Nebraska Basketball: Huskers fall hard to St. John 79 to 56

Neither team came out strong but St. John ended up throttling a lackluster Nebraska team 79 to 56 in New York. The Huskers could not find any sort of rhythm on offense or defense all night and the Red Storm took full advantage until the very end.

This is a game where old habits came back to into focus and the team just spiraled downward from there.

Scoring started out okay but quickly fell off. Nebraska ended the night shooting with 28.1% from the floor while St. John had 43.5%. the score went back and fourth early on before St. John’s took over the lead. Nebraska fared well but hit a scoring drought late in the first half that gave the Red Storm a 37-24 lead at half.

Nebraska came out fairy strong in the second. The defense shifted to a 1-3-1 which worked initially but St. Johns quickly make easy work of. From there it all went down hill pretty quickly.

St. Johns played a more aggressive, quicker, and focused game than Nebraska did tonight.

James Palmer Jr. lead Nebraska with 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. He was the lone Husker to break into double digits on the night. Evan Taylor had 9 points and 5 rebounds. Issac Roby did okay coming off the bench with 8 points and 6 rebounds. He tried to bring Nebraska back into the game but it just wasn’t to be tonight.

Many of the team struggled against the Red Storm. Issac Copeland ended up with 5 points and went 2 of 9 from the floor. Glynn Watson Jr. fared even worse with 5 points and 1 of 9 from the floor. Jordy was struggling to stay in the paint against guys who were noticeably smaller than he was.

Just about everyone on this team struggled for most of the night and St. John took full advantage. the 43% shooting was aided by four of their starters in double digits. Shamorie Ponds lead them with 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists.

This isn’t a loss that will haunt Nebraska down the stretch. They are a mid to lower team in a fairly good Big East Conference. If anything they should end the year with a winning record and a nice post season to look forward too. However, Nebraska has a few tougher teams to play before we get into conference. Whatever needs to be fixed need to happen soon. This team is too talented to play like they did tonight.

Nebraska comes back to Lincoln to play North Dakota this Sunday at 1pm.