Barely 24 hours after kicking off the season in impressive fashion with a blowout win over McNeese State, Nebraska was brought back down to Earth in a hurry on Thursday.
The Huskers made just nine of a single-game school record 41 3-point attempts and shot 29 percent from the field overall in a 69-66 loss to Nevada in its first game of the Golden Window Classic at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Despite the horrific shooting, NU still held a 10-point lead with less than 10 minutes to play and a chance to save the victory. Instead, the Wolfpack responded with a 17-3 run to reclaim the lead and sealed the win on a 3-pointer by Grant Sherfield with just 6.8 seconds remaining.
Dalano Banton scored a team-high 18 points with seven rebounds and five assists, and his And-1 dunk with 54 seconds to play put Nebraska up 66-64. But Sherfield, who scored 16 of his game-high 19 points in the second half, finished with five straight points plus the game-winner.
The loss dropped the Huskers to 1-1 on the season, and they still have yet to win consecutive games since beating Southern and Washington State on Nov. 22 and 25, 2019, last season.
The first half was an offensive disaster for Nebraska from start to finish, as the Huskers shot just 25 percent from the field and went 4-for-20 from 3-point range to go into halftime down 35-29.
A six-minute scoring drought helped spark Nevada to go on an 11-2 run midway through the half, with guard Desmond Cambridge scoring nine straight points during that stretch and finishing with 16 of his 18 total points at the break.
Teddy Allen, who had 17 points but was 3-for-11 from the field, knocked down a 3-pointer to open the second half, and NU eventually tied the game up at 41-41 on a three by Banton with 14:25 left to play.
Nebraska then took its first lead since the 8:19 mark of the first half on a 3-pointer by Webster, and that turned into a 14-2 run that gave the Huskers their largest lead of the game at 55-45 with 9:34 remaining.
As well as NU responded during the first 10 minutes of the second half, things quickly fell apart over the final 10.
Nevada answered with a 17-3 run of its own to take the lead at 62-58 with 5:30 to go. Nebraska went 8:30 without a made field goal during that stretch.
But a 3-pointer by Lat Mayen and Banton’s And-1 had the Huskers back on top by two with less than a minute to play. Sherfield tied it with two free throws on the other end, and then Mayen turned it over with 32 seconds on the clock.
Sherfield’s game-winner soon followed, and Banton’s last-second three to tie bounced off the rim as time expired.
Webster scored 13 points off the bench, but Nebraska had two starters – Trey McGowens and Thorir Thorbjarnarson – go scoreless on a combined nine shot attempts. That marked the first time in 68 career college games that McGowens did not score a point.
The Huskers will get a day off before returning to action again on Saturday for their second game of the Golden Window Classic against North Dakota State. Tip-off is set for 11 a.m. CT and will be televised on BTN.
1. Nevada gave NU an early taste of what’s to come
Thursday’s loss was a learning experience for Nebraska, as it faced its first real on-court adversity as a team. The good news was how NU responded after halftime and played its best 10 minutes of the game to take a 10-point lead.
The bad news was Nevada provided a hard lesson on what Nebraska can expect as the level of competition, talent, and physicality increases this season.
The Huskers missed some early bunnies that threw off their confidence a bit offensively. Then the Wolfpack loaded the paint defensively and dared NU to win with 3-pointers. Nevada owned a 39-20 rebounding advantage and out-scored Nebraska 30-18 in the paint.
Opponents will continue to follow that defensive game plan until the Huskers find a way to adjust, either by hitting threes at a much higher rate or improving the movement on and off the ball to create better looks at the rim.
2. The 41 3-pointers were ridiculous
Nebraska’s players needed to realize that jacking up 3-pointers on every possession without even trying to attack the lane was not going to work at some point in the game.
Instead, time and again, NU not only fired away from behind the arc but also did so with little-to-no ball movement. After the game, Fred Hoiberg said that he’s OK with his team shooting 3-pointers at any time as long as they’re getting good looks.
The Huskers were not getting good looks and still hoisting them up anyway. Part of that was probably out of frustration, which Nevada’s defense certainly helped create. It was also due to settling for a stagnant offensive effort and just hoping some shots would go in.
The 41 3-point attempts broke the single-game school record, breaking the 37 NU took against Kansas on Feb. 24, 2002. That number is far too many, whether they’re good looks or not.
3. We’ll learn a lot about this team on Saturday
Nebraska faced its first game adversity against a real opponent right away after falling behind by eight in the first half and trailing by six at the break.
Hoiberg said he didn’t like his team’s body language at all going into halftime, and he called them on it in the locker room. The Huskers then responded exactly as Hoiberg hoped, playing their best 10 minutes of the day and flipping the score to a 10-point lead.
But NU couldn’t find a way to close, as Nevada stayed poised and stuck with its plan and steadily chipped away to win the game in the end. Nebraska will have a much-needed day off to process the polar opposite first two games.
How the Huskers come back on Saturday against a gritty North Dakota State team will tell us far more about what they’re made of than anything thus far.
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