Without Griesel, Nebraska can't keep up with No. 14 Indiana in 81-65 defeat

Three days earlier, Nebraska picked up its most significant win under Fred Hoiberg in an upset over No. 7 Creighton. The Huskers were brought back to Earth at No. 14 Indiana on Wednesday night.

Senior point guard Sam Griesel (illness) was an unexpected scratch from the lineup. As a result, the Huskers didn’t have the offensive firepower to keep up with the Hoosiers, falling 81-65.

Trayce Jackson-Davis posted just the third triple-double in IU history with 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. Indiana shot 53.3% overall, 11-of-25 from behind the arc, had 22 assists and owned a 35-25 rebounding edge.

C.J. Wilcher scored 17 of his career-high 22 points in the second half to help keep NU (6-4, 0-1) competitive. But the Huskers only managed a season-low 25 rebounds. That marked the second time in the first 10 games that NU hadn’t won the rebounding margin.

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Without Griesel to facilitate the offense, nothing was working for Nebraska to start the night. The Huskers opened by missing eight of their first nine shots. That allowed Indiana (8-1, 2-0) to jump out to a 20-5 lead out of the gate.

Emmanuel Bandoumel and Derrick Walker scored a combined 19 first-half points. That helped NU claw back with a 9-2 run and pull within 32-24 with 4:07 left in the half. But a Race Thompson dunk at the buzzer put the Hoosiers up 39-26 at the break.

Nebraska shot 36.7% percent, went 3-of-13 on 3-pointers, committed seven turnovers, and had four shots blocked in the opening half. Conversely, IU was 53.1%, owned a 23-11 rebounding advantage, and had 22 of its 39 points in the paint.

The Huskers got a little offense going to open the second half, using a 6-0 run to get within seven after the first two minutes.

Indiana again fired back with a 9-2 rally, but Wilcher countered seven straight points and got NU back within 48-41.

That comeback would be short-lived, however. Indiana responded with a 17-2 run that pushed the lead to 62-41 and put the nail in the coffin. The Hoosiers made 10 out of 12 shots during that stretch.

Bandoumel had 13 points, while Walker and Keisei Tominaga each added 11 for the Huskers. NU shot 50% in the second half and 42.9% for the game.

Trey Galloway had a career-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting (4-of-6 on threes) to lead the Hoosiers. Tamar Bates added a career-best 19 points while hitting 5-of-8 from behind the arc off the bench.

The road won’t get any easier for Nebraska. No. 4 Purdue comes to town on Saturday for a 1:15 p.m. CT on BTN.

Sam Griesel’s absence loomed large

Knocking off Indiana in Assembly Hall wasn’t already a daunting challenge. But the Huskers had to try and do it without Griesel.

Arguably the heart and soul of the team, Griesel was scratched from the lineup due to an illness. He traveled with the team to Bloomington and worked out Tuesday night. But Griesel sat out of Wednesday morning’s lineup and was eventually ruled out.

He was not at the arena and was officially ruled out roughly an hour and a half before tip-off. Griesel did not attend the game and stayed at the team hotel.

That led to Tominaga getting his first start of the season and Bandoumel taking over as the primary point guard. 

Concerns over how NU’s offense would function without Griesel at the helm proved to be warranted. The Huskers struggled to facilitate much of anything in the halfcourt. They only had 10 assists on 24 made shots compared to 13 turnovers.

Bandoumel had two assists and three giveaways in 35 minutes of work. Tominaga was 1-of-3 from behind the arc. 

It’s also no coincidence that Walker attempted seven shots without the two-man game between him and Griesel. He scored 22 on 11-of-16 shooting last time out at Creighton.

Once again, Jackson-Davis owned Nebraska

Given how limited Nebraska was coming in, the one thing it could not afford to allow was Jackson-Davis to take over the game.

Indiana’s Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year was borderline unstoppable from the opening tip. 

In his six previous games vs. the Huskers, Jackson-Davis averaged 17.6 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks. He had nine points, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and three steals in the first half alone on Wednesday night.

His triple-double was just the third in IU program history and the first ever by a Nebraska opponent. The last Hoosier to accomplish the feat was Juwan Morgan in 2018. Steve Downing had IU’s only other triple-double in 1971.

Wilcher’s bounce-back night was a bright spot

As impressive as Nebraska’s upset of Creighton was, Wilcher had one of his worst individual performances of the season in the win.

The sophomore guard had two points on 1-of-7 from the field and 0-of-5 from 3-point range. He also committed a team-high four turnovers.

Wilcher got back on track in a big way at Indiana. After posting five points in the first half, Wilcher broke out with 17 on 5-of-8 shooting in the second half, including 13 of NU’s first 15 after the break.

His 22-point effort passed his previous career-best of 21 against Omaha earlier this season. 

“C.J. got it going, and that was good to see,” Hoiberg told the Huskers Radio Network. “Hopefully, we can carry that over against Purdue on Saturday.”

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They said it

“Listen, it happens everywhere, and it’s next-man-up mentality. If we would’ve played the first five minutes of that game like we did the first five minutes of the second half, I think we would’ve had a chance.”

NU head coach Fred Hoiberg on not using Sam Griesel’s absence as an excuse for the loss to Indiana.