Nebraska Basketball: Virginia Tech Hokies 66 Huskers 53

Nebraska started the Wooden Legacy Classic on a strong note but couldn’t finish on one on Sunday afternoon as the Huskers fell to ACC challenger Virginia Tech 66-53 in California.

If there was any hangover from the three game, three day tournament the Big Red didn’t show it until after half time. The Huskers, lead again by Tai Webster, started the game off fairly strong and lead the Hokies 26 to 23 at half. Shooting a strong 61% to start the game. Unfortunately, they could not keep the momentum going. Virginia Tech came back out of the locker room shooting well from the floor and stepped up their defense to take the win back to Blacksburg.

While Nebraska’s offense has been slow to start most games this season, it was especially anemic against the Hokies in the second half. The Huskers shot a paltry 29% from the floor for the day. That’s including the 61% in the first half. They were lead again by guard Tai Webster who ended with 23 points and 8 rebounds. Six of which were defensive.

The offensive production fell from there to just 13 points form Ed Morrow and 6 points from Anton Gill who was the only real offensive production from the bench. Three pointers were a major area of drought as the Huskers went 4 of 21 giving them just 19% on the day.

The Hokies, on the other had, were fairly hot from beyond the line landing 8 of 18. They were lead by Zach Leday off the bench who had 19 points and 9 rebounds. He was followed by Ahmed Hill with 12.

If there is any consolation, the Hokies are looked upon as a team who could make the NCAA tournament. Even in the always powerful ACC. Resume always helps to get in and Virginia Tech might have a strong enough one to pull it off at the end of the season.

UCLA, who Nebraska was beat by late Friday night, won the tournament on Sunday with a 74 to 67 win over Texas A&M of the SEC.

Nebraska heads to Clemson, South Carolina to play the Tigers on Wednesday night. The game is apart of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and will tip off at 8pm. Hopefully the Huskers take note of their offensive woes and can hopefully get more production from the bench than they have been so far this season.