Nebraska Basketball: Huskers roll past Butler in NIT first round

Nebraska basketball started slowly against Butler Wednesday night, but the Huskers rallied and kept their season alive.

It has been a weird week for the Nebraska basketball team and even with more coaching rumors surrounding the Huskers, they still found a way to bring it Wednesday night.

And despite falling behind by 12 points early, the Huskers stormed back in front of their home fans and beat the Bulldogs 80-76 in the first round of the NIT Wednesday and thanks to really strong efforts from veteran leaders James Palmer, Glynn Watson Jr. and Isaiah Roby, Nebraska basketball will have at least one more game to play.

Maybe it was the Fred Hoiberg rumors or the fact that Nebraska was back in the NIT for the second straight season, but during the first five minutes or so, nothing was going down and the Bulldogs built a 14-2 lead.

Nebraska basketball just needed something positive and the Huskers got that went Roby made a 3-pointer to get the Huskers within nine points (14-5). That calmed things down and soon, a run that was capped with a triple by Watson tied things up at 22-22.

That forced Butler to take a timeout and the Bulldogs got the lead back, yet in the closing minutes of the opening half, Palmer drove inside and made a layup putting the Huskers in front 31-30, which was the score at intermission.

In the second half, the two teams went back and forth before a layup by Palmer and a 3-pointer by Watson put Nebraska up six 48-42. The Bulldogs got the game close but the key was the defense from Nebraska which allowed the Huskers to build a double-digit lead. Then, in the last few minutes, Watson, Palmer and Roby were all able to score from the charity stripe which helped ice the win.

When the clock struck zero, Palmer, Roby and Watson were 23-of-26 from the free throw line in the win on their way to combining for 68 points as Roby finished with 28, Palmer had 23 and Watson added 17 in the win.

Ultimately, both teams shot better than 45 percent from the field, but in the end, Nebraska was the more aggressive team. The Huskers got to free throw line and even though the 3-point attempts weren’t falling, the free throws were and that along with the defense was enough to advance.

With just six players on the court, a sold-out crowd cheered on Nebraska to victory and even though Tim Miles won’t be the head coach much longer, following the win, he has at least one more game to prepare his players for and if they play as well as they did in the second half, the team will have another to prep for after the round of 16.