Huskers Cruise Past Nanooks

Lincoln --- Junior forward John Turek pitched in 19 points and senior guard Nate Johnson scored 12 to lead the Nebraska men's basketball team to an 83-54 victory against Alaska-Fairbanks Monday at the Devaney Center.

The victory was the sixth straight exhibition win under fourth-year head coach Barry Collier, and marked the fifth time in seven exhibitions under Collier that the Huskers held their opponent to 60 or fewer points.

Playing in their first exhibition of the season, the Huskers hit 51.6 percent from the floor and forced the Nanooks in 25 turnovers with an opportunistic defense. The crowd of 3,877 on hand also saw Nebraska limit UAF to just 30.3 percent shooting, including 24.2 percent in the first half.

"I thought we played with a lot of energy for it being our first exhibition game," Collier said. "I thought John Turek had a great first half and followed it up with a strong second half. Secondly, it was great to see Jake Muhleisen back on the floor.

"We were able to bring a lot of different players in and give them a lot of different looks. We were also able to keep the intensity on (UAF). It was a good first half and got better in the second."

Nebraska led 34-19 at the intermission by holding the Nanooks to just 2-of-13 shooting from outside the arc in the opening period. Nebraska's pressure defense forced the Nanooks into 12 first-half turnovers while the Husker offense hit 44.8 percent, with nine players scoring in the opening frame.

After the break, Nebraska blew the game open with a 15-2 run over the first 5:20 of the second period. Senior forward Andrew Drevo scored five points in the run, and combined with Muhleisen for back-to-back three-pointers that put NU ahead 46-21 with 16:45 to play.

Nebraska opened its biggest lead of the game with 10:12 remaining on a Turek basket. Turek finished by hitting 8-of-11 attempts from the field and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. NU outrebounded the Nanooks by a 47-42 margin.

Nebraska also had 15 assists as a team, including three from Muhleisen and junior transfer Marcus Neal Jr. Starting at the point in his first game with the Huskers, Neal had seven points, three assists, three rebounds and one steal. Nebraska's other new point guard, Charles Richardson Jr., hit 3-of-4 attempts from the field for six points while adding one assist and a team-high three steals.

NU's fullcourt press helped it create 25 turnovers, while the Huskers finished with 11 steals.

"(The press) is something we're trying but need to get better at," Collier said. "We didn't recover as well as I would have liked to. We threw a number of different presses at them during the course of the game. The game speed picked up in the second half, which allowed more possessions because of our pressing."

Nebraska returns to action on Friday, Nov. 14, in its final exhibition of the season against Athletes in Action. The game will tip off at 7:05 p.m. at the Devaney Center.