The Minnesota Golden Gophers suffered another Big Ten loss on Wednesday night, falling 78-65 to a Nebraska team that came into the night 0-12 in conference play.
The night belonged to the Cornhuskers from the opening tip. With a 9-2 run to open the game, Nebraska set the tone. But the Gophers had plenty of uncharacteristic moments that got them into trouble.
The first issue was turnovers. Minnesota came into the game fourth in the Big Ten with 9.35 giveaways per game but they coughed up the ball 12 times in the first half and 18 times on the night.
The Gophers also couldn’t get going from beyond the arc. Minnesota entered Wednesday shooting 36.4 percent on 3-pointers (fifth in the Big Ten) but went 0-for-9 in the first half.
With Payton Willis (16.7 points per game) and Jamison Battle (16.9 points per game) held to two points combined in the first half, Nebraska took a 32-21 lead into halftime.
After a rough first half, Battle turned it on in the second. All 21 of his points came in the second half and the Gophers were able to cut the lead down to seven points with 15:05 to go.
But on this night, Nebraska had too much going in its favor. The Cornhuskers shot 57.7 percent from the floor in the second half and picked up their first win against a major conference opponent since they defeated Rutgers on March 1, 2021.
The loss was Minnesota’s (11-10, 2-10 Big Ten) ninth loss in the past 10 games. The Gophers will look to stop the skid when they host Penn State on Saturday night.
