Huskers Weather Leathernecks, Miles Gets Win #300

Husker Head Coach Tim Miles has coached a lot of places the past 18 seasons including a couple of places you may or may not have ever heard of.  He's seen his teams have a lot of success on the court.  Every single one of them he got to play at a championship caliber for whatever level he was at.  When you do that, you start racking up the wins.  Even with some teams that struggled to find the win column, he found a way to turn things around.  Tuesday night, he collected his 300th win as a collegiate head coach as his Husker squad defeated the Western Illinois Leathernecks 62-47.

No one was mistaking this one for the circus atmosphere that enveloped Pinnacle Bank Arena last Friday night.  The Huskers, victors over Florida Gulf-Coast, had to move past that and move on with their season.  In an arena that held 5,000 fewer people in game two, the Huskers seemed to not notice the more muted atmosphere.  The Huskers jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead before Western Illinois was able to scratch the scorecard.  Western was able to bring the game to a three point game at 10-7.  The Huskers closed the half on a 26-10 run to, for all intents and purposes, put the game away.

Soph. foward Walter Pitchford was sharp early, again, for the Huskers as his 14 first half points led the Huskers headed into the break.  He struggled to find his game again in the second half.  He and the Huskers had some difficulty maintaining their energy and focus through the end of the game, allowing the Leathernecks to close a lead as big as 53-30 down to the final spread of 15 points.  While the game was never in doubt, the lack of focus finishing the game is something the Huskers will have to address as future teams on Nebraska's schedule will be able to take advantage of that is that is a trend that continues.

Joining Pitchford in double figures was Terran Petteway (13), Shavon Shields (13) and Leslee Smith(10). The only other Huskers to score were Tai Webster(8) and David Rivers (4).  The Huskers will next play Sunday afternoon vs. South Carolina State.  Tip-off is at 2pm.