Badgers blitz Nebraska in another Big Ten road blowout
Riding a five-game losing streak entering its road game vs. No. 18 Wisconsin on Sunday, Nebraska was desperate to get its season back on track.
Instead, the Huskers fell into a 19-2 hole out of the gate and never recovered in an 83-55 defeat at the Kohl Center.
The Badgers lit it up from behind the arc, going 17-of-37 (45.9%) from 3-point range. Nine of those makes came in the first half. The Huskers rallied to pull within three just before the break, but UW still took a 12-point lead into halftime and didn’t look back.
Wisconsin hit eight more threes in the second half and pushed its lead to as many as 31 before all was said and done. The 17 made threes tied for the third-most in a game in UW program history.
Omaha native John Tonje finished with a game-high 27 points while hitting five 3-pointers. Brice Williams was Nebraska’s only scorer in double figures with 11 points but shot just 4-of-12 from the field with four turnovers.
With the loss, the Huskers drop to 12-8 overall and 2-7 in Big Ten play, including 0-5 in conference road games. Wisconsin improved to 16-4, 6-3.
Nebraska will return to Pinnacle Bank Arena on Thursday night to host No. 17 Illinois for a 7:30 p.m. CT tip on FS1.
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Nebraska’s disastrous start set the tone immediately
If you were to draw up the worst-possible start Nebraska could have at Wisconsin, it would probably look a lot like what played out over the first five minutes.
The Badgers came out firing from the opening tip, hitting five of their first six 3-pointers to open the game on a 19-2 run. Meanwhile, NU missed eight of its first nine shots.
To Nebraska’s credit, it fought back and used a 19-5 run of its open to pull within 24-21 on a Sam Hoiberg 3-pointer with 5:48 left in the half.
The rally quickly ended from there, though, as Wisconsin responded with another 15-2 spurt to push its lead back up to 17. A three from Connor Essegian and a layup by Williams at the buzzer got NU’s deficit to 40-28 at the half.
The Badgers reached their season per-game average with nine made threes (on 19 attempts) in the first half alone. Tonje led the way for UW with 15 points and three makes from deep at the break.
