For the fourth time in the Fred Hoiberg era, Nebraska men’s basketball has failed to advance beyond the first round of the Big Ten Conference Tournament.
The Huskers closed the regular season with six wins in the final eight games, but fell to the 14 seed Minnesota Wednesday night in Chicago 78-75. Minnesota, who had fallen twice to Nebraska during the season, became the first 14 seed to notch a win in the Big Ten Tournament since 2017.
Nebraska looked like they would run away with this one at the start, jumping out to an 8-0 lead. But Minnesota stormed back with a 13-5 run.
The Gophers lit up to a 58 percent clip for the first half, taking a 37-33 lead into the half.
NU had multiple points in the game where it looked as though they would take over.
With 9:01 to go, Jamison Battle, the main defender on Sam Griesel, fouled out. Minnesota coach Ben Johnson promptly picked up a technical foul.
Nebraska made all four free throws to cut the deficit to three points, but then didn’t score for the next 2:10.
A few minutes later with Minnesota in the bonus, Sam Hoiberg picked up a foul 80 feet from the basket, handing the Gophers two more points. Not long after, CJ Wilcher was called for a foul on a desperation 3 at the end of the shot clock, allowing a three more points to go on the board for Minnesota.
But even with those miscues, Nebraska had a couple chances late to take take the lead. On back-to-back possessions, Keisei Tominaga and Jamarques Lawrence were called for moving screens. The Tominaga foul was more than questionable, but the Lawrence one was legitimate.
Then with seven seconds to go and Minnesota up two, the Gopher free throw missed. Griesel stormed down the court only to get caught between defenders and lose the ball out of bounds.
Tominaga had a decent look at the buzzer to tie the game, but ultimately the shot missed its mark.
Nebraska shots 43.5 percent for the game, adding 6-of-19 3s. Minnesota made 51.9 percent of their shots, including 10-of-24 three-pointers.
Tominaga finished with a game-high 23 points. Griesel notched a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Derrick Walker and Lawrence scored 12 points each.
Nebraska will now wait to see if a postseason invite to the NIT to CBI comes to extend the 2022-23 campaign.