Watson leads Huskers to 85-80 win over 49ers

For half of its game vs. Long Beach State on Sunday, Nebraska was nearly flawless. For the other half, though, the Huskers couldn’t seem to stay out of their own way.

As a result, a once 22-point NU lead was eventually cut down to three in the final seconds before a pair of Glynn Watson free throws finally sealed a 85-80 victory on the final day of the AdvoCare Invitational in Orlando, Fla.

Watson put up one of his best games of the season with a game-high 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting, five assists, and six steals to the lead way.

But even with four other Nebraska players scoring in double figures, it couldn’t avoid multiple extended scoring droughts that kept the 49ers (3-4) within reach when the game should have been put away.

While it ended up much closer than it needed to be, the Huskers still walked away from the tournament with two wins in three games and improved their season record to 5-2.

“You’re constantly trying to teach guys what the process looks like and feels like to be successful,” head coach Tim Miles said on his postgame radio show on the Husker Sports Network. “For us, it’s ball movement, player movement on offense, share the ball, get an advantage, create for your teammate, and good things happen.”

Nebraska couldn’t have drawn up a better start to the game than what it got for the first 15 minutes, as the Huskers ended up hitting 20 of their first 28 shots and led by as many as 21 points with just under six minutes to go before halftime.

But NU would quickly come back to Earth from there, as it suddenly went ice cold offensively and allowed Long Beach State to steadily chop the lead down to single digits at 49-40 with a 14-3 run over the final five minutes.

Foul trouble to bigs Jordy Tshimanga and Duby Okeke and a scary ankle injury to Isaiah Roby certainly impacted Nebraska’s post defense, and that was compounded by a 1-for-8 shooting stretch and going scoreless for the final 2:38 of the half.

“We kind of got on them defensively (to start), and when we get the ball in transition we can really score,” junior forward Isaac Copeland told HSN. “But they started killing us on the pick-and-roll… They found a weakness, but we were able to come up with the win.”

Whatever Miles’ message was to the team at halftime, it definitely flipped the switch back on. Nebraska came firing out of the gates to start the second half with a 13-0 run that put them up by their largest lead yet at 62-40 with just over 16 minutes left to play.

Yet once again the Huskers would suddenly fall apart offensively, going on a nearly four-minute scoring drought to let the 49ers rally back with a 9-0 run and trim a 22-point lead down to 64-51 at the under-12 timeout.

Long Beach State would then go on another 10-0 rally and pull within its closest deficit since early in the first half at 68-63 with 7:19 to go.

The 49ers would get it down to 77-73 on a layup by Gabe Levin, who ended the day with 22 points and a career-high 16 rebounds, but four straight free throws by Watson and junior guard James Palmer put NU back up by eight with 39 seconds left.

But with the Huskers not making a field goal in the final 4:08 and missing two free throws in one-and-one situations the final 22 seconds, Long Beach State was able to make it a one-possession game with a 3-pointer by Jordan Griffin with three seconds on the clock.

Watson finally put the game away with two free throws with one second left, allowing Nebraska to walk away with its second win in three days, even if it was a bit more stressful than it should have been.

“This was a good win,” Miles said. “At the end of the day, we’re where we have to be. You look at the big picture, the kids have really done a good job, and we’ve just got to keep finding ways to win.”

Senior guard Anton Gill finished with 16 points on 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range off the bench, while Copeland added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

The Huskers will return to action on Wednesday when they host Boston College for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, with tip-off set for 8:15 p.m.

***UPDATE: Tim Miles said Roby suffered “a bad sprain” but not a high-ankle sprain or a fracture. Right now he said it looks like a 5-7 day injury.***