Huskers Tip Exhibition Play with Huge Crowd at PBA

Lincoln - True freshman Jacob Lanier had a game-high 15 points, but Saint Louis shot 50 percent in the second half to rally for a 79-74 win in front of more than 14,000 in Nebraska men's basketball's exhibition opener at Pinnacle Bank Arena Friday night.

Lanier, a 6-foot-6 guard from Little Rock, Ark., totaled 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting, highlighted by a 3-pointer to beat the first-half buzzer to give Nebraska a 39-37 halftime lead.  

The Huskers eventually built a 44-39 after a Cale Jacobsen basket with 18:32 left, but the Billikens would rally, scoring eight straight points, including six from Amari McCottry, to take a 47-44 lead with just under 16 minutes remaining.

SLU would never trail the rest of the night, as both teams went deep into their benches during the second half.  McCottry and Kellen Thames had 11 points apiece for SLU, which shot 44 percent from the field, including 12-of-35 from 3-point range.

Jacobsen joined Lanier in double figures with 10 points and seven rebounds in a team-high 25 minutes, as NU played 13 players, including 11 players at least 10 minutes apiece.  Leo Curtis added nine points on 4-of-4 shooting and six rebounds for Nebraska, which shot 39 percent on the night.

The Huskers continue exhibition play next Friday, as they travel to BYU. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. (CT) and the game will be carried on ESPN+ and broadcast on the Huskers Radio Network.

Head Coach Fred Hoiberg
On what they could take from tonight’s game
“It's what we talked about before the game. Whatever the result was, we were going to learn from it just like we did the BYU game a year ago, and obviously it was different last year where we played our guys all the way through, that was our one really true test heading into the opener. So, we felt that was important tonight. It was all about putting different lineups out there and you know getting our young guys an opportunity. I thought they did some good things and obviously some things that we're going to teach and grow from. The disappointing thing to me was I thought they out-toughed us, and you know we'll clean up all the other stuff. We can't simulate the pressure that we saw in this game tonight. You know we'll continue to work on that and get a pressure package out there. You know that's still part of what we're working on. But you know they got 53% of their rebounds back in the first half, and that's just way too many. We still had a lead in the second half. I thought we got off to a solid start, and then we started turning it over, and they got loose in transition. That was the plan tonight. We were going to play our starters, semi-normal minutes in the first half, playing the first media in the second, and then get the young guys out there. So there's some good things that happen. I liked our start, liked how we came out of the gate. I think we did get 15 offensive rebounds ourselves, but you know, alot of things to work on, and we knew that would happen tonight. 

On facing pressure, and what they could take from it
It's great. It was perfect. This was the perfect game for us because we're going to see a lot of that, and we'll see it from pretty much the first game of the season, and it's going to go all the way through. When we talk about St. Louis, they were 173rd in offensive rebound last year, and they got 53. What's Michigan State going to do? What's Illinois going to do? So, Purdue, all the teams in our league, Providence. It's a great opportunity for us to learn. We talk till we're blue in the face about the importance of going out and hitting and sustaining your blackout and finishing off. The other thing we had rebounds, and they just came in and took them away from us. You got to chin it. You got to get it. You know, Connor dribbled a rebound on the offensive glass, and they and they took it from him. We'll have a great film session and it's an important week for us to get better. 

Cale Jacobsen
On backcourt pressure now and in Big Ten play
“Yeah, I think we're going to see it all year, so it was good to see it now when a game doesn't count, and we'll have to learn and then adjust and find ways to still get into our offense and into our flow stuff, even when we're pressured. It's good for us to see it right now, but we're going to have to learn and grow because BYU is going to do the same thing, and then as we get closer into the year, it's not going to go away.”

On getting tougher
“It starts in practice every single day, like it's just a competition thing. We're going to have to continue to work, to show up and just be ready to go. Yeah, I think that's where you get better. You get tougher. It's just in the hard moments in practice where you're struggling with your teammates. You have to find a way to get through that every single day.”

On rallying through adversity
“I think we stayed together. There was no pulling apart or separating within the group. It's a mature team, but we just need to find a way to be tougher in those moments. And it's cool to be nice and stay together, but we have to have a little edge sometimes and have a little fire behind us and go be the tougher group.”