Saturday's Big Ten basketball: Nebraska pulls away, beats North Dakota State
Lincoln, Neb. — Teddy Allen scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half when Nebraska pulled away for a 79-57 victory over North Dakota State on Saturday.
Allen, a junior JC transfer who began his career at West Virginia, was 9-of-17 shooting with five steals for 13 total in three games. Trey McGowens added 19 points and Lat Mayen and Dalano Banton 12 each with Banton grabbing nine rebounds and dishing off eight assists.
With Nebraska leading 43-36 at halftime, Allen scored seven points in a 10-2 run to open the second half and the Cornhuskers (2-1) kept their double-digit lead, extending it to 25 points with a 10-0 run late in which Allen had eight points.
Junior Jaxon Knotek had a career-high 16 points, 12 in the first half, to lead the Bison (0-2). Lincoln native Sam Griesel had nine points and 12 rebounds and junior Tyree Eady had a career-high 13 boards with seven points.
Nebraska took off to a 19-4 lead in the first six minutes with Mayen scoring nine points, including two 3-pointers to end the run. Knotek beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to seven at the break.
The only other meeting between these programs took place on Dec. 20, 1933, a 33-29 victory for the Cornhuskers in Fargo, N.D.
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(At) Minnesota 88, Loyola Marymount 73: Marcus Carr scored 22 of his 28 points in the first half, Both Gach added 17 points and Liam Robbins had 10 for the Golden Gophers (2-0). Carr, Gach, and Robbins combined for seven of the Gophers’ eight 3-pointers.
Joe Quintana scored 19 points to lead five players in double-figure scoring for LMU (1-1). Eli Scott added 14 points and Dameane Douglas had 10, and each had a game-high nine rebounds.
Gach scored the first four points of the second half and added an alley-oop for a Jarvis Omersa dunk to cap a 24-12 run that stretched the Gophers’ lead to 65-49 midway through the second half. Omersa received a technical foul for hanging on the rim.
(At) Penn State 86, VMI 65: Jamari Wheeler scored a career-high 18 points and Penn State used a 17-3 run early in the second half to break away in Jim Ferry’s first game as the Nittany Lions coach.
Ferry, a veteran coach who was an assistant the past four years, replaced Pat Chambers on Oct. 21 when Chambers resigned following a school investigation into inappropriate conduct. Chambers was the head coach for nine seasons, compiling a 148-150 record and won the 2018 NIT championship. The Nittany Lions were 21-10 last year and expected to get their first NCAA berth since 2011.
Penn State was up 37-35 at halftime and trailed 45-44 with 15:26 to play following a Kamdyn Curfman 3-pointer. The Nittany Lions reeled off nine points before another Curfman 3, then scored eight more. Izaiah Brockington had six of his 15 points points in the surge.
Three players added 12 points for Penn State, which shot 51% in the second half and hit seven 3-pointers. Wheeler had four 3-pointers and five steals, which moved him past Shep Garner into 10th in career steals with 152.
Greg Parham led the Keydets (1-1) with 21 points and Curfman had 17, hitting five 3-pointers.
VMI coach Dan Earl was a star guard and assistant coach at Penn State. His first game against the Nittany Lions was the 2015-16 season opener.