It wasn’t pretty — no, it was downright ugly at times — but the Nebraska men’s basketball team managed to beat Bethune-Cookman, 63-58, on Saturday night despite some serious struggles on offense.
The Huskers shot 25.8% from the field in the first half, including 10% from three, struggled to take care of the ball and even run an offense at times, it seemed. Still, thanks to some solid defense, the Big Red held a five-point lead at the half.
Things didn’t get much better in the second half. The Wildcats outshot the Huskers 35.5% to 34.5% from the field (34.6% to 18.2% from distance) on the day and were within three points with over 6½ minutes left to play, but the Huskers survived.
“We missed so many plays at the rim,” Huskers head coach Fred Hoiberg said after the game. “I thought it affected our confidence. I thought we started pressing, we stopped trusting. When we trust, when we make simple plays, we’re a pretty effective team.
“We missed some easy ones,” he added. “We turned it over. Missed a couple wide open threes, and to their credit, they kept playing to close the gap, but we got to find a way to string it together. And you know, defensive effort that’s really good tonight, but offensively, we got to find a way to get something going.”