LINCOLN, Neb.—Toney McCray couldn’t have asked for much more out of his Nebraska debut.
The redshirt freshman came off the bench to score 17 points and grab nine rebounds and Nebraska used a 17-point flurry over two minutes in the second half to put away San Jose State in a 63-46 victory Sunday.
“My teammates were giving me the ball and putting me in good situations,” McCray said. “It gives me freedom to do a lot of things, and as a whole we did a lot of good things offensively.”
The Cornhuskers (1-0) also did things that weren’t so good, like missing 14 of their first 16 shots after halftime.
That cold spell allowed the Spartans (1-1) to pull within 43-38 with 6:29 left. Paul Velander hit a 3-pointer to start the Huskers’ late scoring barrage that put them up 60-38 with 4:19 left.
“It was really frustrating,” San Jose State coach George Nessman said. “We talk a lot about never making double errors, and we made a bunch in that stretch. We didn’t have the game in our hands, but we had the opportunity and Nebraska quickly snatched that opportunity from us. We helped them by not playing very smart with the basketball.”
Ryan Anderson and Velander had nine points apiece.
Nebraska made 16 steals, four apiece by Brandon Richardson and Sek Henry and three by Cookie Miller. San Jose State committed 25 turnovers.
“You just can’t turn it over that many times, and that’s credit to Nebraska,” Nessman said. “They handled it very well, and we have to get to the practice floor and work at protecting the ball and making more solid and sound decisions. They sped us up.”
Chris Oakes had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Tim Pierce 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Spartans, who beat South Dakota State 70-62 in their opener Friday.
The win marked Nebraska’s 26th consecutive home non-conference victory. The Huskers haven’t lost an opener at home since 1980.
The Huskers hit just 36 percent from the field, but some streaky shooting and strong defense allowed Nebraska to string together two big runs before the one that finished off the Spartans.
The Huskers had spurts of 12-2 and 12-0 to build an 18-point halftime lead.
Nebraska scored 31 points off turnovers, and its bench outscored San Jose State reserves 41-16.
Huskers coach Doc Sadler said the game might be indicative of the way his undersized team plays this season.
“Unfortunately, because we don’t have the legit low post presence we’ve had in the past,” Sadler said. “Defensively, it’ll be the way we played today, and offensively we’ll play in spurts.”
Sadler became the first Husker coach to win the season opener in each of his first three seasons since E.O. “Jumbo” Stiehm won his first three season openers from 1911-13.
