Nebraska men's basketball used a strong first half to make up for a below-par second half and defeated San Jose State 63-46 to open up its regular season on Sunday afternoon.
The only thing that went wrong for the Huskers in the first half was a botched alley-oop play to open the game. A strong defensive performance and a lethal outside shooting attack allowed the Huskers to go into halftime with a 38-20 lead.
But NU would go more than eight minutes without scoring to start the second half, allowing the Spartans to claw their way back into the game. NU only led by five points with 6:29 left to play.
Nebraska's full court pressure, though, would force late turnovers allowing the Huskers to widen the gap and eventually win the game handily.
Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said overall he was pleased with how his team played its first game, but said the half-court offense needs a lot of work, which was evident in the second half.
"I think the first six or seven shots (we took) in the second half, more than half of those were three point shots," Sadler said. "You can't do that. When you're making shots that's one thing, but if you go through three or four possessions, you better get to the foul line or you better get something driving to the basket, and we didn't do a very good job of that."
Redshirt freshman Toney McCray, who led the Huskers in scoring with 17 points and nine rebounds, said the beginning of the second half was frustrating.
"It was a little tough," McCray said. "We were getting confused on what we were supposed to do, and the (San Jose State) was playing good defense, so it was frustrating."
No other Husker reached double digits scoring, but 10 different Huskers scored. Senior Paul Velander and Junior Ryan Anderson had nine points each.
The three-ball was falling early for the Huskers. NU shot 7 for 12 from behind the arc in the first half, but just 1 for 9 in the second half, which allowed the Spartans to cut into the lead.
Nebraska's lead was 43-38 with 6:29 to go before Velander knocked down Nebraska's only three pointer of the second half.
Brandon Richardson immediately followed that with a steal of the inbounds pass and a three point play of his own, making it 49-38 and bringing the Devaney Center crowd of 9,527 to its feet.
Nebraska's defense continued to force turnovers in the back-court, allowing them to score the next 11 points to cap a 17-0 run that would seal the victory.
The Spartans turned it over 25 times, and NU managed to score 31 of its points off those turnovers.
"I thought the press was OK," Sadler said. "I was happy with our trappers off the ball. We've got to get a lot better, but it was something different than you practice against. And the more you get to press other teams and make changes and see different alignments, the better you get."
Sadler was pleased with how the underclassmen played, especially Richardson's diving defensive plays, which sparked the NU squad. He said there's not much of a drop off when his bench players get in. Of Nebraska's 63 points, 41 came from off the bench.
"I think some of our best offensive players come off the bench," Sadler said. "This team is going to be a team that's going to be fun to watch, but crazy to coach, because we don't have that low post presence. It's going to get frustrating at times offensively."
LUKENICHOLS@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM
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