Nebraska men’s basketball won its second consecutive road game against No. 14 Creighton Friday night in front of a sold-out CHI Health Center Omaha.
“I’m just proud of the guys for how they responded after a really tough loss up in Sioux Falls,” Coach Fred Hoiberg said after the game.
Nebraska used a slow pace, timely shot-making and, most importantly, its best defensive performance of the year in the 74-63 win.
Here are three takeaways from the Husker win.
Defense Wins
Nebraska’s defense was the story of the game. Creighton scored just 13 points on its first 29 possessions. The Huskers fronted Creighton’s All-American 7-footer Ryan Kalkbrenner (25.8 points per game in his first four games) and were quick with their weak-side help, not allowing Kalkbrenner space to catch.
All the credit in the postgame went to Braxton Meah and Andrew Morgan executing the game plan to near perfection.
“I give Braxton Meah a lot of credit,” Hoiberg said. “I thought he got us off to a great start with his physicality. Kalkbrenner obviously is playing as well as anyone in the country right now. It’s not a one person job, but we really challenged him to go out there and at least make life a little bit difficult knowing that he was going to still put up some numbers.”
The Huskers left who they felt were non-shooters to double-team Kalkbrenner and really only covered three of the Creighton offensive players at all times. Nebraska closed out with great urgency and the rotations were crisp, Hoiberg said after the game.
“It takes great communication. I thought this was our best communication game and guys were locked in,” Hoiberg said. “We knew they would go on a run and they did. It’s tough in this building when it’s loud like it was, but I give our guys a lot of credit for the poise they played with for 40 minutes.”
The Huskers led by as many as 18 in the first half, but Creighton closed the half scoring on their last five possessions to trim the deficit to nine before a Brice Williams bucket with a couple seconds left sent Nebraska to the locker room with a 35-24 advantage.
Kalkbrenner’s first shot attempt didn’t come until the 8:13 mark of the second half. It was an errant 3-pointer, and he didn’t take another shot. Nebraska fouled him 10 times in the game, but he only went 4-for-8 from the line.
Gary’s Presence
Juwan Gary made his first shot, a 3-pointer, and he scored the first five points of the game, while Creighton started slow and had two more turnovers than field goals in the first 16 minutes of the game.
“Couldn’t be more proud of him for winning in a tough place both opportunities that he had to come here,” Hoiberg said. This is really hard to do. I thought Juwan did a great job making a lot of hustle plays on both ends of the floor.”
Gary’s leadership in the week leading up to the game was key.
“Juwan really stepped up and, I thought, emerged as a leader of the team this week,” Hoiberg said. “He was so good with his voice every day. We had a couple of days of practice that I didn’t love the energy, but Juwan pulled the guys through. When he’s loud, when he’s out there showing emotion, the guys feed off of that. I’m really proud of this guy; we needed somebody to do that.”
In his final game against Creighton, Gary finished the game tied for a team-high 16 points, tied with Williams, and chipped in seven rebounds.
‘This is my last time being at Creighton,” Gary said. “I’m so glad I beat those guys twice in their home.”
Dictating Pace
Offensively, the Huskers dictated the pace and tempo of the game with longer possessions. They didn’t force shots for the majority of the game, only scoring four fast break points. The plan absolutely worked.
“The biggest thing we talked about going into this game was dictating the pace and the tempo,” Hoiberg said. “I thought we did a solid job of not pushing unless we had an advantage and getting into a set, and I thought we executed well.”
The Huskers didn’t shoot it well but made timely shots and valued possessions. Williams attacked Creighton’s drop coverage and switches with patience, not taking quick open shots but more open floaters that went in.
Nebraska has a few days off before returning to Pinnacle Bank Arena on Wednesday to host South Dakota.
