Tominaga powers Nebraska to 72-63 victory over Penn State
It took a career performance from Keisei Tominaga and some critical plays by freshmen down the stretch to do it, but Nebraska held on for a 72-63 victory over Penn State on Sunday.
Tominaga dropped 30 points for the third-highest Big Ten scoring output by a Husker in the last five seasons. Freshman Jamarques Lawrence had 11 points and nine rebounds, while redshirt freshman Sam Hoiberg scored five of his seven points in the final nine minutes.
As a result, NU snapped a four-game losing streak and improved with 11-13 overall and 4-9 in league play. The 11 victories mark the most in a season under head coach Fred Hoiberg.
Nebraska shot 52.9% from the field with 17 assists and owned a 32-16 scoring edge in the paint. The Nittany Lions hit 14 3-pointers, including a Husker opponent record eight from Seth Lundy for 24 points.
But PSU (14-9, 5-7) didn’t score a single fastbreak point and went just 1-for-4 on free throws in the loss.
Tominaga set the tone for fast NU start
Nebraska came out firing to open the game, hitting four of its first five 3-pointers to jump out to a 22-13 lead. Tominaga set the tone from the jump by scoring 10 of NU’s first 17 points through seven minutes.
That eventually turned into an 11-0 run to push the advantage up to 13. But the Huskers quickly cooled off from there, going the next four minutes without a point and allowing an 8-0 Penn State rally.
Nebraska answered with a 9-0 run to take its largest lead of the half at 35-20 on an And-1 by Sam Griesel with 4:18 left. The Nittany Lions scored six straight to cut the margin to 37-28 at halftime, but the first 20 minutes couldn’t have been much better for NU.
Tominaga had 14 of his 30 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the first half. As a team, the Huskers went 55.6% from the field, assisted on nine of their 15 made baskets, and owned an 18-6 edge in paint points.
Seventeen of Penn State’s first 31 shots were 3-pointers. The Nittany Lions made six of those, including five by Seth Lundy, who had 15 of his 24 points at the break.
Freshmen came up big down the stretch
Tominaga buried a 3-pointer to start the second half, but Penn State quickly got the deficit within single digits. A pair of threes by Andrew Funk got the Nittany Lions within 53-50 with less than nine minutes remaining.
Back-to-back buckets by Jalen Pickett got PSU within 62-58 with 3:21 left. After a layup by Griesel, Lawrence and Hoiberg combined to score Nebraska’s final eight points over the last 1:26 to seal the victory.
Lawrence posted 11 points, a career-high nine rebounds, and three assists for NU, while senior Derrick Walker scored nine with seven assists and six boards.
Lundy (24), Pickett (15), and Funk (14) combined for 53 of Penn State’s 63 points, as the Nittany Lions took 38 of their 60 shot attempts from behind the arc.
The Huskers will hit the road to take on Michigan on Wednesday night for a 5:30 p.m. CT tip on Big Ten Network.
