Nebraska Basketball stunned by UC Riverside in home opener
Nebraska Basketball suffered their first loss of the season Tuesday night.
The Fred Hoiberg officially began for Nebraska Basketball on Tuesday night, and unfortunately, Nebraska Basketball came out on the losing end of things as UC Riverside pulled off the early upset by a 66-47 score. Although the score itself may indicate that the game was a runaway win, it was anything but that for most of the contest.
The first half was extremely close. UC Riverside outscored Nebraska 32-28, but it was evident that Nebraska was able to put the ball in the basket. In particular, I was impressed with their athleticism and their defensive effort in the half. Offensively, they struggled a bit but were able to keep up with the Highlanders. Nebraska shot 34.5% from the field, while the Highlanders shot 41.4. The Highlanders definitely had a better half, but it wasn’t so overwhelming that Nebraska could not overcome it.
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The second half was a different story. The Highlanders began to find their three-point shot, and their efforts were led by sophomore guard DJ McDonald. For the game, he shot four-of-six from behind the arc. UC Riverside shot a deadly 53.5% from behind the arc and Nebraska had trouble defending it. In particular, they liked to send a player driving to the basket, and the player would promptly pass the ball back out to the perimeter for a wide-open three-point shot. It was a tough play for Nebraska to defend, and I have to give credit to UC Riverside for moving the ball so smoothly.
Nebraska Basketball meanwhile couldn’t get anything going in the second half. They just seemed to have trouble making shots. They went six-of-26 from the field and three-of-13 from behind the three-point line. In particular, they just couldn’t make their free throws. They went four-of-nine in the half and nine-of-19 in total. This is something that they will definitely need to correct moving forward. This allowed for UC Riverside to be able to break away in the half. They outscored Nebraska by a 34-19 margin.
One particular performance that was a positive from the night was the play of Matej Kavas. In 25 minutes of action, he scored 10 points and was efficient in doing so. Going three-of-five from the field and two-of-three from behind the three-point line, it will be interesting to see how much of a scoring threat he can bring to the table in the games moving forward.
Although this was a tough and unexpected loss, we have to remember that this is an entirely new team than the one we saw last year. This team has potential. This team has a ton of athleticism and players who can put the ball in the basket. We just didn’t see it tonight, and hopefully they can get those first-game jitters out of the way. Once these guys begin to mesh together, the results could be beautiful.