At the Buzzer: Nebraska 85, Indiana 70

  • 02/21/2024 10:45 pm in

Quick thoughts on an 85-70 loss to Nebraska:

How it happened

Nebraska, as expected, came out firing from the perimeter at Assembly Hall. The Huskers made four 3-pointers – three by Keisei Tominaga – by the first media timeout and led 16-11. The 3-point barrage continued as Nebraska hit its sixth 3-pointer in the first half by the 12:01 mark, forcing Mike Woodson to use a timeout with IU trailing 22-11. The Huskers stretched the lead out to 14 by the 7:39 mark with a Juwan Gary jumper. Things only got worse from there. The Hoosiers didn’t score the final four minutes of the first half and Nebraska went to the locker room leading 51-31. The Huskers hit nine 3-pointers and scored 1.37 points per possession in the first half.

The Huskers were just 2-for-8 from the field to start the second half as Indiana, with much better effort and energy, trimmed the lead to 15 at 57-42 by the under-16 media timeout. The IU run reached 11-0 on a Malik Reneau dunk in transition to get the Hoosiers within six at 57-51 with 12:56 remaining. CJ Gunn’s second 3-pointer of the second half drew Indiana within three at 59-56 at the under-12 media timeout. The momentum, however, quickly shifted back to Nebraska as the Huskers scored the next seven points to make it 66-56 with 8:47 left. Jamarques Lawrence splashed a 3-pointer with 6:57 to play to stretch the Nebraska lead to 14. The Hoosiers got no closer than 10 the rest of the way and dropped their third straight game at Assembly Hall.

Standout performer

Mackenzie Mgbako led Indiana with 22 points in 38 minutes. He was 7-for-17 from the field and 6-for-7 from the free throw line.

Statistics that stand out

It was another poor free throw shooting performance for Indiana, which shot 14-for-24 from the line (58.3 percent). And the Hoosiers shot a dismal 4-for-21 (19 percent) on 3s. Nebraska won the points off of turnovers battle 15-6, fast break points 12-4 and bench points 23-8.

Final IU individual statistics

Final tempo-free statistics

Assembly Call postgame show

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