Nebrasketball: Southern Utah Game Recap

Huskers move to 0-2 to start the Hoiberg era with a double-overtime 79-78 loss to the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. Nebraska once again was cold from deep, going 5 of 26 from three-point range for a pathetic 19.2% average as a team. Yet, even though Southern Utah was cold on shooting as well, they managed to eek out the win in the end.

Kevin Cross led the team in scoring with 19 points, and Jervay Green chipped in with 18. Overall the team was once again out-rebounded 44-58. 44-38 on the defensive glass and 15-10 on the offensive ends was the breakdown, with Cam Mack coming down with a team high 7 boards.

First Half

Nebraska struggled early with shooting, but kept up good pressure on defense. Nebraska managed to go on a run to close out the first half and go into the locker room up 11 points, 37-26. Some of the highlights from that run include:

And Thor hit a nice one from deep with 11:24 left, though I don’t have the video of it. He also had a fantastic layup with 7:17 left.

Second Half

Despite an 11 point lead to open the half, the Huskers managed to squander it away with cold shooting. Southern Utah only led twice in the second half, but outscored the Husker 43-32 to take it to overtime. Huskers still came out strong to open, keeping their lead at 44-32 with 15:59 to go in the game. With 13:49 left in regulation, Cheatham made a layup to extend the lead to 37-46, and then the team went cold not counting free-throws until the 10:26 mark when Mack made the assist to Green for a layup to extend the Huskers lead back to five points, 50-45.

Southern Utah continued to keep it close and chip away at the lead at times, keeping it within 5 after a Kevin Cross layup with 9:05 left that extended the Husker lead to 7 for the last time. Then with 1:58 left, Dre Marin made a three pointer to give Southern Utah the lead, 65-64. Cam Mack hit a layup on the ensuing MSU possession with 1:30 left to take it back for the Huskers 66-65.

Cheatham fouled Dwayne Morgan with :17 seconds left in the game. Morgan sunk both free throws to give the Thunderbirds a one point lead, 67-66. John Knight fouled Cam Mack with :06 seconds left, but Mack proceeded to miss both free throws. Dachon Burke fouled Dwayne Morgan a second later and he sunk both free throws to extend the Thunderbirds lead to three. But Cam Mack got the ball to Jervay Green, and this happened:

On to overtime!

OT

Nebraska opened overtime with a layup by Kevin Cross. Cameron Oluyitan answered right back with a three pointer with 4:20 left in the first overtime. Both teams proceeded to combine for a whopping one point over the rest of the first overtime period, a free throw by Cam Mack on the front end of two with 2:53 left. And that was that. 72-72 remained the score until time ran out.

Double OT

Southern Utah “jumped out” to take the lead with a free throw 19 seconds into double OT. The score remained that way 1:45 left when Green made a layup to give the Huskers the lead 74-73. Dachon Burke then added two more free throws with 1:28 left to extend the lead to 76-73. Southern Utah got two free throws on a Burke foul to bring it back within 1. Kevin Cross responded with a layup to give the Huskers a three point lead again, 78-75. However, Southern Utah went on a 4-0 run with a dunk by Butler and a jumper by Oluyitan to take the lead 79-78. And that was the game, folks.

Post-game Press Conference

Huskers hit the court again next week on Friday, November 15th against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in Lincoln.