Huskers breakout with 72-51 blowout over Rutgers

Hours after announcing the departure of leading scorer Teddy Allen from the program, Nebraska came out and had its best Big Ten Conference performance in years.

Lat Mayen scored 20 of his career-high 25 points in the first half to spark the Huskers to an 18-point halftime lead, and they never looked back en route to a dominant 72-51 victory in all phases.

Shooting 51.8 percent from the field with 19 assists, 11 steals, and a 38-28 rebounding advantage, NU eventually went up by as many as 30 points before all was said and done. Before Monday night, its previous largest lead in league play was 13 in its win over Minnesota.

The 21-point victory was Nebraska’s largest margin in a conference win since beating Rutgers 87-63 on Feb. 6, 2016.

Without Allen, who ranked sixth in the Big Ten with 16.5 points per game, Nebraska won its second Big Ten game in a row following Saturday night’s victory over Minnesota. The last time the Huskers won back-to-back conference games was Feb. 13 and 16, 2019, over Minnesota and Northwestern.

Four straight 3-pointers by Mayen kickstarted one of the most impressive halves of basketball Nebraska had played all season and led 43-25 at the break.

The junior forward tied his career-high with 16 points in the first eight minutes and finished the half with 20. Overall, the Huskers shot 55 percent from the field, went 6-of-12 on 3-pointers, had 14 assists on 16 made baskets, and averaged 1.303 points per possession in the first half.

Defensively, they nabbed eight steals for 13 points off turnovers and held Rutgers 1-of-12 shooting from behind the arc and just two points over the final 6:13.

Nebraska’s first-half 43 points were the most the Scarlet Knights had allowed this season and the third-most the Scarlet Knights have given up in any half all year. It also marked NU’s largest halftime lead in Big Ten play since leading at Rutgers by 20 Jan. 9, 2016.

The Huskers didn’t slow down at all to open the second half, either, jumping out with a 14-6 run and pushing their lead up to 57-31 on another three by Mayen with 13:49 remaining.

That lead would steadily build up to 30 when Shamiel Stevenson hit a transition runner to make it 66-36 five minutes later.

Nebraska went on cruise control from there, as it only scored four points over the final 8:13 yet still won by 21.

Derrick Walker finished with 14 points and six rebounds, while Trey McGowens scored 12 along with five assists. Dalano Banton came off the bench and posted seven points, six rebounds, and four assists.

Jacob Young (12) points and Ron Harper Jr. (10) were the only Scarlet Knights to score in double figures, as Rutgers finished 38.6 percent from the floor and just 3-of-23 (13 percent) from behind the arc.

Nebraska will get a rare break before returning to action at No. 9 Iowa on Thursday for an 8 p.m. tip on BTN.

1. Allen’s departure forced NU to come together

Monday started with a press release issued shortly after 9 a.m. announcing that Allen was leaving the program.

Nine hours later, Nebraska put together its best all-around performance of the Fred Hoiberg era.

It’s hard to say that removing a leading scorer – one that just dropped 41 points three games earlier – could make the team better, but there’s no denying that Allen’s departure changed the dynamics on the court.

The ball movement was the best it’s been all season, and there seemed to be more chemistry in the half-court and in transition than we’d seen in months.

Seniors Thorir Thorbjarnarson and Kobe Webster made their second straight starts and combined for 12 rebounds, seven assists, six steals, and two turnovers.

That didn’t include all of the other countless winning plays they made that didn’t show up in the final box score, either. Their veteran leadership in the last two games has been obvious.

I’m not going to come out and say removing Allen was the sole reason for NU’s breakout performance. He carried the Huskers many times in his 22 games this year.

But it did force the Huskers to come together and play as a team from start to finish, and they responded to that challenge better than anyone could have ever predicted.

We’ll see if they can carry that over and do it again on the road against a top-10 Iowa team, but Saturday may have been the spark Nebraska had been waiting for.

2. This is McGowens’ team now

McGowens had put together numerous impressive stat lines throughout his first season at Nebraska, but none were as good as what he did against Rutgers.

The junior guard was in complete command on both ends of the floor in all aspects. He scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting (2-of-2 on threes) and had five assists to one turnover.

With Banton coming off the bench for the second straight game, McGowens is now NU’s primary point guard. His impact in that role has been undeniable.

After the game, Mayen told how McGowens made it a point to find him on the perimeter to start the game. By deliberately setting up Mayen with good shots, McGowens helped take Rutgers out of its pack-line defense and opened up driving lanes to the rim.

McGowens came to Nebraska wanted to play more off the ball while helping out at point guard as needed. But these past two outings have proved he needs to be the quarterback of NU’s offense.

3. Nebraska’s defense was as good as it’s been in years

Nebraska will get all kinds of praise for its offensive performance against Rutgers, as it should.

But the way the Huskers played on defense was as good as we’ve seen since Hoiberg took over in Lincoln.

The Scarlet Knights didn’t come into the game as a scoring juggernaut by any stretch, but they were utterly bewildered by NU’s defensive discipline.

Nebraska got RU to play right into its game plan by having it rely on its biggest weakness – 3-point shooting. The Knights came in ranked 13th in the conference in 3-point percentage (31.3), and the Huskers forced them to take 23 shots from behind the arc.

While NU was rolling on offense, Rutgers missed 12 of its first 13 threes and finished 3-for-23 on the night.

Of the Knights’ 13 turnovers, 11 came on Nebraska steals, with Thorbjarnarson nabbing a season-high four of them.

As important as it for the Huskers to play like that offensively, they will always have a chance to win no matter the opponent with defense like that.