After poor week of practice, Huskers collapse at Michigan State

Michigan State was in attack mode Saturday in East Lansing and Nebraska had zero answers.

Behind plenty of aggressiveness, confidence and muscle, Tom Izzo’s Spartans beat Fred Hoiberg’s Huskers 89-52 inside the Breslin Center to kick off Big Ten play for NU.

NU falls to 6-2 on the season while MSU improves to 8-2 and 2-0 in conference play.

Not many saw a 37-point blowout defeat coming NU’s way, not after the offense seemed to find a rhythm six days ago when it lit up the scoreboard for 103 points against North Florida.

It was obvious then, and it’s obvious now: MSU is not North Florida. The Big Ten is not the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Huskers were completely overwhelmed by the Spartans in every way.

The most shocking stat of the game may be what happened on the glass. NU had no answers for MSU’s effort and physicality when crashing the paint. The Spartans won the rebound battle 48-19 and hauled down 12 offensive rebounds. MSU held a big edge in second-chance points: 17-3.

“That’s the thing that pisses me off about this game, we did not prepare going into this one like we needed to,” Hoiberg told the Huskers Radio Network after the game.

Like Hoiberg talked about, MSU played with a fast pace on offense. The Spartans moved the ball well, and NU’s defense had a hard time keeping up. MSU shot 52% from the field and 39% from 3-point range (9-of-23). Of the 29 made shots for MSU, it assisted on 20 of them.

“My biggest message was, you play like you practice,” Hoiberg said. “I just didn’t feel like we had a very good week of practice leading in to one of the most hostile environments in the Big Ten, in a game with physicality that can overwhelm you, and that’s what happens.”

NU got off to a slow start, trailing 7-0 early. The Huskers eventually settled down and competed with the Spartans for a bit, but it didn’t last.

NU trailed by 15 points in the first half, 37-22, with about four minutes left before halftime. The Huskers generated momentum by going on a 9-0 run that included five points from Brice Williams and four from Rollie Worster, all at the free-throw line.

But that momentum didn’t last to the end of the half. MSU was able to flip it, and four straight points from Jaxon Kohler gave MSU a 10-point lead, 41-31, at the break.

The big second half NU needed never came. MSU opened the second half on a 12-2 run to pump its edge to 53-33. Then the Spartan lead ballooned to 68-34 after a 15-0 run from the guys in white.

With 3:53 left in the game, MSU’s lead was a whopping 42 points, 85-43.

“We talked about the importance of the first five minutes in the second half, and they completely took control of the game,” Hoiberg said. “And I thought their physicality just overwhelm us on both ends of the court.”

NU’s top scoring threat the past two games, Connor Essegian, was completely taken away from a hounding MSU defense. Essegian scored just one point, and it came at the free-throw line. Brice Williams was held to 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting, and four of those points came at the line.

Andrew Morgan led NU with 14 points and seven rebounds.

NU shot 33.3% overall, 18.2% from 3 (4-of-22) and 66.7% from the free-throw line (12-of-18). MSU was efficient at the free-throw line, going 22-of-23.

“I just thought we got away from everything there and that’s when that thing got up to 40,” Hoiberg said. “It’s a very disappointing game. We got to learn from it. It happens in this league. Got a big one coming up next Friday.”

It will be a long week of soul searching for NU. A strong week of practice is badly needed with Indiana coming to Lincoln for a 7 p.m. game Friday night inside Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Indiana is sitting at 7-2 right now and riding a three-game win streak over non-conference opponents Providence (89-73), Sam Houston (97-71) and Miami Ohio (76-57)

The two losses on the Hoosiers’ resume include to Louisville (89-61) and Gonzaga (89-73).

Indiana will open Big Ten play at home with Minnesota (6-4) on Monday before traveling to Lincoln.

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