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Smith & Huskers frustrated by back to back losses
The Huskers (13-11, 5-7 Big Ten) trailed 52-37 with 3:37 left before charging back behind the play of Tai Webster, as the sophomore scored all five of his points in a 10-2 spurt to pull NU within 52-45 after a Shavon Shields jumper with 2:37 left.
Nebraska kept the pressure on, as All-Big Ten guard Terran Petteway scored 18 of his 23 points after halftime to help the charge. The junior scored six straight points for the Huskers to cut the Wisconsin lead to 58-53 with 1:04 left.
Unfortunately, Nebraska would get no closer, as Wisconsin (22-2, 10-1 Big Ten) went 7-of-8 from the foul line in the final minute to stifle the Huskers' comeback hopes. In all, Wisconsin went 24-of-31 from the foul line, including 22-of-27 in the second half to keep Nebraska at bay.
“I thought we had them on our heels, especially when we put the press on them” noted Smith. “For a team that doesn’t press at all in practice, we come out and really play hard in the press. I think we really had them on their heels and got a couple of turnovers, five second counts, and forced them to call timeout… We fought and at the end of the day we fought our butts off and that’s all that really matters to me and my teammates. We know that we can be a good team if we stick together.”
Smith finished with 3 of 5 Field Goal attempts for a 6point game, adding 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals in 17 minutes on court commented afterwards how frustrating the team is feeling after back to back defeats.
“It's at its highest. I don't think it can get any higher than this. Losing consecutive games home and away… we're a very frustrated team right now trying to find ourselves. I think tonight we made a really big step even though we lost. We did pretty good in the second half defensively and offensively. We just have to stick with the process right now,” he said.
The Huskers bench outscored Wisconsin’s reserve players, which was something Smith saw as a positive.
“We need everybody, we can’t just rely on the starting five or one or two guys off the bench, we need a full five or ten guys who can come in and spark the team. Tai (Webster) picked up his play the last three weeks and we need other guys to spark, like Smitty (Tarin Smith). He fell off a little bit, but we need to get him back on track. We need everybody to contribute in order for us to be a good team. We can’t rely on Terran and Shavon and Walt just to bring offense to the team. It takes a team effort so we just need to have everybody involved."
The Huskers return to action on Sunday, as they travel to Purdue. Tipoff is set for 4:15 p.m. (central) and the game will be on BTN and the Husker Sports Network.
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13 Responses to “Smith & Huskers frustrated by back to back losses”
Tortola stop all the hate. Embrace and support all your athletes abroad and at home. Anytime someone doing something positive they should be eencouraged not torn apart.