Nebraska men’s basketball fell to 3-1 on the season with a 77-74 neutral site loss to St. Mary’s team at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, SD.
The Huskers started the game slow, with three turnovers and three missed shots on their first five possessions. Their first made basket was a Brice Williams floating layup 3:48 into the first half.
“The disappointing thing to me is we talked about the start,” Fred Hoiberg said. “We dug ourselves a 14-point hole early.”
St. Mary’s led by 14 with 6:44 left in the first half.
Despite that slow start, Nebraska clawed back to within two, 48-46 at the half, finishing the half 4-5 from three and 2-4 from three-point range.
“The edge early in that game,” Hoiberg said. “I thought St. Mary brought it better than we did.”
Berke Buckets
Berke Büyüktuncel didn’t make a field goal in the first half but finished the game with a career-high 15 points.
He came out of halftime with renewed energy and made his first three attempts of the half. Not only did he make shots, but he gave the team and the crowd a spark by tipping passes and pulling down big rebounds.
Büyüktuncel, who has been in double figures in each of the past two games, also set a career bests with three steals and three blocks.
“I really like Berke’s aggressiveness; we ran a couple ball screens for him as the handler, set by our point guard. They don’t switch so we thought we could steal a couple of baskets with that action.” Hoiberg said. “I just thought he was very assertive, especially when he got into the paint, offensive rebounds I thought he was terrific, I thought he gave great effort. It’s a matter of time; he is going to start hitting shots. He’s got too good of a stroke and when that happens, he is going to be a hell of a weapon for us.”
The Constants
Nebraska led by as many as five at 6:31 in the second half but could keep the first stanza of the half’s consistent play up, turning it over on four straight possessions.
Free throw shooting kept Nebraska in the game and Brice Williams was the star that he needs to be for this team.
The Huskers did a good job of getting to the free-throw line and converting once again. They made 25-29 and Williams made all 11 of his shots from the charity stripe and a team-high 28 points on 8-12 from the field.
Two negative things that seem to be more of a constant than a mirage are three-point shooting and turnovers.
Including the closed scrimmage vs Utah, the Huskers are shooting just 28% or 37-129 from three-point range against teams other than themselves in practices or scrimmages.
On Sunday, against a well coached, physical St. Mary’s, it was the third time in four games that turnovers have nearly doubled up the assists. Nebraska committed 15 turnovers to just eight assists. At this point the mirage is believing this team was going to take care of the ball better than last years team without two true point guards.
In four games, the Huskers have a negative or .92 assist-to-turnover ratio, 58 assists to 63 turnovers.
St. Mary’s is a really good team and an old one. However, they have a young star in the making with freshman Mikey Lewis, who had a team-high 28 points and made five of his seven 3-point attempts.
Nebraska’s next game is in Omaha on Friday night. Versus rival Creighton that at the current moment is a notch above St. Mary’s.
