Nebraska halted a lengthy slide but now meets up with an Oregon team that figures to be in a foul mood.
Two teams that haven’t won much in recent weeks will get together Sunday evening when the Cornhuskers face the No. 16 Ducks in Eugene.
Nebraska (13-8, 3-7 Big Ten) lost six straight games — three by double digits — before emerging with a solid effort in Thursday’s 80-74 home overtime victory over No. 18 Illinois. It was the Cornhuskers’ first win since beating visiting UCLA on Jan. 4.
As for the Ducks (16-5, 5-5), they have dropped three of their past four games and were outright bullied 78-52 by host UCLA on Thursday night.
Oregon was 4-of-23 from 3-point range, while the Bruins were 11-of-23.
“There’s a fine line there; you don’t want to get them totally not being aggressive from 3, but we just made bad decisions,” Ducks coach Dana Altman said of the long-range shooting. “We took poor shots. It’s a poorly coached team. I got to put that on myself to allow us to shoot as many threes as we did.”
Nebraska wasn’t good shooting threes either — it was 5-of-20 — but did a lot of above-average things while surprising the Fighting Illini.
The Cornhuskers never trailed in the game and forced 17 turnovers while committing just six during the much-needed victory.
“It wasn’t crazy in there, guys are obviously very happy,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said of the locker room. “Winning sure as hell beats losing. It was a business-like approach. The guys know we have to get over it quickly. If we don’t, it’s going to affect us in our game in Oregon and it’s not going to be pretty. We can’t have a hangover effect. We’ll put a game plan together.”
Brice Williams scored eight of the Cornhuskers’ 10 overtime points and had 27 for the game. It was his ninth 20-point outing of the season. He also collected a season-high eight rebounds.
“When the game was on the line, I realized I had to be aggressive and take it to them, whether it was to score or to create, and it showed up in the last few minutes,” Williams said. “The last few buckets were crucial.”
Williams leads the Cornhuskers with an 18.6 scoring average. Juwan Gary (12.2) and Connor Essegian (11.5) also score in double digits. Essegian has made a team-leading 53 3-pointers.
Against UCLA, the Ducks scored their fewest points of the season and never led in a game they trailed by as many as 28 points.
Nate Bittle scored 13 points, Keeshawn Barthelemy added 12 and TJ Bamba had 11 for Oregon.
The Ducks didn’t block a single shot and had just three steals in the one-sided contest.
“We didn’t have many deflections and their ball movement was pretty good and they got what they wanted,” Altman said. “They hit a few tough ones, but for the most part, they got what they want. I thought we took some quick ones, especially in the first half, really quick threes with nobody in rebounding position and didn’t make them guard.”
Bittle leads the Ducks with averages of 12.9 points and 7.4 rebounds. Jackson Shelstad averages 12.1 points and Bamba contributes 10.4 per game.
Nebraska leads the all-time series 7-6, with the Ducks winning the first meeting back in the 1941-42 season. Oregon has won both meetings during Altman’s tenure — 83-76 at Nebraska on Nov. 23, 2011, and 60-38 at home on Dec. 15, 2012.
–Field Level Media
