Jamarques Lawrence has career game in Nebraska Cornhuskers statement
After looking at the social media reactions during the Nebraska Cornhuskers 85-70 win over the Indiana Hoosiers, you might think that Husker fans are prone to some pretty massive emotional swings. While that's usually true, the wild swings in emotions by the fans on Wednesday night was pretty much in sync with the wild swings the team was having.
For most of the first half, the Nebraska basketball team looked absolutely dominant thanks to Keisei Tominaga being unconscious at times, and Juwan Gary doing his best Robin to the Japanese Steph Curry's Batman. And then then second half begun.
All of the sudden, evey single problem the Nebraska Cornhuskers had on the road priar to Wednesday night came back with a vengeance. They couldn't score, they couldn't play defense and they couldn't rebound. They also started turning the ball over every other possession. Suddenly a 23 point lead was down to three. Fans were warranted in feeling as though they'd seen this movie before.
And then, Jamarques Lawrence took the team by the scruff of its neck and scored 11 of his 19 points, hauled down 4 of his 6 rebounds and dished out 3 of his 5 assists. Thanks to his and Brice Williams (who scored 11 of his 18 in the second half), the Huskers went on a run that took the lead from 3 points to 10, and then the Huskers never looked back.
What went right for the Nebraska Cornhuskers
All the little things. Sure, the Huskers shot very well from the field for most of the game, but other than points in the paint, it was the little things, the things that show how deep this team actually is, that went right on Wednesday night.
The Huskers had 23 bench points compared to Indiana's 8 (Granted Lawrence was almost all of those) They also had 15 points off 10 Indiana turnovers. That's quite a difference from the Hoosiers scoring just 6 points off 8 NU turnovers.
What went wrong
Down in the lane. One place where Indiana had a lot of success was near the basket. The Hoosiers had 38 points in the paint compared to 20 for Nebraska. They also had 16 second-chance points. The Nebraska Cornhuskers had two second-chance points all night. If Fred Hoiberg's boys had lost, that would have been why.
Who hurt the Huskers most
NU did have an answer for Ke'lel Ware. At times he was absolutely dominant. Ware had 17 points, hauled down 12 rebounds and had 3 blocks. If he could hit free throws, the damage would have been even worse as he was just 5-for-13 from the charity stripe.
Nebraska Cornhuskers bottom line
The Huskers took a massive step towards getting off the NCAA Tournament bubble and being "in." The first Big Ten road win was a double digit blowout and seemingly removed the last strike against them in most people's minds.
Next up
The Nebraska Cornhuskers will return to the PBA on Sunday evening and will be looking for revenge against the Minnesota Golden Gophers for one of their most embarrassing losses of the season.