Brennan Rigsby’s three-pointer as time expired gave Minnesota men’s basketball a 67-65 victory over Nebraska in a game the Huskers badly needed to win to bolster their NCAA Tournament hopes.
The shot came after a furious Nebraska rally had drawn the Huskers even with the Golden Gophers. Minnesota led 35-26 at half and built a 19-point lead with 15:43 to go, 47-28. The Huskers went to work from there, shrinking the deficit to 10 with 11:52 to go, 52-42. A 9-0 Nebraska run sliced the lead to 52-49 with 9:16 to go. From there, the teams were not separated by more than five points. A 6-0 NU run capped by two Juwan Gary free throws gave Nebraska a 55-54 lead with 6:29 to go in regulation, the Huskers’ first lead since early in the first half.
A three by Rigsby briefly gave the lead back to the Gophers, 57-55. Another Rigsby three-pointer pushed Minnesota’s lead to 62-57 with 2:12 to go. After cutting the Gophers’ lead to one twice, Nebraska forced a turnover and Gary grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to give the Huskers a 65-64 lead with four seconds to go. But Minnesota raced down the floor and Rigsby hoisted a three-pointer in the final seconds, which went in, to give the Golden Gophers the victory.
Rigsby came off the bench to lead Minnesota with 20 points including five three-pointers. Lu’Cye Patterson added 16 points on 7-for-18 shooting. Dawson Garcia, one of the top scorers in the Big Ten, was held to nine points. Nebraska got 21 points each from Brice Williams and Juwan Gary. Connor Essegian added 11 including three three-pointers. Normally a good free-throw shooting team, NU hit just 11-for-20 in the loss. Braxton Meah was 1-for-6 from the charity stripe. That, plus the Huskers’ continued struggles behind the arc (4-for-16 from three-point range) led to Nebraska’s loss.
The defeat shrinks Nebraska’s margin for error to make the NCAA Tournament down to basically none. The Huskers must win Tuesday at Ohio State, then win on Senior Day next Sunday at home against Iowa. Another loss in the regular season likely puts Nebraska on the wrong side of the bubble heading into conference tournament week.
Tuesday’s game at Ohio State is slated to start at 8 p.m. Pregame coverage begins at 7 p.m. on KLIN.