Another bad start. Another bad finish.
For Nebraska men’s basketball, the script of the 83-55 loss at Wisconsin Sunday was familiar. Basically identical to the 104-68 loss at Purdue, especially at the start. The Badgers buried the Huskers with a 19-2 run to begin the game, and though Nebraska got to within three points of Wisconsin, the Huskers never drew even with the Badgers and Wisconsin reopened its lead to 40-23 late in the first half and were never seriously challenged after that. The loss was the Cornhuskers’ sixth in a row since beating UCLA, 66-58, on Jan. 4.
Omaha native John Tonje led the Badgers with 27 points on 9-for-19 shooting, including five three-pointers. John Blackwell added 14 points while Kamari McGee contributed 11 points off the bench. Brice Williams was Nebraska’s only double-digit scorer, with 11 points on 4-for-12 shooting.
Wisconsin was solid shooting the ball, hitting 47.6 percent of its shots from the field (30-for-63) including 46 percent from behind the arc (17-for-37). Nebraska struggled to 34 percent shooting (21-for-62) while hitting just 10-of-30 three-pointers. The Badgers were also more opportunistic, converting 12 NU turnovers into 17 points, compared to just three points for the Huskers off Wisconsin’s eight turnovers.
Nebraska’s next contest is Thursday at home against Illinois. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m. with pregame at 6:30 p.m. on KLIN.