Huskers roll past Penn State in 82-66 victory
Associated Press
Considering the way the season had gone for Nebraska, which had lost eight of its previous nine outings, Tuesday night’s home showdown with Penn State was about as close to a must-win game as it had seen all year.
All the Huskers did was respond with their most dominant performance in months to run away with an 82-66 victory in front of a Valentine’s Day crowd of 13,195.
With four players scoring in double figures, led by 15 each from sophomores Glynn Watson and Jack McVeigh, Nebraska shot an impressive 55.4 percent from the field as a team and scored more than half of their points (46) in the paint.
The 16-point win was NU’s largest margin of victory in conference play and its third-biggest win of the season. The Huskers never trailed in the game, led by as many as 24 points, and held the lead for 38:54.
The Huskers came out firing to open the game, knocking down six of their first eight shots from the field to take an early 13-6 lead.
Penn State was able to keep pace by knocking down six shots in a row of its own at one point and eventually cut the deficit to 24-22 on a jumper by Mike Watkins with just over 10 minutes left.
But the Nittany Lions would cool off shortly after, missing six of its next eight shots and allowing NU to take its biggest lead of half at 34-24 with 6:53 left.
Once again, though, PSU answered with an 11-5 run to pull within 39-34 on a 3-pointer by Tony Carr, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half.
Nebraska then gave Penn State a bad steal and layup off an inbounds pass with just four seconds left in the half, but McVeigh provided the Huskers with the last laugh by draining a 45-footer at the buzzer to send NU into halftime up 45-37.
The Huskers shot an impressive 63.0 percent from the field as a team, with 24 of their 45 points coming in the paint with the help of 10 points from freshman center Jordy Tshimanga on 5-of-6 shooting.
The 45 points were Nebraska’s most in a first half in Big Ten play and tied for its highest first half total of the season (South Dakota).
Nebraska would extend that lead to as much as 13 early in the second half, then back-to-back dunks by freshman wing Isaiah Roby bumped that lead up to 63-47 with just under 11 minutes left to play.
The train kept on rolling from there, and Huskers would go up by their biggest margin of the night at 23 on a jumper by sophomore forward Michael Jacobson with 5:54 remaining in the game.
It was all semantics the rest of the way, as Penn State never got any closer than 16 from that point on.
Tshimanga finished with another strong night in posting 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds, while senior guard Tai Webster scored in double figures for the 26th game in a row with 12 points and six assists.
Nebraska will return to action on Saturday when it travels to take on Ohio State for a 5 p.m. tip on Big Ten Network.
