Watson leads Huskers to 78-68 upset over No. 14 Minnesota

Barely two days after getting blown out of the water in its Big Ten opener at No. 3 Michigan State, Nebraska returned home for yet another massive test against No. 14 Minnesota on Tuesday night.

Things went much differently this time around.

Behind 29 points, nine rebounds and three steals from junior guard Glynn Watson, the Huskers led for nearly 34 of 40 minutes and knocked off the Golden Gophers 78-68 in front of a packed house of 15,598 at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Nebraska (7-3, 1-1) shot 47.2 percent from the field and made 22-of-28 free throws on the night, and defensively held UM to just 32.4 percent shooting and 21 points under its conference-leading season average (89.4)

“I feel like this is our team,” Watson said. “When guys share the ball and get each other open, it makes it easier, and just playing defense… We keep doing that, there’s not going to be too many teams that can beat us.”

Minnesota (8-2, 1-1) missed its first six shots from the field, All-American candidate Jordan Murphy picked up his first foul less than 30 seconds into the game, and NU jumped out to a quick 5-0 advantage for an ideal start to the night.

The Gophers responded with a 7-0 run to take the lead, but the Huskers would once again fire back with a 12-2 run to go up 22-14 with just under nine minutes let in the half.

Minnesota countered with a 9-2 run of its own to get within 24-23 with six minutes left, but freshman guard Thomas Allen knocked down a 3 to spark NU to end the half on a 15-8 streak and go into halftime up 39-31.

Nebraska held Minnesota to shoot just 33.3 percent from the field, owned a 25-19 edge on the glass, and shot 11-of-13 from the free-throw line to lead for 13:29 of the first 20 minutes.

It was all Watson to start the second half, as he scored the Huskers’ first seven points to give them their biggest lead yet a 46-32 with 15:57 left to play.

“That was the all-conference Glynn, right?” head coach Tim Miles said. “He did a great job all night. That was important.”

Nebraska then matched its biggest lead of the night on a jumper by senior guard Evan Taylor that made it 56-40 with just under 11 minutes remaining. An And-1 by senior guard Anton Gill gave NU its biggest lead of the night at 63-46 with a little more than seven minutes to go.

Things got a little chippy with 4:37 left when Minnesota guard Amir Coffey got fouled and then three dead ball technical fouls - two on Nebraska - were called after an ensuing dust-up. That resulted in the Gophers making three of four free throws and the ball to cut the deficit to 14.

A 3-pointer by junior guard James Palmer with 3:38 left looked to have put the nail in the coffin at 70-53, but Minnesota answered with back-to-back threes by Nate Mason and Coffey and eventually got the lead down to as few as eight points at 74-66 with 47 seconds on the clock.

That would be as close as it would get the rest of the way, though, as Nebraska put the game away at the free-throw line by making four of its final six attempts in the final seconds.

Junior forward Isaac Copeland finished with 12 points, five rebounds, and two blocks, while Palmer followed up with 11 points and game-high four assists.

Murphy still managed to post a double-double but did so with only 10 points, 11 under his season average, along with 11 rebounds. In all, Nebraska out-rebounded the Gophers 42-38 and had nine blocked shots to UM’s four.

“This was a great win for us,” senior center Duby Okeke said. “We needed this… This (Minnesota) team was going to test us, and we kind of needed to build confidence and build our momentum.

“For weeks and weeks, we’ve been trying to figure out what our identity is, can we get things clicking. But this win really helped us, because now we can get on a roll.”

1. Watson was as good as ever

Watson has put together plenty of impressive individual performances over the course of his Nebraska career, but what he did on Tuesday night was as good as any of them.

Not only did he rack up a season-high 29 points on 9-of-17 shooting while hitting 9-of-10 free throws, he hauled in a career-high nine rebounds, swiped three steals, and dished out two assists.

Best of all, he was the tone setter for Nebraska’s energy and defensive intensity from the opening tip until the final buzzer. Miles said Watson was very hard on himself after scoring just six points on 2-of-11 shooting at No. 3 Michigan State, and he was even still visibly upset during Monday’s practice.

But the junior from Bellwood, Ill., was able to transfer that frustration into one of the best all-around outings of his Husker career.

“It wasn’t anything different,” Miles said. “It was just Glynn.”

2. Containing Murphy was crucial

Having earned Big Ten Player of the Week honors in three of the first five weeks of the season, Murphy entered Tuesday night’s game as arguably the best player in the entire conference.

Yes, the junior power forward still posted a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, but Nebraska was able to contain him better than any opponent has all season with an exceptional interior defensive performance.

Murphy, who came in leading the Big Ten with 21.0 points per game, had only four points through the first 30 minutes of play and was just 4-of-12 from the field while committing four fouls and three turnovers.

“Me and (Isaiah) Roby going into the game were like, ‘We need to really focus and lock in on this guy,’” Copeland said of Murphy. “But I think it took all five of us on defense. He’s a really good player, and we were able to get him in foul trouble early and kind of throw him off a little bit.”

3. Hunter's defensive game plan pays off

After the team got back from East Lansing, Mich., late Sunday night, assistant coach Kenya Hunter came to Miles’ office on Monday morning with some fairly unique defensive adjustments he came up with while working on the scout for Minnesota.

Miles admitted he was a bit hesitant about Hunter’s new wrinkles, which included some double-team actions and post defense rotations NU hadn’t used all season. But he decided to give Hunter the green light to introduce them during practice on Monday evening.

Hunter laid out the plan to the players, and after further breaking down the schemes during the Minnesota film studies, Miles said the Huskers started to really buy into the plan leading into Tuesday night’s showdown.

Based on the final results, it’s safe to say Hunter’s ideas worked to near perfection.