It was a tale of two halves for Nebraska men’s basketball in an 86-72 road win at Washington Wednesday night.
That is three straight wins for Nebraska after dropping six in a row.
“This is a good team that we beat,” Coach Fred Hoiberg said in his post-game radio comments. “We knew that we’d have to come out here and play well if we wanted to have a chance and we played — obviously a tale of two halves, but that second half was a lot of fun.”
The Huskers didn’t panic and showed poise despite Washington’s hot start from behind the arc.
Washington was a little too comfortable and wasn’t sped up enough early. Nebraska’s communication on the defensive end of the floor was lacking in the first half.
The Huskies made their first seven 3-pointers in the game’s first seven minutes and 25 seconds. In the first half, Washington finished 9-of-16 behind the arc.
“We just came out with a little bit of a casualness tonight,” Hoiberg said.
At the half, Washington led 47-37.
In the second half, Nebraska answered the bell, or at least the coaching staff’s strong words in the locker room. The Huskers erased that 10-point halftime deficit with a 5-for-7 start in the first three minutes of the second half, and Washington regressed closer to that 32% season average (29.7% in Big Ten play), only shooting 11.1% from 3 in the second half.
“We jumped them hard and they responded,” Hoiberg said. “I give them (Nebraska) all the credit in the world for coming out and throwing the first punch. I told them, only 10, points really in this game. If you go out there and play the way we have been playing, 10 points is nothing.”
The Huskers got back to their defensive identity in the second half with eight defensive stands in a row and nine of the first 10 Washington possessions.
Brice Williams once again led Nebraska. The AP College Basketball National Player of the Week played like it, scoring a team-high 23 points with 13 of those coming in the second half. Williams’ effort was efficient, shooting 7-of-14 from the field and 4-of-6 from 3-point range in the game. In Nebraska’s three-game win streak, Williams is averaging 26.0 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
Williams had some help on Wednesday. Connor Essegian made some timely 3-pointers and finished the game with 16 points including 4-of-5 from deep. It was the 23rd time this season Nebraska has had a bench player score in double figures.
Berke Büyüktuncel might have had his best game in the Big Ten play for Nebraska. The UCLA transfer had seven points, nine rebounds and just one turnover playing back in the Pacific time zone.
One of the keys, not just in this game but every game for Nebraska is valuing possessions. For the most part, Nebraska did just that, only committing six total turnovers, tied for their lowest total of the season. The Huskers committed just one turnover in the second half, which was a shot clock violation while dribbling the ball out to end the game.
Nebraska now has six double-figure comebacks under Hoiberg after Wednesday’s effort, its first since a 19-point comeback against Wisconsin last season,
The Huskers now head home for a game against Ohio State on Sunday afternoon.
“We can’t take our foot off the gas,” Hoiberg said. “We can’t revert back to the first half what we did tonight. We just have to go out there, get our crowd behind us and I know we’re going to have a great one for Ohio State and hopefully play a complete game.”
