Second-Half Surge Pushes Huskers Past Jackson State

Lincoln - The Nebraska basketball team held its third straight opponent under 50 points and used a strong second-half effort from junior forward Quincy Hankins-Cole to hand the Huskers a 57-41 victory over Jackson State (0-8) Saturday night at the Devaney Center.

Hankins-Cole turned in 13 of his career-high 15 points after the intermission and joined Ryan Anderson (10 points) in double figures.

A Roosevelt, N.Y. native, Hankins-Cole's back-to-back buckets midway through the second half thwarted a Jackson State comeback effort that saw the Tigers close a 15-point halftime lead to seven, 27-20, with 13 minutes, 55 seconds remaining. The junior's 11 second-half points guided NU to its largest lead of 24 points (51-17) with six minutes to go.

While Hankins-Cole was doing work in the paint, the Husker defense turned in a solid performance, as it took Jackson State more than 22 minutes to reach double-digits on the scoreboard. By that point, the Huskers had built a 13-point lead, 24-11, and were able to hold off the comeback bid.

The Tigers finished the game 17-of-52 (32.7 percent) from the field, while Nebraska connected on 22-of-53 (41.5) shot attempts.

Nebraska held a 24-9 halftime lead with tenacious defense that forced Jackson State to a 13 percent field-goal percentage (3-of-23) in the opening 20 minutes.

After a Jackson State 3-pointer opened the scoring, Jeter led the Huskers on a 16-0 run while the Tigers missed their next 16 shot attempts. Garrison Johnson finally broke the Nebraska run on a baseline jumper to bring JSU out of an 11-minute scoring drought with 8 minutes, 11 seconds remaining in the first half.

The Husker defense would not allow the Tigers to close the scoring gap, as Nebraska held Jackson State to four points the rest of the first half. During the stretch, a Ray Gallegos 3-pointer with two minutes remaining gave Nebraska its biggest lead of the first half at 23-6.

Anderson and Jeter each contributed six points in the first half, but the Huskers used a balanced scoring effort to build their 15-point halftime advantage with five different players scoring in the period. The nine points by Jackson State was just one more than the Devaney Center record low set by North Carolina Central on Dec. 22, 2007.

The Huskers hit the court two more times before Christmas, as they travel to the HoopTV Las Vegas Classic next week at the Orleans Arena. Nebraska squares off against Tulsa on Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 4:30 p.m. CT (2:30 p.m. PT), before meeting either BYU or Nevada on Wednesday, Dec. 23. The game will be carried on the IMG Husker Sports Radio Network.