Nebraska grinds out a 20-point comeback victory at Northwestern, 68-64
In another opportunity to take a significant step toward the NCAA Tournament, Nebraska dug itself into a hole that seemed too deep to overcome at Northwestern. Instead, the Huskers chipped away to erase a 20-point second-half deficit and pull out a 68-64 victory.
Once trailing 41-21, Brice Williams scored 15 of his team-high 21 points, and Juwan Gary had 13 of his 17 in the second half. As a result, NU out-scored the Wildcats 44-23 over the final 19 minutes to clinch their sixth true road win and sixth Quad 1 victory.
Nebraska (17-9 overall, 7-8 Big Ten) didn’t take its first lead of the day until an And-1 dunk by Braxton Meah with 3:26 left to play. The Huskers made just one more field goal the rest of the way but made up for it by hitting 22 of 28 free throws, including 14 of 16 after halftime.
The comeback started with a 22-4 run over nine minutes that tied it at 54-54 with 6:05 remaining. Williams scored seven of NU’s final nine points at the charity stripe to put the game away.
Nebraska won despite getting out-rebounded 46-27, including 23-5 on the offensive glass for an 18-8 disadvantage in second-chance points. Ty Berry hit five 3-pointers for a season-high 23 points, while Nick Martinelli matched him with 23.
Still, even all of that wasn’t enough to keep Nebraska from taking another critical step toward a second-consecutive NCAA Tournament berth. NU’s road trip continues on Wednesday at Penn State. That game will tip at 5:30 p.m. CT and air on Big Ten Network.
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Nebraska got dominated in every aspect in the first half
The game couldn’t have started much for Nebraska offensively. The Huskers missed their first four shots and first two free throws and didn’t score their first point until the 15:40 mark.
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That cold shooting put NU in a 20-9 hole after the opening 20 minutes, and it only got worse from the first remainder of the half.
The Wildcats bullied NU for a 29-11 rebounding advantage, including a whopping 14 offensive boards for 12 second-chance points. Northwestern also got four 3-pointers from Berry, who had 13 of his 23 points at halftime.
Things weren’t any better on the other end of the floor, as Nebraska shot just 27.3% from the field with only six made field goals. The Huskers were 1-of-9 on threes and out-scored 18-4 in the paint.
All of that resulted in NU scoring its fewest first-half points this season and trailing 36-21 at the break.
