Short-handed Huskers fall by 18 points on the road
Nebraska headed into West Lafayette, Indiana, facing an uphill battle. Starting forward Juwan Gary had been ruled out with a shoulder injury, and right before Wednesday night's game, starting point guard Sam Griesel was ruled out with a hip injury. Coming off a 26-point loss and facing a top-five team is already a tough task, but losing two starters made it herculean.
No. 3 Purdue came away with a 73-55 victory. The Boilermakers never trailed, and their lead was in the double digits the entire second half.
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Purdue started off hot, going on a 15-4 run with all of their points coming from beyond the arc. Nebraska focused on shutting down the paint and containing 7-footer Zach Edey, allowing Purdue to get clean looks from three. Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer took advantage, knocked down 4 threes and finished the half with 16 points. Loyer finished the game with 27 points, and six made threes.
The Nebraska offense looked lost without their floor general, Griesel. Derrick Walker took the opportunity to step up and run the Husker offense himself. Walker scored seven straight points to cut the Boilermaker lead down to six.
Zach Edey then came to life. Edey, who was consistently double-teamed and even tripled-teamed when going up for rebounds, scored his first points with under five minutes left in the half. He finished the first with seven points and found opportunities to disrupt Nebraska’s defense on the offensive glass. The Boilermakers ended the first on a 7-2 run and headed into the locker room up 35-24
Purdue started the second half on an 11-0 to take a commanding 22-point lead. Purdue started the second half 6-8 from the field and never looked back. Nebraska never got within 15 points for the rest of the game.
Nebraska’s offense couldn’t get into a rhythm and could not put any runs together to get the Huskers back into the game. Keisei Tominaga had a very good second half. Tominaga hit three 3s in the second half and finished with 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Walker did not dominate in the second like the first but finished with 19 points, shooting a superb 9-of-15 from the floor.
The NU offense ended the game shooting a solid 43% from the floor and 44% from three but lacked flow and rhythm without Gary and Griesel.
Nebraska got dominated on the boards. Purdue doubled Nebraska in rebounds, 38 to 19. The Boilermakers grabbed 12 offensive boards and converted nine second-chance points. Edey grabbed seven of them and finished the game with 12 points and 13 rebounds. It was his ninth double-double in a row and 14th of the season.
Nebraska moves to 9-9 on the season and is set to host Ohio State next Wednesday.
• Wilhelm Breidenbach and Denim Dawson both made their first college starts.
• Derrick Walker reached double figures for the 11th time in 13 games with a team-high 19 points, including 13 in the first half.
• Walker’s 3-pointer in the first half was his first in 125 career games. He had been 0-3 in his career, including 0-1 this season.
• Keisei Tominaga finished with 16 points off the bench for his ninth double-figure game of the year. It is the 12th time in his career he has scored double figures off the bench.
• ominaga has reached double figures in his three career games against Purdue.
• Nebraska held Zach Edey to 12 points, his lowest total since he scored 11 during the teams' first meeting on Dec. 10.
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