Huskers crushed by Michigan State in Big Ten opener

The Nebraska men’s basketball team returned from a week off with an embarrassing showing on Saturday, losing to Michigan State 89-52 in the club’s first game of conference play.

It marked the Huskers’ sixth consecutive loss in Big Ten openers, although all have been on the road.

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Michigan State was better right from the start on Saturday but the Big Red weathered the early storm. Despite the Spartans scoring the first seven points of the game, the Huskers battled back and fought.

Tom Izzo’s teams like to get out and run and play good defense, and the Huskers managed well enough. Despite being out-rebounded 24-10, outscored 20-12 in the paint and 10-3 on second-chance points, and dealing with some questionable and downright bad calls by the officials, Nebraska hung around.

Thanks to a 9-4 run before halftime, the Huskers only trailed 41-31 at the break, giving themselves a chance to steal one. Instead, they were demolished in the second half.

Michigan State scored 27 of the first 30 points in the second half and led by as much as 42 at one point. For all Nebraska did early to hang around, it did nothing right over the final 20 minutes but struggled in the halfcourt all day.

Andrew Morgan was Nebraska’s one bright spot, contributing 9 points and 5 rebounds in the first half to keep the Big Red afloat. He finished with 14 and 7. However, Connor Essegian had just 1 point and only two shots after making at least six threes in each of the past two games; Juwan Gary struggled with just 9 points on 4-of-11 shooting; Brice Williams had 11 points but shot only 3-of-7 from the field; and no Huskers shot even 50% from the field.

Nebraska (6-1, 0-0 in Big Ten play) now gets another week off before hosting Indiana on Friday night. That game is slated for a 7 p.m. tipoff and will be shown on Fox.