With 18 days since a victory and still figuring out life after Juwan Gary and Emmanuel Bandoumel’s season-ending injuries, Nebraska flipped the script and treated a raucous home crowd to quite the shooting display in a 72-63 win over Penn State on Sunday.
Sophomore Keisei Tominaga was the center of gravity, ripping the Nittany Lion defense apart for a career-high 30 points. He hit 5-10 from beyond the arc and was 7-for-8 inside, involved in every area of the offensive zone. Tominaga was consistent, scoring 14 before halftime and 16 after. He stretched his range and varied his spots, seemingly upping the degree of difficulty with each shot. In addition to his shooting display, he grabbed three rebounds, added an assist, and did not turn it over.
Nebraska (11-13 overall, 4-9 Big Ten) never trailed, was up by nine at halftime, and led by as many as 15 points, but were pushed in the second half as the Nittany Lions sliced the lead down to three on a couple occasions.
Leading the way for Penn State (14-9, 5-7) was Seth Lundy, who tied a Nebraska-opponent record with eight made three-pointers. Lundy’s 24 points kept PSU afloat, but each time NU felt the opponent close in, they responded.
After redshirt freshman guard Sam Hoiberg drove for a layup, PSU’s Andrew Funk nailed one of his four 3-pointers to make it 53-50 with 8:51 to go. Tominaga answered with another driving layup, and senior forward Derrick Walker also scored inside a couple possessions later.
A Penn State free throw cut it back down to 57-54 with 5:52 left, and again it was Tominaga getting to the rim to respond. After a pair of missed free throws on the other end, Keisei recovered his own shot that was blocked and put up his final points of the night on another three-pointer, making it 62-54 with 4:50 remaining.
The Husker lead bounced between 3 and 9 points for the final 18 minutes. There were no critical errors this time, as NU limited turnovers to a meager seven, an emphasis in recent practices according to Head Coach Fred Hoiberg.
The hot start for the Huskers came on the heels of one of their worst scoring halves of the season. NU managed just 19 points in the second half of the loss at Illinois on Tuesday. Before the first media timeout at the 12:22 mark Sunday, they had already poured in 22 points. With two more made baskets following the timeout, the Huskers had hit on 10 of their first 14 attempts, good for a scorching 71.4% from the field.
Senior point guard Sam Griesel took control late in the first half. After not attempting a shot in the first 13 and a half minutes, he ran the floor for a transition dunk. Griesel then stole the ball right back, leading to another Tominaga layup and forcing a Penn State timeout as the Husker lead grew to 32-20 with five minutes remaining in the half. The brief break in the action didn’t cool Griesel off, though, as he converted a thrilling 3-point play that gave Nebraska their largest lead of the game at 35-20.
Late in the second half, true freshman Jamarques Lawrence was the closer. While the game still hung in the balance as NU led 66-60 with less than one minute to go, Lawrence hit a three, snatched a rebound on the other end, then swished two free throws to make it 72-63, the game’s final score.
The Huskers doubled up the Nittany Lions 32-16 in the paint and dominated on the fast break 9-0. Although Penn State made 14 3-point shots, they struggled inside the arc, as the NU defense held them to just 10-22 on 2-point attempts.
Lawrence hit 3-for-4 from long range, scored 11 total points, swiped two steals, and secured a career-high nine rebounds. Griesel finished with seven points and seven rebounds. Walker filled up the stat sheet with nine points, six boards, and a game-best seven assists. Sam Hoiberg continued his surprising run of production with seven points, two rebounds, and assist, and a steal.
Nebraska travels to Ann Arbor on Wednesday to take on the Michigan Wolverines. Tip-off time is set for 5:30pm.