Huskers Finish Road Trip at Penn State

Nebraska wraps up a two-game eastern road swing Wednesday night, as the Huskers travel to Penn State for a matchup with the Nittany Lions.  Tipoff from the Bryce Jordan Center in State College is set for shortly after 5:30 p.m. (central) and the contest will be televised on BTN and carried on the Huskers Radio Network, as well as on Huskers.com and the Huskers app. The game will also be available on the Fox Sports App.  

Nebraska (17-9, 7-8 B1G) comes off a 68-64 win at Northwestern on Sunday. The Huskers were down 41-21 with 19:15 left before outscoring the Wildcats, 47-23 the rest of the way. NU shot 61 percent from the field in the second half and went 14-of-16 from the line in posting its second double-figure comeback over the last three games.  Brice Williams led three Huskers in double figures with 22 points while Juwan Gary (17) and Braxton Meah (10) helped NU mount a second-half comeback. It marked the first time in seven years that a Big Ten team overcame a 20-point deficit on the road.

While Williams and Gary have carried the Huskers to five wins in the last six contests, Meah was the unsung hero of Sunday's comeback. He posted his first double-figure performance since Nov. 27, tying or setting season bests in both rebounds (seven) and blocked shots (two). Meah has averaged 6.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game over the last two contests following Berke Büyüktuncel's ankle injury. 

Penn State (13-13, 3-12) looks to bounce back following a 75-73 loss to Washington on Saturday. Ace Baldwin Jr. had 20 points, eight assists and six steals to lead five Nittany Lions in double figures. Penn State trailed 72-71 with 1:17 left, but a 3-pointer from Washington's DJ Davis clinched the win. The Nittany Lions need a win to improve their chances of qualifying for next month's Big Ten Tournament.

Worth Noting
• Nebraska enters the week ranked No. 46 heading into Wednesday's game at Penn State. NU is at the back end of an eight-game stretch where NU plays six Quad 1 games that dates back to Jan. 30. NU is currently 5-1 in that eight-game stretch with four Quad 1 wins (Illinois, at Oregon, Ohio State and at Northwestern). 
Nebraska is currently one of 10 Big Ten teams in the top 50 of the NET on Feb. 17. All 18 teams are currently in the top 100 of the NET, including 14 in the top 75.

• Nebraska looks for its fourth straight road win on Wednesday night at Penn State. NU is now 5-5 on the road this year and 7-6 away from Pinnacle Bank Arena, as the five road wins are NU's highest total since the 1998-99 season.  The three-game conference road win streak is NU's longest since 2021-22. A win on Wednesday would match NU's most consecutive conference road wins since 1920. NU has won four straight conference games just six times since 1920.

• Fred Hoiberg will be looking to move into a tie for eighth place on Nebraska's career wins list on Wednesday. Hoiberg has 80 wins at Nebraska and next up on the wins chart is his grandfather, Jerry Bush, who won 81 games between 1954-55 and 1962-63.

• Brice Williams posted his sixth consecutive 20-point game on Sunday at Northwestern. It is the longest streak of 20-point games by a Husker since Tyronn Lue had seven straight 20-point effort in the 1997-98 season. 

• Nebraska is now 4-3 against ranked opponents this season, as the four ranked wins ties a school record done three other times in school history.

• Nebraska has won multiple games against ranked foes in three of the past four years and is now 9-10 in its last 19 games against ranked teams dating back to March 1, 2022. 

• Brice Williams has played in 60 games at Nebraska, and he is averaging 19.5 ppg over his last 30 games dating back to the 2024 Big Ten Tournament. He has been in double figures in 28 of the last 30 contests, including 17 20-point games. Williams averaged just 12.5 ppg over his first 30 games at Nebraska in 2023-24.

• Nebraska comes into Wednesday's game at Penn State averaging 75.8 points per game. It is on pace to be NU's second-highest scoring average since joining the Big Ten in 2011-12. NU has scored 70+ points 17 times, including nine games with at least 80 points.  Last season, NU averaged 77.7 points per game for 34 games, its highest offensive total since the 1995-96 season. 

• Nebraska posted its fifth double 20-point game of the season against Maryland on Feb. 13 as Juwan Gary (22) and Brice Williams (20) both went over the 20-point mark.  NU now has multiple players score 20+ points 16 times in Fred Hoiberg's six seasons.

• Nebraska held Northwestern to 0.93 points per possession (PPP) in Sunday's win, marking the Huskers' lowest defensive PPP since Jan. 4. NU is 12-0 when holding opponents to under one point per possession, but 5-9 when opponents are above 1.0 PPP. Nebraska has won its last 29 games dating back to the 2022-23 season when holding an opponent under 1.0 PPP.

• On Jan. 26, Brice and his father, Henry, became the seventh father-son duo to combine for 4,000 career points at the college level. Brice now has 1,741 career points and is now only 39 points away from reaching 1,000 as a Husker. Henry Williams, who passed away in 2018, was Charlotte's all-time leading scorer with 2,383 career points.

