Super McGowens Bros., Huskers Lose Late Lead and Game to Rutgers

Leading nearly the entire game and led by the McGowens brothers, the Nebraska men’s basketball team had its first Big Ten victory of the season within reach, but Rutgers took its first lead with 92 seconds remaining and finished better down the stretch, winning 63-61 at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Saturday night.

Paul Mulcahy scored on an offensive rebound putback to put Rutgers on top for the first time, 61-60, with 1:32 to play. From there until the last seven seconds, Nebraska traveled and missed three shots, while Rutgers had a shot blocked and missed two free throws.

After a pair of Geo Baker free throws made the score 63-60 with seven seconds remaining, senior Kobe Webster dribbled around some screens and drew a foul while shooting a 3-pointer with just 0.9 seconds left. With the ability to tie the game, Webster, who shoots 67% from the line this season and 74% for his career, missed the critical first attempt. While he made the second, the third missed the rim as he was trying to intentionally miss and give his teammates a chance at a tying putback. Possession of the ball and game was turned over to Rutgers (12-8 overall, 6-4 Big Ten).

“This is on everybody. This isn’t on Kobe,” Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg stressed. “It isn’t all about the last play. It is obviously magnified, but there were plenty of mistakes throughout the course of the game. Our guys did enough to win with their effort and their energy. Unfortunately, it just didn’t go our way in the end.”

Twenty-one days before Rutgers visited Lincoln on Saturday, the Scarlet Knights dealt the Huskers (6-15, 0-10) perhaps their most embarrassing loss of the season, 93-65, in Piscataway, N.J. While the Huskers played competitively in the rematch, this one likely hurts much more since they had victory in their sights but again let it slip away.

Star freshman Bryce McGowens, playing with his older brother Trey again, scored a career-high 29 points, much of those coming at the free throw line where he went 14-for-18. His attempts and makes from the line were both career-highs as well. Trey McGowens, a junior, added 11 points on 34 minutes in his third game back from a broken foot. Each of the brothers grabbed 7 rebounds.

The excellent play of the McGowens brothers was not enough to win. “It got away from us,” Bryce said. “We did not rebound down the stretch and we did not get stops when we needed to, and that changed the game. We just didn’t make the big plays in big moments.”

It seemed like NU was the more composed team in a big moment with 6:07 left. Leading 51-45, Bryce McGowens was fouled by Jalen Miller. Miller was then called for a technical foul for yelling back at the referee who whistled his infraction. Bryce hit two of the four free throws, extending it to a 53-45 Husker lead.

Rutgers proceeded to show NU how to finish a Big Ten game, shooting 6-for-10 overall and 2-of-4 from long range after the technical foul. Before the two made triples late, the Scarlet Knights made just one of their first 16 from beyond the arc. The Huskers went in the opposite direction, shooting a mere 1-of-8 from the field after the technical.

Leading up to the biggest of those Rutgers three-pointers, the Knights blocked a CJ Wilcher shot and tried to save it, only to throw it to Bryce McGowens. Bryce immediately drove to the rim, but Rutgers got the block again. Geo Baker pushed ahead and passed cross-court to an open Ron Harper, Jr. who buried the 3. That made it a one-point game at 55-54 with 3:54 to play, the closest the score had been since NU led 20-19.

Trey McGowens and Rutgers’ Mawot Mag traded three-pointers after a timeout. Bryce McGowens made two free throws to push the Husker lead to 60-57. Geo Baker kept it tight with a short jumper, and the next score was the fateful Mulcahy putback.

The highlight of the game for the Huskers came at the 12-minute mark in the second half. Rutgers grabbed a loose ball and passed it ahead. Trey McGowens sized up the block, timed his leap, and smashed the shot attempt against the backboard. He then led the break the other way, finding his brother Bryce on the right sideline. Bryce pump-faked a shot, drove to the hoop and, when he encountered Rutgers defenders, went up-and-under with a nifty scoop shot at the rim. The sequence brought the fans to their feet and forced a Scarlet Knights timeout, as the Husker lead was extended to 43-36.

Junior forward Derrick Walker Jr. scored nine points on 4-for-7 shooting and added three rebounds, two on the offensive end. Fellow junior Lat Mayen scored five points – right on his season average – but led NU with eight rebounds and three assists, both season bests.

Mayen made a late critical defensive play, staying with Ron Harper  Jr. as he received a pass inside the right wing and drove to the basket to his right. Mayen stayed in front of Harper, drew contact, hit the floor, and as the charge call was made he screamed while laying on his back. It was Harper’s fourth foul with 7:29 remaining.

Harper, who is eighth in the conference in scoring at 16.3 points per game, finally scored his first points on a pair of free throws at the second half 11-minute mark. It took Harper 20 minutes of game action to get on the board, as he was mired in foul trouble for much of the game. He managed seven points on 1-for-9 shooting.

Alonzo Verge, Jr. did not play for Nebraska, instead he was dressed in street clothes on the bench. Why didn’t he play? “A personal matter,” Hoiberg said. “The decision in talking to him was made. I’m just going to leave it at that and we’ll see how it goes. We’ve got two days to see where things go but it was a personal matter and it was a coach’s decision.”

Webster started in place of Verge, his first start of the season. In 26 minutes, he missed all 10 of his shots from the floor ahead of the critical missed free throws with under a second left. Freshman CJ Wilcher was the only bench scorer for the Big Red with four points. Freshman center Eduardo Andre contributed three boards and two blocks in his 11 minutes as a reserve.

Over the final minutes of each half, Rutgers dominated, keeping the Scarlet Knights close before halftime and winning the game at the end. In the final 6:44 of the first half, Nebraska missed its last nine shots from the field. Over the last 8:11 of the second half, NU missed 9 of 10. Across that nearly 15 minutes of game time, the Husker offense could only muster a single made bucket out of 19 tries.

Meanwhile, the Scarlet Knights ended the first half on an 8-0 run, then finished the game with a 6-of-8 shooting stretch and on an 18-8 run.

“In this business, you’ve got to find a way to put the emotional ones behind you whether it was a win or a loss,” Hoiberg said. “We have an opportunity now going into Michigan. We’ve got to flush it down quickly. If we don’t and it hangs on it could get ugly on Tuesday. We’ve got to find a way to put it behind us which I’m confident our guys will do.”

The only tie of the game occurred at 2-2, and the late lead change was the only one of the contest.

In the first half, Nebraska started fast and took a 15-6 lead on a Bryce McGowens three-pointer just over five minutes into the game. After the Scarlet Knights cut it to 20-19 with 8:20 before the break, the Huskers went on a free throw-fueled run to go back up by 11, 31-20, with 4:04 left in the half. Nebraska wouldn’t score again until the second period.

Next up for the Big Red is Michigan. The Wolverines will host Nebraska in Ann Arbor at 8 p.m. CST Thursday.

• Box score