Nebraska vs. Penn State: Postgame Notes and Quotes

Nebraska Postgame Notes
*- The victory matches a school record, as the Huskers have now won 20 straight at home. The win matches a 20-game home win streak set between 1965 and 1967.

*- Tonight was the 18th meeting between Nebraska and Penn State and the series is now tied at 9-9. The home team has won the last nine contests in the series. Nebraska improves to 8-1 against PSU in Lincoln.

*- Isaiah Roby finished with a career-high 22 points and set or tied season highs in both rebounds (11) and blocked shots (four). He topped his previous best of 20 against Cal State Fullerton on Dec. 22. Roby also collected his first double-double of the season and fifth of his career.

*- With four blocked shots tonight, Roby moved from 10th to eighth on NU’s career blocked shot list with 113. He is tied with Wes Wilkinson for eighth place.

*- Glynn Watson Jr. scored 19 points – one off his season high - and is now tied for 16th on NU's career scoring list with 1,255 points. He is tied with Chuck Jura on the list.

*- James Palmer Jr. scored 11 points and was in double figures for the 12th consecutive game this season. He has scored 10+ points in 15 of Nebraska's 16 seasons this year and 46 of 49 games at Nebraska.
*- Nebraska's defense held Penn State to 36.2 percent from the floor. The Huskers have held 15 of their 16 opponents under 50 percent shooting this season. 

*- The Huskers had only eight turnovers and has now committed 10 or fewer turnovers in nine of the last 11 contests dating back to Nov. 24.
*-Amir Harris made his first appearance since Dec. 5, as he has missed NU’s last six games with mono

*- Josh Reaves (PSU) scored 20 points, a new season high. He also made four triples, tying his career-high from beyond the arc.

Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles
Opening Statement
“I just want to start with Isaiah (Roby). You can see why he’s such a special kid and a special player. He was the one the guy that I thought had great energy, great body language and was aggressive the whole night through and you can see from his line, 22 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks, one assist and no turnovers. You know whatever the last five or six minutes we switch him onto (Lamar) Stevens, and I’m not sure of Stevens got another hoop, maybe one. Isaiah got a steal in that time and just made some really big plays for us on offense and defense.”

On how tough it is to win when you get out rebounded
“(Assistant Coach) Jim Molinari said something to us, just today, he goes ‘you know the hardest thing when you have a good team but you’ve lost a couple in a row, the hardest thing to do is win a game’, and it’s true. I just thought we were a little up tight, and you can see that. So, I think that’s what was hard, was just to win the game and you try to just stay in the moment but you see frustration from the guys. Isaiah just brought it up and it was quality win. With Pat (Chambers) back, Penn State was going to play very hard after a game where he wasn’t with them. They’ve got a lot of pride and you knew they weren’t going to go down easily and then when they started making threes, you’re up against it.”

On when he decided to not substitute anyone in the second half
“Nana Akenten had been sick the last few days so he missed all the prep, and Amir (Harris) is just starting to practice again full. So I played them (in the first half). I decided at halftime well I don’t love it so I thought I’d play Tanner (Borchardt), but every time I brought it up those assistants talked me out of it. That’s true.”

On the 20 home-game win streak
“I think the 20-game home win streak at home is awesome. We don’t talk about it at all really except that we’re not letting this team beat us at home. I think it’s an attribute to our fans and the environment that they provide, the energy, the game management everybody like that and certainly our players. I think they (the players) do a really good job. Our defensive numbers have been really, really good at home I mean far better than anywhere else. I think they feed off that energy from the crowd. It might hurt us a little bit on the road when you don’t have the same but that’s something we just have to figure out.”

Nebraska Players  

Nebraska Guard Glynn Watson Jr.
On the spark that Isaiah Roby gave the team near the end of the game
“He gave us a big spark. He was active on defense and that helped our offense. He was just playing both sides, and he was big for us tonight.”

On how big this win was for the team
“It felt good. We needed to get back on track. Coach Miles said they were going to come out aggressive just because what happened to their coach (Coach Chambers missed the last game because of a suspension) playing for him and things like that. We just had to fight through. There are going to be big games every night in the Big Ten, so we just had to fight through and finish it off.”

Junior Forward Isaiah Roby
On if he felt he was going to have a big scoring game after his first three pointer
“I felt like that the past couple of games to be honest. I felt pretty aggressive and pretty confident. That first three definitely helped. Making your first shot is always a good sign, so that definitely helped.”

On what he saw in his teammates to come out and win a game like this after two straight losses
“These last couple of days have been tough. We lost two in a row and it’s been real rough because you can see that everyone has been frustrated. We want to win and the coaches want to win, and we put in a lot of time.”

Penn State Head Coach Patrick Chambers
Opening Statement
“I thought my team really competed. They played hard, and that is what I wanted to see after Sunday night. That was not Penn State basketball last Sunday. We worked really hard in practice and that showed tonight. I was really proud of the way we competed…guys were dialed in. I thought we got better, even in the loss we got better tonight. We played a lot of young guys and they’re trying, they’re trying. Josh Reaves had obviously his best game of the year. I thought (Isaiah) Roby and Isaac (Copeland Jr.) did a great job on (Lamar) Stevens. Obviously, Roby had 22 points, he had only made five threes on the year, and he made two tonight to open up the floodgates a little bit. Giving up nine threes was not in our game plan, but give Tim (Miles) and his team credit. They lost two in a row and they came out and did what they needed to do at the end of the game to secure the win.”

On the success on the glass
“We were working hard on rebounding the last couple days. We weren’t too pleased with Wisconsin. It was nice to see us go rebound, but we have to turn those 21 rebounds into more points. We only had 17 and it should be at least in the 20’s. When we turn people over, it should be much more than the turnovers are. If you have 21 rebounds, you should have at least 21, maybe 22 (points).

On getting the 50-50 balls
“It’s no secret we haven’t been shooting the ball the best in Big Ten play. We have to go to the glass until everybody can see the ball go in the basket a little bit. It was extra effort, not that Nebraska wasn’t trying to box out, I thought they were. It was a hard-fought game. Truthfully, I look forward to watching the film. We have to keep having these experiences together… the more experiences we have, the better we’re going to be.”

On guarding James Palmer Jr.
“I actually thought Josh Reaves did a nice job on him. We tried to stay home and didn’t want to switch too much on them. He’s one of their leading scorers, so I thought Reaves did a good job, but Palmer’s playing at a very high level this entire season.”