Nebraska men’s basketball lost the rebounding battle but won the war 80-74 in overtime over No. 18 Illinois Thursday night in Lincoln.
The win snapped the Huskers’ six-game losing streak and moved them to 13-8 overall and 3-7 in Big Ten play.
“Winning sure as hell beats losing. It was a business-like approach,” Coach Fred Hoiberg said of the locker room after the win. “The guys know we have to get over it quickly. If we don’t, it’s going to affect us in our game in Oregon and it’s not going to be pretty. We can’t have a hangover effect.”
Nebraska never trailed and led for 39:30 to improve to 3-2 against ranked opponents this season. It’s the first time the Huskers have had three wins over a ranked opponent in a season since 2013-14.
The Huskers were not going to win the rebounding battle against Illinois, the nation’s top rebounding margin team coming into the game at plus-11.5 per game. On Thursday, Illinois out-rebounded Nebraska 58-42 and 20-13 on the offensive end.
“Obviously they got a ton of offensive rebounds, that’s what they do, they lead the nation in rebounding. I was disappointed in a couple of those where we didn’t finish off the possession,” Hoiberg said. “I think [Tre] White had five offensive rebounds at halftime, five of their 10. Those other guys we did a pretty solid job on, and then in the second half, some of those 50/50 plays, we’ve got to find a way to finish off those possessions.”
Despite that rebounding advantage, Nebraska had a 44-28 advantage with points in the paint and only trailed Illinois 15-12 in second-chance points. The Huskers are just the second team this season to outscore Illinois by 15 or more points in the paint.
It was more than those categories that won the game for the Huskers. Nebraska forced 17 total turnovers with 11 coming in the second half. To the contrary, Nebraska did not turn the ball over in the first 15:26 of the game and the Huskers’ six turnovers tied for Nebraska’s fewest of the season (previously set against North Florida).
Illinois shot just 26-of-73 (35.6%) from the field and 10-of-42 (23.8%) from 3-point range. In Nebraska’s six-game losing skid, their opponents scored 47.1% (243 of 516) of their points from beyond the arc. The 74 Illinois points were 11.5 below their season average of 85.5.
“They do a great job with their low holds, taking away post-ups,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “When we did try to throw it to Morez [Johnson Jr.] on rolls, the results weren’t great. We told our team, you really can’t throw them there. It’s their defensive scheme. If you slip your guards, which we’ve been really good at, there’s a low hold there, and it’s just tough sledding. It’s why you take 50 3s, and we didn’t make very many of them.”
Wednesday in the pregame availability, Hoiberg said the team needed to not have a “here-we-go-again mentality when things go bad.”
For one game at home, the Huskers didn’t hang their heads after a missed shot or an Illini run. They found a way to regroup when Illinois shot seven-for-nine in the third stanza of the second half and eventually tied the game at 70-70 late in regulation.
“It was our two best practices leading up to this game,” Brice Williams said. “It was focus, intensity and just getting back to us. We didn’t shoot the ball too well tonight, but our defense kept us in the game. We reached most of our goals tonight. We had to wake up, and tonight we woke up.”
Williams is the team’s best and most consistent scoring threat. Tonight he took the game over at times instead of deferring like he did too often during the losing streak. He and Juwan Gary, the team’s two leaders, made huge plays when the team needed them.
Williams and Gary tied for team-high honors with eight rebounds apiece and Wiliams scored 20 of his game-high 27 points inside the arc, with the other seven coming from the free-throw line.
After the game, Underwood had high praise for Williams: “I thought they had the best player on the court in Brice.”
