Published on January 25th, 2018 | by Landon Buford
0Rutgers Lose To Nebraska In A Close One
Rac, Piscataway, NJ-Rutgers are 6-0 this season when limiting their opponents to 59 points or less and 8-1 when shooting a better percentage than their opponent. Nebraska is 13-2 when scoring 70 or more points and 2-6 when held below 70 points.
Rutgers (12-10, 2-7) battled tough all night long but came up a little short against Nebraska (15-8, 6-4) 60-54 at the RAC in front of a crowd of 4,075.
Rutgers Deshawn Freeman and guard Corey Sanders set the tone early in half by pounding the ball in the paint to negate some of the Huskers lengths on the wings. The Scarlet Knights shot 37.5% (9-24) shooting from the floor and dismal 16.7% from beyond the arc. But was only down a deuce at the break 27-25.
In the second half, RU got a heavy dosage of Isaac Copeland and James Palmer Jr. who push the tempo on the Scarlet Knights and made a 7-0 run with 14:52 on the clock. A rash of turnovers and missed shots helped the Huskers get an easy basket in transition.
“We played a tough Nebraska team, but we played them as well as expected. We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, we played great solid defense over seven minutes, but he wasn’t able to convert into points. Just have to stay at it and work harder to finish games.” Rutgers Head Coach Steve Pikiell said.
RU didn’t go away quietly had a few runs on their own, (6-0) one at 10:15 on the clock spearheaded by Sa Candido, Eugene Omoruyi, and Shaquille Doorson who hit a long jumper from the left elbow of the court to inch the score to 44-42. The second push another (6-0) run would come with 4:59 in regulation with Thiam Issa and Corey Sanders doing damage in the paint creating havoc in the Huskies frontcourt and forced Nebraska to take a thirty seconds timeout to re-group.
Sloppy play and missed shots plagued the Scarlet Knights in tonight contest, they had ample of opportunities to take the game from the Huskies in the waning minutes of the game, but miscues and not being able to guard the perimeter effectively were their Achilles heel.
Rutgers Corey Sanders finished the game with 14 points, two assists, and three rebounds, Geo Baker and Deshawn Freeman both chipped in 10 points apiece and was a major contributor in the latter stages of the contest.
The Huskers was led by Isaac Copeland 23 points, two blocks along with James Palmer Jr. 18 points and four assists.
“We played a really good team tonight. We remember Sanders scorching us in this building last year, and we were hoping to change that fortune. One or two possessions the game could of went, either way, I’m just happy the ball bounced in our favor tonight.” Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles said.
This mark the ninth meeting between Rutgers and Nebraska since 1999, with the Huskers leading the series 5-3 and a last-second loss in last year classic 65-64 at the Rac by the hands of Corey Sanders who grabbed his own rebound and put it back up for the score.
Tweet