moment… (But) you could just see they were the more aggressive team, and the aggressor wins.”
Senior guard Evan Taylor opened the game with a steal and an And-1 layup to give Nebraska a 3-0 lead out of the gates, but that would be as good as things would get for the Huskers the rest of the night.
After going through a 5:12 scoring drought and making just one field goal in the final nine minutes of the half, NU went into halftime trailing 37-24 and it could have been much worse.
The Huskers shot just 29.6 percent from the field, 3-of-10 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 11 times in the first half.
“I remember Evan came over (to the bench) … and we had just missed three wide-open shots right in a row,” Miles said. “Evan’s like, ‘We’re getting good looks. We’ll get the looks to go!’ And we just never did.”
Nebraska once again started fast to open the second half, opening on an 8-3 run to cut the deficit to eight less than two minutes in.
Just like the first half, though, the rally would be short-lived. St. John’s responded by hitting six of its first seven shots after halftime to quickly go back up 52-38.
The Red Storm wouldn’t look back from there, taking their biggest lead of the night at 23 points on a dunk by Justin Simon with 1:39 left to play.
The Huskers ended up missing 13 of their final 14 shots on the night and didn’t make a field goal for the final 3:55 of the game.
“We just couldn’t get (their guards) under control in any way, shape, or form,” Miles said.
Junior guard James Palmer was the only NU player to score in double figures with 13 points.
Nebraska will return to the court on Sunday when it plays host to North Dakota for a 1 p.m. tip on Big Ten Network.
3-POINT PLAY
1. Nebraska was swallowed by the moment
One of the hallmarks of this 2017-18 Nebraska team was supposed to be a roster full of athleticism and scoring options, yet against by far the best talent it’s faced yet, the Huskers looked completely overwhelmed.
It wasn't just the inability to contain St. John’s electric backcourt the entire night, it was how slow and out-of-sorts NU looked on both ends of the floor.
Miles mentioned that it could have been an issue of his team not being mentally ready for a nationally-televised road test against a Red Storm squad picked to finish sixth in the preseason Big East poll.
Whether it was that or a game plan that completely fell apart from the beginning, Nebraska looked like it didn’t even belong on the same court with St. John’s.
2. The stars never showed up
You can dissect what all went wrong for Nebraska all you want, but the problem that burned the Huskers more than anything else was simply the inability to put the ball in the basket.
There was definitely poor shot selection at times, but NU’s go-to guys did nothing to counter the explosiveness of St. John’s talented guards.
Palmer (a former four-star recruit) ended up with 13 points but did so on 4-of-10 shooting with three turnovers. Junior guard Glynn Watson (four-star) scored just five points on 1-of-9 shooting. Junior forward Isaac Copeland (five-star) scored five on 2-of-9 shooting.
Senior Anton Gill (four-star) had seven points on 1-of-7 shooting, and freshman Thomas Allen (four-star) was 1-of-4 for three points.
3. Time to regroup in a hurry
This was the kind of game that makes a team need to do some real soul-searching, and the problem is Nebraska has less than three days to figure things out before a dangerous North Dakota team comes to town on Sunday.
The Fighting Hawks won the Big Sky Conference and earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament last season, and they’re off to a 2-1 start with their lone loss an 81-78 defeat at Hawaii.
This was a UND squad that flustered Iowa last year so much in an 84-73 loss that Hawkeye head coach Fran McCaffery refused to have his team shake hands after the game.
Nebraska lacked toughness and fire on Thursday night, and it better find a way to regain both of those traits again in a hurry.
