Nebraska men’s basketball erased a 20-point deficit to win at Northwestern Sunday, 68-64. The victory is the Huskers’ fifth in the last six games and another crucial road win for NU as Nebraska builds its resume to be selected to a second straight NCAA tournament.
The toughness Nebraska showed was evident all the way to the head coach. Fred Hoiberg coached the second half with a heavily bandaged hand after having, “a little incident with a whiteboard at half”, as he put it in his postgame interview on the Huskers Radio Network.
It started poorly for the Huskers. Nebraska shot poorly in the first half, hitting just 27 percent of its shots from the field and just 1-of-10 from behind the three-point arc. The Huskers were also dominated on the glass, as the Wildcats outrebounded them, 29-11. Northwestern had snagged 14 offensive rebounds to just two for Nebraska and outscored the Huskers in the paint, 18-4. The Wildcats took a 36-21 lead into the locker room.
Despite the unfortunate incident with the whiteboard, things didn’t turn around immediately for Nebraska, as Northwestern pushed its lead out to 20, 41-21, with 19:15 to go. On the ensuing possession, the Huskers turned the ball over. But the turnaround started as Northwestern gave the ball right back. Then Nebraska found its shooting touch, hitting 61 percent of its shots from the field and 5-of-8 from behind the three-point line. The Huskers were tougher on the glass, losing the rebounding battle after halftime by just one, 17-16. And led by eight points from Connor Essegian and seven from Braxton Meah, the Huskers’ bench outscored Northwestern’s, 15-2.
Nebraska shrunk the Wildcats’ lead, tying the game at 54 and 56. An alley-oop dunk by Meah tied the game at 58. He was fouled on the play and hit the free throw to give the Huskers a 59-58 lead with 3:26 remaining. After a Cats’ basket, Nebraska took back the lead on two free throws by Brice Williams. A Meah layup grew the lead to 63-60 with 51 seconds to go. Five free throws in the final 19 seconds by Williams locked down the win for the Huskers.
Williams led the Huskers with 21 points on 6-for-14 shooting. Juwan Gary added 17 while Meah tallied 10 points and seven rebounds in his best game at Nebraska. Nick Martinelli and Ty Berry scored 23 points each to lead Northwestern, but no one else scored more than six for the Wildcats.
Nebraska now prepares for its next-to-last road game of the season Wednesday at Penn State at 5:30 p.m. Pregame coverage begins on KLIN Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.