In their last game before a 10-day holiday break, Nebraska men’s basketball (6-7 overall, 0-2 B1G) put on their best long-distance shooting performance of the season, stopped a 5-game losing skid, and closed out their non-conference slate with an 88-74 win over Kennesaw State (4-8) at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Freshman Keisei Tominaga led the Huskers with 18 points on 7-12 shooting and 4-7 from long range. Senior point guard Alonzo Verge stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, 12 assists, 7 boards, and 3 steals in a team-high 31 minutes. Junior forward Derrick Walker added 11 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots.
Head coach Fred Hoiberg summed up the relief of finally getting back in the win column. “It’s been a tough 10-12 days for us with everything that we’ve gone through: the whole team getting an illness, getting it handed to us two consecutive games, to not take good shots in the last one and still have a chance to win it. To put everything together tonight, it was important to get our guys feeling good with the break.”
Nebraska led by as many as 25 points, fueled by a scorching 15-29 3-point shooting exhibition. They almost equaled their most made 3-pointers for a full 40 minutes (10 vs Creighton) in the first half alone, hitting 9-17 before halftime. The Huskers shot 53% from the field as ten different players scored, seven of whom made at least one shot from beyond the arc.
After a stretch of poor shooting performances, the positive result may translate into a more confident team heading into Big Ten play. “Confidence is everything,” junior Lat Mayen said. “It’s a mental game – everyone did their work over the summer. It’s just confidence now; just getting your mind right.”
Things did not start well for NU. Early on, the Huskers gave up the game’s first 3 offensive rebounds – on the same possession to the same player – and committed the game’s first 3 turnovers as well. They shot just 2-8 from the field to begin the game. Meanwhile, the Owls took advantage by starting 7-13 from the floor and grabbing a 16-8 lead.
Nebraska responded, coming back from down 8 to going up by 11 over the last 14 minutes of the first half. “We were going through a lot of adversity in practice this week,” Verge said. “We fought through it. We pushed through all the things coach put us through, and I think that transferred over to the game. When we were down 8, we didn’t panic. We kind of stayed level-headed and kept playing.”
Freshman Keisei Tominaga nailed a corner 3 with 13:48 left in the first half to stop Kennesaw State’s 7-0 run. That ignited a 15-0 run for Nebraska, flipping the game into Nebraska’s favor for good.
Verge sparked the comeback. He twice broke down his defender off the dribble from the left wing, entered the paint, then kicked it out to a wide-open teammate standing in the left corner. Both freshman CJ Wilcher and Mayen knocked down their Verge-assisted 3-pointers, extending Nebraska’s lead to 9 at 27-18.
Another highlight-reel play before the half saw Verge block a shot from behind, push the fast break with a pass to Tominaga, who then found Webster open for a left corner triple. That gave the Huskers their largest lead of the half at 33-24.
Little-used Trevor Lakes, finding his way into the rotation with freshman Wilhelm Breidenbach out, hit 2 first half triples, including a first-half buzzer-beater. He scored 8 points, his most as a Husker since scoring 12 against Doane in December 2020.
Perhaps no play was more indicative of Nebraska’s offensive success than a transition 3-pointer involving their three biggest contributors. Verge, defended at the left wing, passed into the lane to Walker. Walker quickly spotted Tominaga in the right corner and made the catch and pass in one fluid motion. Tominaga swished the open 3-pointer, one of his game-high 4 makes. Verge’s court vision, Walker’s skill in the paint, and Tominaga’s sharpshooting ability were all on display as NU extended their lead to 21, 57-36, a mere four minutes into the second half.
Star freshman Bryce McGowens, who fouled out for the first time in his college career, scored a relatively quiet 11 points on 4-7 shooting. He went 3-5 from downtown, grabbed four rebounds, and was plus-19 over his 26 minutes, good for second-best behind only Verge’s plus-23.
Wilcher scored 8 points, Mayen and senior Kobe Webster added 6 each, and freshman center Eduardo Andre had 3, including a nice alley-oop dunk from Verge.
As Nebraska wraps up the non-conference season, the upcoming schedule is a daunting challenge. “All but Indiana made the tournament out of our January schedule, and Indiana’s obviously a lot better this year,” Hoiberg noted. “It’s going to be a brutal stretch that we have, but we’ve got to continue to work and hopefully shoot the ball like we did tonight.”
The team will have four days off for the holidays to spend with family and friends. The next practice is the evening of Monday, December 27th, with the next game against Ohio State in Lincoln on Sunday, January 2nd, 2022.