Huskers Rout Indiana, Advance to Big Ten Semis
Photo Credit: Nebraska Athletics
MINNEAPOLIS - Behind a record-breaking 3-point shooting performance, the No. 3 seed Nebraska men's basketball team cruised past No. 6 seed Indiana, 93-66, in the Big Ten quarterfinals at the Target Center on Friday night.
The Huskers will face No. 2 seed Illinois in the Big Ten semifinals on Saturday at approximately 2:30 p.m., or 25 minutes following the conclusion of the Noon semifinal between No. 1 seed Purdue and No. 5 seed Wisconsin.
Saturday's game will air on CBS and Husker Sports Network radio affiliates. Nebraska will be appearing in its first-ever Big Ten Tournament semifinal and the first conference tournament semifinal for the program since 2006 (Big 12 vs. Kansas).
The Huskers (23-9) came out on fire, connecting on 12-of-20 (60.0 percent) 3-pointers in the first half to race to a 50-27 lead at halftime - the second game in a row Nebraska scored 50 first-half points. Entering Friday's game, Nebraska's record for most 3-pointers in a conference tournament game was 11 vs. Maryland in 2016. The Huskers beat that in the first half alone on their way to finishing the game 14-of-32 (43.8 percent) from 3. Nebraska shot 50.0 percent overall from the field and held Indiana to 35.3 percent.
Keisei Tominaga scored 23 points and registered a career-high five assists. He hit 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Brice Williams also scored 23 points and hit 4-of-6 from distance and was a perfect 9-of-9 from the free throw line. Jamarques Lawrence added 15 points and was 3-of-4 from behind the arc. Juwan Gary also reached double figures with 11 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Williams scored eight of the Huskers' first 10 points, including two 3-pointers. Indiana (19-14) held a 15-13 lead at the under-12 media timeout, but a triple by Lawrence and back-to-back 3s by Williams helped the Huskers go up 22-17. Tominaga then drove for a layup and hit a 3-pointer to make it 27-17 at the 6:45 mark, capping a 14-2 Husker run.
After Indiana pulled within 33-27, Tominaga fired up the Target Center crowd with back-to-back triples from the top of the arc to give Nebraska a 39-27 lead and spark a 17-0 run to end the half. After Gary drained a pair of free throws, Lawrence and Gary hit back-to-back corner 3s, and Tominaga closed out the half with a 30-footer, his fourth 3-pointer of the half that gave him a team-high 18 points at the break.
The Huskers led by 25 at 54-29 in the second half before Indiana cut it to 56-38 after a 9-2 spurt. But that was as close as the Hoosiers would get, as NU built the lead to as many as 33 points (88-55) before closing out the 93-66 victory.
Josiah Allick led the Big Red on the boards with nine rebounds to go with seven points. Rienk Mast added four points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
