Indiana Basketball: Hoosiers look uninspired in loss to Nebraska

The Indiana Hoosiers drop their third game in a row with their 66-51 loss to Nebraska at home, in an uninspired performance.

In what has been a storyline all season, once again the Hoosiers started out slow and in a big deficit.

Down 25-9 before they could even blink, Indiana saw the deficit grow to 18 points in the first half on the way to their 66-51 loss against Nebraska, dropping their third in a row.

After Nebraska went 8:30 minutes at the end of the first half without scoring a field goal, the Hoosiers crept back into the game, going on an 11-0 run, cutting the lead to just nine points at the half.

After Indiana cut the lead to three, at 35-32 at the start of the second half, Nebraska used a 15-6 run, led by Glynn Watson, to keep their foot on the gas pedal. Making many timely threes, Watson scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half.

With 85 percent of their scoring coming from the starters, Nebraska got great minutes off the bench from Tanner Borchardt, who saw increased time with both Isaiah Roby and Isaac Copeland in foul trouble throughout the game, finishing with seven points and five rebounds.

James Palmer (19.5 PPG) finished with just 11 points but also added nine rebounds and seven assists.

The Hoosiers were led by Juwan Morgan, who paced Indiana with 17 points and eight rebounds.

A concern all season long for Indiana is trying to find a third scorer behind Morgan and Romeo Langford, who added 18 points – most coming late at the free throw line. That concern was not addressed as no other Hoosier scored more than five points or made more than two field goals.

Another concern is the health of Al Durham.

After leaving the game at the four minute media timeout in the first half (foot/ankle), Durham didn’t come out of the locker room until almost halfway through the second half, never returning to the game.

After having just 14 turnovers in their last two games combined, Indiana coughed the ball up 13 times, adding just seven assists.

Isaac Copeland chipped in 14 points and eight rebounds for the Cornhuskers.

The Hoosiers shot just 36.5 percent from the field, and 14.3 percent from three on the night.

Falling to 12-5 (3-3), Indiana must turn their attention to rival Purdue, as they travel to West Lafayette on Saturday.