Now that the Huskers are back at home, who better to play than a team that is 2-8 on the road this year. Texas Tech came to the Devaney Center on Saturday with hopes of easing their road woes under new coach Pat Knight.  Things looked pretty good for the Red Raiders early as they jumped out to their largest lead of the game when the score was 19-11.  Nebraska buckled up the defense and started to create plays for their shooters, as well as Maric, and NU turned in an impressive 21-2 run which led to a 6 minute scoring drought for TT.  The Huskers led 40-28 at the half, but more importantly was how they led.  Maric, who was playing in front of his mom and dad, was very aggressive.  There were a lot of dunks and not very many of those sky hooks he has been shooting lately.  He put the ball on the floor and made a few moves.  When he was doubled he kicked it out to an open teammate.   Steve Harley, who finished with 12 points, had 10 in the first half in arguably one of his best games as a Husker, as he was able to hit the open shot and protect the ball on offense.  Ryan Anderson, who in my last post I asked where has he gone, showed up in a BIG way on Saturday.  R.A. hit 8-9 from the field and 3-3 from behind the arc in tying his career conference high of 19 points.  He was relentless on defense with pressure and steals and on offense he was hitting open shots and was aggressive on the glass with 7 rebounds.  He was the player we all thought he could be and NU needs that 1-2 punch with Maric to be successful.

NU opened up it’s lead in the second half to 18 points when TT went to a full court press and started to make a ball game out of it, down only by seven, at 62-55.  The Red Raiders were sparked by Mike Singletary and Alan Voskuil, but couldn’t overcome a 9-3 run by the Huskers that put the lead back to 71-58 with 2:05 to play.  NU continued to play hard even though the outcome was already clear.  It was a good win at home, and with 2 of the next 3 at the Devaney, NU can try to make a late season run for a strong conference record.

Next up is Missouri at home on Wednesday at 7 P.M.   This game is not televised but will be broadcast on 1110 KFAB, which has an internet stream available also.

[see the box score courtesy of Huskers.com]