Father-Son Duos with 4,000 Points

No.	Father (College)	Years	Points	Son (College)	Years	Points	Total
1.	Dell Curry (Virginia Tech)	1983-86	2,389	Stephen Curry (Davidson)	2006-09	2,635	5,024
2.	Mike Davis (Alabama)	1979-83	1,211	Antoine Davis (Detroit)	2018-23	3,664	4,875
3.	Steve Burtt Sr. (Iona)	1980-84	2,534	Steve Burtt Jr. (Iona)	2002-06	2,034	4,568
4.	Dell Curry (Virginia Tech)	1983-86	2,389	Seth Curry (Duke/Liberty)	2009-13	2,101	4,490
5.	Steve Alford (Indiana)	1983-86	2,438	Bryce Alford (UCLA)	2013-17	1,922	4,360
6.	Greg McDermott (Northern Iowa)	1984-88	1,033	Doug McDermott (Creighton)	2010-14	3,150	4,183
7.	Henry Williams (Charlotte)	1988-92	2,383	Brice Williams (Charlotte/Nebraska)	2019-25	1,762	4,145

 

• NU has relied on its depth with six players averaging at least 7.2 points per game. Eight players have posted double-figure efforts, while three players (Brice Williams, Connor Essegian and Juwan Gary) have recorded 20-point games.  Williams is the only Husker in the top 25 of the Big Ten in scoring as of Feb. 17.

• Connor Essegian has been one of the Big Ten's best sixth men, as the junior guard enters Sunday's game with Northwestern game averaging 10.5 points per contest. Essegian is one of only three Big Ten reserves currently averaging double figures while making five or fewer starts.

• With its 17-9 record in 2024-25, Nebraska is 46-23 over the last 68 games dating back to the start of February 2023. NU's .667 winning percentage is second among Big Ten programs in that stretch.  It would also rank second if you add in the four new Big Ten programs in that stretch. NU went just 33-80 from the start of the 2019-20 season until Feb. 1, 2023.

• Of Nebraska's nine losses, six were one-possession games within the last 45 seconds of regulation. 

• Brice Williams is just the sixth Husker in the Big Ten era to have multiple 30-point games.  He had 30 points in the win over Indiana on Dec. 13 and tied his career high with 32 points against Hawai’i on Dec. 23. He is one of nine Big Ten players with multiple 30-point games this season.

• Ahron Ulis dished out a career-high 10 assists on Jan. 19 at Maryland. It more than tripled his previous season high of three and marked the first time a Husker had 10 assists in a game since Alonzo Verge Jr. in 2022. 

Numbers to Know
14 - Brice Williams leads Nebraska with 14 20-point games this season, which ranks second among Huskers in the Big Ten era (2011-12 to present). He trails only James Palmer Jr., who had 18 in 2018-19.

1.5 -Nebraska's assist-to-turnover ratio over the last six contests, as the Huskers have averaged just 9.7 turnovers per game in that stretch. For the first 20 games, NU posted a 1.13-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. 

.636 - Over the last three-plus seasons, Nebraska has played some of its best basketball down the stretch, and NU is already 4-1 in the month this season. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, NU is 21-12 in Big Ten games after Feb. 1.

3 - Brice Williams is 39 points away from reaching 1,000 career points at Nebraska. Only three players - Terran Petteway, Dave Hoppen and James Palmer Jr.  - have reached 1,000 points at Nebraska in two seasons.

23.6 - Nebraska has gotten great production from its bench, averaging 23.6 points per game this season to rank fourth in the Big Ten.  Nebraska has gotten 24 double-figure efforts from its bench this season (Morgan-10, Essegian-11, Ulis-1; Worster-1; Meah-1). The Huskers led the Big Ten in bench production last season, averaging 21.4 points per game.

About Penn State
Penn State comes into Wednesday's matchup with a 13-13 record following Saturday's loss to Washington. The Nittany Lions opened the season with a 12-2 record, including an 11-point win over Purdue, after a win over Northwestern on Jan. 2. PSU has battled with injuries since then and has won once in the last 12 games. PSU has been in most of its games with six of their Big Ten losses by six points or less, including three games by two points or less.

Mike Rhoades is in his second season in charge of the Penn State program after spending the last six seasons at VCU. He guided the Rams to three NCAA Tournament appearances in his tenure, including sweeping the Atlantic 10 regular-season and tournament titles in 2022-23. Prior to that he was the head coach at Rice from 2014 to 2017 and had been an assistant at VCU from 2009 to 2014.

The Nittany Lions are led by senior guard Ace Baldwin Jr., who averages 14.0 points, 7.2 assists and 2.3 steals per game. He was the 2023-24 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a third-team All-Big Ten pick last season.  Baldwin leads a balanced offensive which has five players in double figures and a sixth averaging over nine points per game. Yanic Konan Niederhauser has been an impact newcomer, as the Northern Illinois transfer averages 12.2 points and a team high 6.2 rebounds per game, while Nick Kern, who also came from VCU, chips in 12.2 ppg and 5.2 rpg. Zach Hicks is one of the top 3-pointer shooters in the Big Ten as he leads PSU with 62 3-pointers on nearly 40 percent shooting from 3-point range. 

Series History: Wednesday's game is the 28th meeting with Penn State holding a 14-13 advantage. Since Nebraska joined the Big Ten, the Huskers are 12-12 against the Nittany Lions (12-9 in regular season; 0-3 in Big Ten Tournament). The teams played three times before Nebraska joined the Big Ten, a home-and-home series in 1980 and 1981 and in the second round of the 1995 NIT. Nebraska won the only meeting last season, a 69-48 decision in Lincoln.