Huskers Host Abilene Christian Saturday Afternoon

NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS 2015-16 Record: 5-3 Head coach: Tim Miles Record at Nebraska: 52-52 (4th year) Career Record: 335-272 (21st year) ABILENE CHRISTIAN WILDCATS 2015-16 Record: 3-4 Head coach: Joe Golding Record at Abilene Christian: 48-75 (5th year) Career Record: same BROADCAST INFO Television: None Online: BTN Plus (subscription) Announcers: Josh Skluzacek and Benjamin Surbine Radio: IMG Husker Sports Radio Network, including KLIN (1400 AM) in Lincoln, KXSP (590 AM) in Omaha and KRVN (880 AM) in Lexington. Play-by-play: Kent Pavelka Expert Analysis: Matt Davison Also available online at Huskers.com, on the Huskers App and TuneIn Radio

After a tough overtime loss to No. 21 Miami, the Nebraska men’s basketball team looks to rebound Saturday afternoon, as the Huskers host Abilene Christian at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Tipoff is set for 1:05 p.m. and the game will be available online on BTN Plus and on BTN2Go (subscription required). It will also air across the state on the Husker Sports Network, including KLIN 1400 AM in Lincoln, KSXP 590 AM in Omaha and KRVN 880 in Lexington and is available on Huskers.com and the Huskers App.

A limited number of returned tickets are available for Saturday’s game by visiting Huskers.com, calling the Nebraska Athletics Development and Ticketing at 800-8-BIGRED or at the Pinnacle Bank Arena box office beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.

The Huskers are 5-3 on the season following Tuesday’s 77-72 loss to No. 21 Miami in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in front of a sellout crowd of 15,646. Nebraska held a Miami team which was averaging 89 points per game to its lowest point total of the season and just 41.4 percent shooting.

In that game, Shavon Shields led NU with a season-high 28 points and five rebounds to pace three Huskers in double figures as his output was the most by any Husker this season.

Shields, who has a pair of 20-point efforts in 2015-16, leads the Huskers in scoring (15.3 ppg), rebounding (5.3 rpg) and assists (3.0 apg) and will make his 100th career appearance in Saturday’s contest. Shields enters Saturday’s game needing seven points to crack the top-15 in school history in career points.

Abilene Christian is 3-4 on the season following a 86-75 loss to New Hampshire on Thursday night. A member of the Southland Conference, the Wildcats are averaging 75.0 points per game and scored 100 in a double-overtime loss at Colorado State on Nov. 24.

Following Saturday’s game with ACU, NU travels to Creighton on Wednesday night before taking on Rhode Island on Sunday, Dec. 13.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
1 - Nebraska was the only Big Ten team to face a ranked team in both the Gavitt Tipoff Games (at No. 11 Villanova) and Big Ten/ACC Challenge (No. 21 Miami).

4 - Jake Hammond’s four blocked shots were the most by a Husker since Terran Petteway had four against Rhode Island in 2014. Hammond had just five career blocked shots in his first 18 games before Miami.

7 - 3-pointers from Benny Parker in 2015-16 after hitting a total of 14 3-pointers during his first three seasons at Nebraska. Parker is also shooting 42 percent from 3-point range this season.

10 - Number of Huskers who have reached double figures already in 2015-16. Last year, NU had only eight players reach double figures in 31 games.12.0 - Nebraska’s turnovers per game in the last four games. NU averaged 16.8 turnovers in the first four games the season.

60 - Freshmen accounted for Nebraska’s entire bench production against Miami, playing a combined 60 minutes against the Hurricanes.

SCOUTING ABILENE CHRISTIAN
Fifth-year coach Joe Golding brings Abilene Christian to Lincoln on Saturday with a 3-4 record following a 86-75 loss to New Hampshire Thursday evening. A former player and assistant at ACU, Golding spent three seasons as an assistant at Arkansas-Little Rock, helping the school make an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2011 before returning to the school as the program’s head coach.

ACU welcomes back three starters and six lettwerwinners from a team that went 10-21 in 2014-15 and finished 12th in the Southland Conference. The Wildcats are in their third season of transition to Division I and typically start four seniors and a junior. Freshman Jaylen Franklin is the team’s leading scorer at 13.7 ppg and has come off the bench for the Wildcats. Freshman Jaren Lewis leads the team in rebounding at 6.9 per game and adds 9.3 points per game while averaging less than 20 minutes per contest.

