Nebrasketball: Tshimanga comes alive as Huskers beat Wiscy 63-59

Hey Corn Nation, my name is Mitch Lohmeier and I’m going to be doing the Nebrasketball game recaps from here on out. I’m a high school student from Pennsylvania and a huge Nebraska fan.....yes I’m from Pennsylvania.

That game wasn’t pretty by any standards, but Tim Miles and crew found a way to get the job done against Ethan Happ and the Badgers.

The teams went back and forth throughout the first four minutes, resulting with Wisconsin leading at the U16 media timeout. Happ failed to score any of Wisconsin’s first eight points, and he didn’t even score until the ten minute mark to give Wiscy their 11th and 12th points.

After that Nebraska would go on a 10-2 run to take the lead 24-14, with 5:28 minutes to go, but then would go on the classic “Nebraska scoring drought” and only lead by four at halftime, 26-22. Good news for the Huskers was that they were able to hold Happ to just four points all half.

Nebraska never trailed in the second half and actually went up by as much as 13 after an And-1 basket by James Palmer Jr. with 14 minutes to go. But another drought would occur and all of the sudden Nebraska was only up by five.

Then this happened...

The rest of the way was ugly for the Nebraska offense, making only two field goals. Luckily they were able to make their free throws and play good defense to make up for that.

In the final 20 seconds Nebraska looked well on their way to a double digit victory, but a three by Brevin Pritzl cut it to six points, then a turnover by Palmer and a made three by Brad Davidson got the lead all the way down to three with 1.4 seconds left.

Thankfully Evan Taylor decided not to choke while shooting his free throws like he did last year against Iowa, making one of his two to secure the 63-59 win for the Huskers. Surprisingly, Glynn Watson Jr. failed to do anything on the offensive side of the ball, shooting 0-6 from the field and making only three free throws. Hopefully he bounces back next game.

Perhaps the best thing that came out of this win was the emergence of Jordy Tshimanga, who scored nine points and grabbed six rebounds, while playing great defense on Happ. If Tshimanga can keep playing like he did tonight, who knows how much the Huskers can succeed in Big Ten Play.

Unfortunately for Wiscy, they drop to 9-9 on the season, and 2-3 in conference play. Right now a postseason tournament isn’t looking too great for the Badgers.

For Nebraska however, they tie their win total from last year at 12, and jump to 3-2 in Big Ten play. The Huskers travel to my home state this Friday to play Penn State then head back to PBA on 1/15 to host Illinois.