A new low? Indiana basketball reeling after home loss to Nebraska
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball is not a team trending in the right direction.
The Hoosiers lost to Nebraska, 85-70, on Wednesday night at Assembly Hall, just a day after coach Mike Woodson said he was hopeful the team could put together a win streak to get back into the top half of the Big Ten conference standings.
Indiana (14-12; 6-9 Big Ten) faced an uphill battle after letting Nebraska (19-8; 9-7) take a 20-point lead going into halftime.
The Hoosiers showed signs of life in the second half, but another poor night from the free-throw line (14 of 24) and the huge disparity in 3-point shooting (Nebraska was 14 of 33 and IU was 4 of 21) killed any chance of a come back.
It was the program's third straight loss at Assembly Hall, the longest such streak since the 2020-21. The latest defeat came to a Nebraska team that hadn't won a road conference game and beat IU earlier in the season by 16 points.
Mackenzie Mgabko led Indiana with 22 points and Kel'el Ware had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds, but was 5 of 13 from the free-throw line.
More: Indiana basketball’s free throw woes are a ’between the ears’ problem
Frustrated fans give Indiana basketball a wake up call
Indiana was booed off the floor by its own fans down 51-31 going into halftime. It was the kind of motivation the Hoosiers evidently needed — they outscored Nebraska 25-8 coming out of the break to make it a one possession game at the under 12 media timeout.
CJ Gunn came off the bench with a pair of clutch 3-pointers while Malik Reneau bullied Nebraska in the paint to slowly chip away at Nebraska’s lead. Gunn missed an open 3-pointer from the corner with 10:58 to go that would have tied the game after a Cornhuskers turnover.
Indiana just didn’t have the offensive firepower to sustain that momentum. Nebraska pushed its lead back to double-digits while IU missed five straight shots. It was a familiar pattern for a Hoosiers team that coach Mike Woodson plainly admits has only played well “in spurts” this season.
More: Why Indiana basketball point guard Gabe Cupps was thrown to the wolves this season
Nebraska’s Keisei Tominaga and company unstoppable in the first half
Nebraska looked like a team on a mission to win its first conference road game.
They hit six 3-pointers before the under 12 media timeout to take a 22-11 lead. Tominaga was 3 of 4 during that stretch, but plenty of Cornhuskers got involved with Brice Williams, Juwan Gary and Jamarques Lawrence each hitting one as well.
Nebraska kept up a pace of nearly 1.7 points per possession for 12-plus minutes. Tominaga came back into the game after a brief rest with back-to-back contested mid-range jumpers to put his team up 33-19.
He scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half on 7 of 10 shooting. Tominaga drained his fourth 3-pointer in the half from near the logo at halfcourt as part of a 9-0 run to close out the half. He flashed three fingers to the frustrated fans at Assembly Hall.
Indiana missed six straight shots and had a scoring drought of 4:04 going into halftime.
The Cornhuskers shot 57.1% from the field in the half and 9 of 19 from 3-point range. They came into the season averaging 9.3 made 3-pointers a game.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana basketball falls at home to Nebraska