Huskers Fall to Colorado in Charity Exhibition

Emmanuel Bandoumel had 14 points to lead three Huskers in double figures as Nebraska battled before falling 72-61 to Colorado in a charity exhibition game between the two programs Sunday afternoon in Boulder.

The Huskers rallied from a 17-point first-half deficit to five in the later stages of the first half and had opportunities to close the Buffalo lead in the second half, but were unable to complete the comeback

Bandoumel had 10 of his 14 points in the second half, while Juwan Gary and Sam Griesel had 11 and 10 points, respectively for the Huskers. In all, the Huskers held CU, which won 21 games and finished fourth in the Pac-12 last season, to 43.3 percent shooting, but shot just 41 percent, including 6-of-25 from 3-point range.

KJ Simpson led all scorers with 17 points, including six in a 13-6 spurt to open the second half, while J’Vonne Hadley had 11 points and eight rebounds for CU.

In the first half, the Huskers dug an early deficit before battling back to make it 37-30 at the break. NU, which fell behind 10-0 in the first 3:35, made just three of its first 13 shots as the hosts shot nearly 60 percent in the opening 12 minutes to build a 26-9 advantage. Tristan da Salva had seven of his nine first-half markers in the early surge for Colorado.

Nebraska began to come back behind the backcourt of Griesel and Bandoumel, who combined for six straight Husker points to get NU untracked. The Husker bench then took over as Oleg Kojenets, Ramel Lloyd Jr. and Gary keyed an 11-1 Husker run as Nebraska held Colorado without a field goal for more than four minutes, trimming the deficit to 31-26 after a Gary basket with 3:32 remaining in the half.

In all, Nebraska got 18 first-half points from its bench and shot 40 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes while holding the Buffaloes to 37.5 shooting from the floor, including 4-of-21 in the final 7:30 of the half.

In the second half, Simpson keyed an early Buffalo run, as the hosts pushed the lead back to double figures as the Buffaloes hit 11 of their first 19 shots from the field after halftime.

Nebraska made one last run, using a 10-2 surge to cut a 16-point deficit to 62-54 on a Gary basket with just over four minutes remaining. NU eventually trailed 65-57 after a C.J. Wilcher 3-pointer with 3:31 left but two straight misses in the paint allowed CU to stretch their lead to 11 on a Hadley basket with 1:32 left.

The Huskers will open the season against Maine on Monday, Nov. 7. Tipoff at Pinnacle Bank Arena is set for 7 p.m. and tickets are available by visiting Huskers.com/Tickets or calling the NU Athletic Ticket Office at 800-8-BIGRED during business hours (8 a.m.-5 p.m., Mon.-Fri).