Series History: Saturday’s game is the first-ever meeting between the two schools. Nebraska is 7-2 against the current members of the Southland Conference. The Abilene Christian is one of four first-time opponents on the 2015-16 schedule.

WHITE TO RECEIVE WHITEHEAD MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP ON SATURDAY
Nebraska junior guard Andrew White III will be honored in pregame ceremonies Saturday afternoon, as the third recipient of the Bus Whitehead Memorial Basketball Scholarship.

The scholarship, which was established in 2013 by Sydney Uthoff, Lesley Jaggers and Mark Whitehead, honors the contributions of Bus Whitehead, who was a two-time, all-conference selection and led the Huskers to consecutive Big Seven Championships in 1949 and 1950.

The criteria for the award is a candidate who has demonstrated a high level of athletic achievement, moral character, effective leadership skills, integrity and a commitment to excellence in all endeavors. The Whitehead Memorial Scholarship is the first fully-endowed scholarship for the Husker basketball program.

White, who majors in sociology, has been vital in the Huskers’ early-season success, averaging 14.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.

LAST TIME OUT
Shavon Shields scored a season-high 28 points to lead three Huskers in double figures, as Nebraska pushed No. 21 Miami to overtime before falling 77-72 in front of a sellout crowd of 15,646 Tuesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Shields recorded his second 20-point game of the year and had 16 second-half points, but Nebraska was unable to get the key basket in the extra session to take down the Hurricanes

Trailing 70-68 after a pair of Andrew White III free throws with 3:39 left in overtime, Davon Reed gave Miami the lead with a 3-pointer with 2:41 left to put the visitors ahead 71-70. It was the only field goal of the night for Reed, who finished 1-of-10 from the field. After a missed jumper, Miami extended the lead to 73-70 on a Kamari Murphy dunk with 1:33 remaining before salting the game away at the free throw line.

Miami, which improved to 6-1 on the season, put five guys in double figures led by Angel Rodriguez, who finished with 15 points and Sheldon McClellan, who finished with 14.
Late in the second half, Shields twice hit shots with the Huskers down by one to give the Huskers a lead before Andrew White III recorded a steal and hit a layup with 1:06 left to give the Huskers a one-point lead. Miami retook the lead with 45.2 seconds to play on a layup by Kamari Murphy. After an Angel Rodriguez layup and steal gave Miami a three-point lead, Glynn Watson Jr. hit a 3-pointer to tie the game with 18 seconds to play. Rodriguez’s 3-point attempt was off in the final seconds to end regulation with the teams tied at 68.

White recorded 13 points and six rebounds and Watson added 11 markers off the bench.

BIG TEN/ACC CHALLENGE: KEEPING THE CUP AGAIN
The Big Ten remained in ownership of the Commissioner’s Cup with an 8-6 victory in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge this week. The Big Ten improves to 5-10-2 all-time in the challenge, but has gone 5-0-2 in the series since 2009.

• Four of the matchups went to overtime, while 12 of the 14 games were decided by nine points or less
•  Nebraska suffered its first Big Ten/ACC Challenge loss under Tim Miles, dropping to 3-1 in the span.
• Nebraska is 3-2 all-time in the event, as the Huskers join Purdue (9-6) and Minnesota (9-8) as the only Big Ten programs with a better than .500 record. Maryland is also 10-7 in the event, but 0-2 since joining the Big Ten prior to the 2014-15 season.

IMPROVED OFFENSE
With the departure of three starters who are playing professionally, including two in the NBA D-League (Terran Petteway and Walter Pitchford), the biggest question entering the season was who could fill the scoring void for the Huskers. Nebraska’s newcomers have shown the ability to provide offense in the early going, as Nebraska’s 76.1 points per game is more than four points per game higher at this stage of in 2014-15.

• Nebraska has already had 10 different players reach double figures while two of the five returnees (Hammond and Webster) have put up career highs in the first eight games.
• Nebraska has two 90-point games, the first two times in Miles’ four seasons that Nebraska has scored at least 90 points in a game.
• In KenPom, NU’s adjusted offense efficiency has climed from 285th (96.3 ppg per 100 possessions) to 144th (103.1 ppg per 100 possessions) this season.
• Three of Nebraska’s top-five scorers are in their first year of competition as a Husker, as newcomers have accounted for 54 percent of NU’s total offense in the first eight games.
• Five of NU’s newcomers have already posted double-digit efforts, including six by Andrew White III and four by Glynn Watson Jr.