On Tuesday night, Nebraska held off Tennessee State for a 79-73 win to earn its third straight victory.
That was one of the only few positive takeaways for the Huskers from a closer and more uncomfortable game than most anyone had expected.
Alonzo Verge Jr. led the way with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, a career-high 10 assists, five rebounds, and three steals, while Bryce McGowens added 18 points, six boards, and four assists.
But NU (4-2), which came in as an 18-point favorite, couldn’t put the game away until the final minute. The Tigers knocked down a season-high 13 3-pointers on 33 attempts and out-scored Nebraska (6-of-25) by 21 from behind the arc.
All that aside, the Huskers were able to hold on and secured their third straight victory, marking the longest winning streak of the Fred Hoiberg era.
A solid start to the night for Nebraska quickly deteriorated from a 13-3 lead to a 14-1 Tennessee State run and ended with a 41-38 halftime deficit.
The Tigers, which came in averaging 8.0 made 3-pointers per game on the season, went a blistering 10-19 from being the arc in the first half alone.
Five TSU players made a three in the half, including five from Dedric Boyd, who scored 16 of his game-high 23 points before halftime. On the other end, Nebraska shot just 3-of-14 from deep in the half.
The Huskers were able to reclaim the lead within the first minute of the second half and eventually went up by five on a 3-pointer by C.J. Wilcher with 8:44 remaining. But then they two missed free throws, turned it over, and gave up another three on the other end to pull Tennessee State back to within 61-59.
Nebraska appeared to get things under control with a 9-1 run to match its largest lead of the night at 72-62 with 2:15 to play, but it still needed seven free throws from McGowens and Wilcher in the final 1:10 to seal the victory.
Wilcher finished 15 points while making three of NU’s six 3-pointers on the night, while Derrick Walker set a career-high in scoring for the third straight game with 16 points and six rebounds.
Having played three games over the past five days, Nebraska will get a few days off before returning to action at home against South Dakota on Saturday.
3-POINT PLAY
1. NU’s perimeter defense must get fixed
Tennessee State’s 13 made 3-pointers marked a Nebraska opponent season-high and the fifth time in the first six games that the Huskers have given up nine or more threes.
There were a few instances on Tuesday night where the Tigers made some tough shots, but most of their makes came on wide-open (I mean, wide-open) looks.
NU’s defensive rotations on the perimeter were downright awful in the first half. Hoiberg said it resulted from his guys not staying in front of the ball and allowing TSU to get the ball into the lane and force rotations on kick-outs.
The Huskers made some halftime adjustments and held Tennessee State to just 3-of-14 shooting from behind the arc in the second half.
The in-game fixes were good, but it came after a team wavering just eight made threes per game lit them up for 30 points from downtown in the first 20 minutes of play.
Nebraska has had a knack for years of making mediocre or even lousy shooting teams look like Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors for a night. A big reason why has been how many uncontested looks it gives opponents most every game.
2. The 3-pointers need to start falling
The 3-point shot has and will also be a staple of Hoiberg’s offense. Going into the season, the third-year coach said this would be by far the best perimeter shooting team he’s had at Nebraska.
Through the first six games, however, the Huskers have looked like anything but.
After Tuesday night’s game, Nebraska is now shooting 26.6 percent (37-of-139) from behind the arc. That ranks 306th nationally and 12th in the Big Ten.
What’s even worse, though, is that a whopping 40.4 percent of NU’s total shots this season have been from 3-point range. So, not only are the Huskers not making many threes, but they’re shooting a ton of them.
Only two players with 10 or more attempts this season, Wilcher (11-26, 42%) and Kobe Webster (5-10, 50%), are shooting better than 25 percent from behind the arc.
3. The Verge-Walker connection has been strong
Verge and Walker have both said that they hit it off immediately on the court when they first started playing together this summer.
That connection has blossomed ever since. In the past three games, Walker has set a season-high in points, and Verge has been his primary distributor.
The pick-and-roll game between the two fifth-year players has been one of NU’s most consistent and productive sources of offense early on this year.
With Verge doing a much better job of looking to pass instead of forcing bad shots the past three outings, he’s helped set Walker up for numerous layups, and Walker has finished at an exceptional rate.
Verge has averaged 6.0 assists per game over that stretch and now ranks ninth nationally with a 46.0 assist rate (assists divided by the field goals made by the player’s teammates while he is on the court.)
Walker has now made 19 of his last 20 field-goal attempts and is averaging 11.6 points over those three contests.
THEY SAID IT
“Behind the scenes, nobody knows what he does. He is the best leader that I have had on a team. He communicates on and off the court, and it is fabulous. If he feels a certain way, he is going to tell you and he can take criticism back. Since I have got here, we have had a connection.”
— Senior guard Alonzo Verge Jr. on junior forward Derrick Walker
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