Minneapolis – A red-hot Minnesota team made a season-high 18 shots from 3-point range and shot 56.9 percent from the field overall, and the Gophers defeated Nebraska 107-75 on Sunday in the final game of the regular season for both teams.
Nebraska (7-24, 2-18 Big Ten Conference) finished winless in conference road games and will be the No. 14 seed in the Big Ten Conference Tournament, where the Huskers will face Indiana on Wednesday night in Indianapolis.
Senior guard Haanif Cheatham scored 17 points and junior guard Jervay Green added 15 to pace Nebraska, which played with only seven scholarship players, as guards Cam Mack and Dachon Burke Jr. are indefinitely suspended for violation of team rules.
Nebraska shot 37.8 percent from the field and a season-high 82.4 percent on free throws. Since going 8-of-30 on free throws in a loss to Northwestern a week ago, the Huskers have shot 26-of-32 over their last two games.
Gabe Kalscheur tied his career high with 26 points to lead Minnesota (14-16, 8-12) and finished with a career high 8 made 3-pointers, on 11 attempts. As a team, the Gophers were 18-of-35 on 3-pointers, or 51.4 percent, and surpassed their previous season high of 14 made 3-pointers, against Northwestern.
Nebraska jumped to a 6-0 lead and made five of its first eight field goal attempts but trailed 13-10 at the first media timeout. From there, Minnesota caught fire on offense, shooting 63 percent from the field in the first half, including 7-of-13 on 3-pointers.
Nebraska tried to keep pace, and the Huskers trailed by only seven points with 4:42 remaining before halftime. But the Gophers exploded with a 14-2 run in over the next 3:20 to open a 19-point lead, their biggest of the first half.
Cheatham had 11 points in the first half to pace the Huskers, who shot 38 percent from the field and trailed 53-27 at halftime. The Gophers quickly scored the first six points of the second half and finished with the most points scored this season against Nebraska, which also suffered its most lopsided loss of the season.
Nebraska Post-Game Notes
- Nebraska, which had only seven available players on Sunday, used its eighth different starting lineup of the season against Minnesota.
- Four Huskers scored in double figures marking the ninth time in 20 Big Ten games that Nebraska had at least four double-figure scorers.
- Nebraska was 14-of-17 from the free-throw line, setting a season high in free throw percentage (82.4 percent) for the second straight game. The Huskers have hit 26-of-32 (81 percent) from the charity stripe the past two games.
- Haanif Cheatham led Nebraska with 17 points, the 13th time this season he has led the Huskers in scoring. Cheatham has been in double figures 23 times this season, including seven of the last eight contests.
- Thorir Thorbjarnarson scored 14 points and made one 3-pointer, moving him into a tie for 10th place on Nebraska's junior 3-point chart.
- Jervay Green added 15 points, his second-highest point total in a Big Ten game this season.
- Kevin Cross had 10 points, reaching double figures for the eighth time this season and for the first time since Jan. 28.
- Akol Arop scored a career-high five points and made the first 3-pointer of his Husker career.
- Charlie Easley grabbed a career-high six rebounds.
- Minnesota scored 107 points, becoming the first Husker opponent to score 100 points since TCU defeated Nebraska 101-89 in the second round of the NIT Tournament on March 15, 1999.
- Minnesota hit 18 3-pointers to tie the Nebraska opponent record, while the Gophers' Gabe Kalscheur made eight 3-pointers to tie the Nebraska opponent record for 3-pointers.