Story by NU Athletic Communications
Lincoln – No. 7 Nebraska erased a 22-point second-half deficit to get the game to overtime before No. 13 Purdue rallied for an 80-77 overtime win Tuesday night.
The Huskers (21-3. 10-3) trailed 46-24 with 18:55 remaining before mounting a frantic comeback. NU used an 18-2 run to get within 57-53 with 5:20 left after a Sam Hoiberg basket, only to see Purdue seemingly take control with a 10-0 run highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers from C.J. Cox.
Nebraska trailed 67-63 with 2:45 left in regulation before making one last run, outscoring the Boilermakers, 15-1 down the stretch as Rienk Mast and Jamarques Lawrence, who combined for 12 of the Huskers final 15 points in regulation.
Mast’s putback with 12.8 seconds left in regulation pulled NU even at 68, but the senior, who finished with 18 points, six rebounds and seven assists, was unable to complete the 3-point play and NU forced a stop to send the game to overtime.
In the extra period, the Huskers trailed 75-70 after another Cox 3-pointer with 3:09 left, but has one more surge, as a pair of free throws form Pryce Sandfort and a Lawrence 3-pointer tied the game, and NU took its only lead of the night on a Sandfort basket with 1:31 remaining in the extra period.
Cox finished with 11 points, including a trio of 3-pointers.
Leading 77-76 Oscar Cluff’s putbck with 4.1 seconds left gave Purdue the lead for good. Cluff, who finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds, missed the free throw and a tie-up gave the Huskers one last chance. Nebraska was not able to take advantage as Lawrence, who finished with 16 points, five rebounds and four assists, slipped on a wet spot by the Purdue bench and Gicarri Harris hit a pair of free throws for the final margin.
Loyer led four Purdue players with 18 points, while Braden Smith had 13 points and 10 assists. Trey Kaufman-Renn had 19 rebounds, as Purdue out-rebounded Nebraska, 54-37 and had a 17-6 advantage in second-chance points.
Purdue (20-4, 10-3 Big Ten) silenced the sellout crowd, joining to a 14-1 lead in the first 3:16 of the contest hitting 4-of-5 from 3-point range. The Huskers were forced to play catchup, getting to within 16-9 after a pair of Mast 3-pointers with 13:55 left in the half.
Purdue held Nebraska to 32 percent shooting in the first half, led by as many as 17 in the first half and took a 40-24 lead to the locker room.
Nebraska will continue with the homestand this Saturday, Feb. 14, when the Huskers host Northwestern on Alumni Weekend. Tipoff is set for Noon (central) and the game will be on BTN and the Huskers Radio Network.
Game Notes
• Nebraska falls to 2-3 against ranked teams this season with tonight’s loss
• Tonight was Nebraska’s first overtime game this season and first since a double-overtime loss at Ohio State on March 4 of last year.
• This is the second time in the last three meetings in Lincoln that gone to overtime (also in 2022-23).
• Nebraska erased a 22-point deficit in the second half to force overtime. Tonight marked the second time in Big Ten play this season that the Huskers erased a second-half deficit of 15 or more points. NU rallied from a 16-point deficit to win at Indiana on Jan. 10.
• The Huskers fell to 4-2 in one-possession games this season. Nebraska had been 4-0 in one-possession games before a three-point loss at No. 3 Michigan on Jan. 27 and tonight’s three-point overtime loss to No. 13 Purdue.
• Nebraska had 21 assists in the game, its 11th game with 20 or more assists this season.
• The Huskers made 12 threes to mark the 10th time this season Nebraska hit 12 or more 3-pointers in a game this season. Nebraska now has 265 3-pointers to rank fourth on NU’s single-season chart.
• Rienk Mast had 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds before fouling out in overtime. Mast tied or led Nebraska in each of those categories.
• Sam Hoiberg had five assists and one turnover in the game. In five games against ranked teams this season, Hoiberg has recorded 27 assists and only one turnover.
• Jamarques Lawrence had 16 points to post his sixth straight game in double figures and 14th double-figure effort of the year. Lawrence’s 16 points were his third-highest output in a Big Ten game this season. Twelve of Lawrence’s 16 points came after halftime.
• Pryce Sandfort scored all 15 of his points after halftime.
• Purdue shot a school-record 46 3-pointers, which tied the Nebraska opponent record for 3-point attempts in a game and marked the most 3-point attempts a Division I opponent has ever taken against Nebraska.
• Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn had 19 rebounds, which tied the Pinnacle Bank Arena record for rebounds in a game. Maryland’s Bruno Fernando also had 19 rebounds against Nebraska on Feb. 6, 2019.
• Nebraska tied its season low points in a half with 24 in the first half against Purdue. The Huskers scored 24 in the first half against North Dakota on December 21st.
Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter
“I thought our effort was great. We did a really good job executing. We had a lot of really, really good looks that didn’t go down, especially in that second half, but our guys kept playing hard. They got it going, and they had Rienk Mast going out of the game. You obviously benefit from that. They stretch us out. He’s a great player. Just look at his stat line. Our guys played hard. They kept getting rebounds. Trey (Kaufman-Renn) and Oscar (Cluff) had more rebounds than them in the first half. We ended up with 54 rebounds, and Nebraska has 37. When you have that many more possessions than someone else, the odds are that it’s going to help you. I thought the decisions and the effort were great.”
Rebounding from Trey and Oscar
“Oh it’s huge, it’s huge. We have 21 offensive rebounds, and they have six. It’s a big difference in the game. You have 20 more possessions than the other team. It’s kind of amazing that it’s a one-possession game right. Where they got going there and made some shots, it’s just different right. 78 threes taken. It’s a lot of threes in a game. You’re going to have a lot of long rebounds, you’re going to have a lot of opportunities there. Neither team shot well from three. We didn't shoot great; we just got able to make the next play, and I thought our guys were off. Those guys you know have 10 offensive rebounds for one guy and 16 defensive rebounds for another guy, like that, that is pretty impressive.”
Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg
What was your message to the team
“A message to our guys was we lost that game the first three minutes. You dig and then you dig yourself out. Whatever it was, 14 and one, call the time out, and we're down, double digits, before the first media timeout. It's hard to climb out of a hole against a team like that that's got that experience, that type of leadership. Those guys are going to get playing together for a long time and it takes so much energy to dig out of it. That being said, we certainly showed we’re more capable of doing when we play the right way. That first half completely got away from who we were, didn't have much movement... (we tried to go one on one). We tried to go one-on-one, which to me is trying to get it all back at once. The second half we got back to running our offense, we were very efficient. We changed some things up defensively, and I thought we did a better job with our hands and had good activity level. The bottom line is when I look at the box score, you give them 21 offensive rebounds and turn the ball over 14 times, and that’s the game. You say all you want about the start, but you find a way to climb back in. It’s a long game as we continue to remind our players. When you give a team that many extra bullets, it’s hard to come out on top. That being said, we had a chance at the end, and I thought we executed very well after going back down double digits. We unfortunately just didn’t have enough.”
On being more active defensively
“I thought Berke (Buyuktuncel) made a couple of plays out there for us. Getting a couple of steals. That to me kind of flipped it when BK made those couple of hustle plays. I thought our execution was really good. But it starts when you make plays like that. Cale (Jacobsen) was the one at Rutgers that I thought flipped it when he went in there and had a couple of deflections and that got us going on the other end. We were talking and pleading for someone to go make a play. I thought BK made a couple of good ones for us.”