LINCOLN, Neb.—Even a bad performance by Kansas was good enough to beat struggling Nebraska.
The Jayhawks committed a season-high number of turnovers and saw their big man neutralized most of the game, yet they still managed to leave the Devaney Sports Center with a 68-62 victory Wednesday night.
“They know I’m not real pleased with them right now,” KU coach Bill Self said. “I’m happy we won, but we’ve got to play better. It was a great game to win. Sometimes you just have to find some way to win. I thought Nebraska played very well and made us look bad the majority of the game. It will be a hard win for anybody who comes in here.”
Sherron Collins scored 17 points, including four free throws in the last minute, and the Jayhawks rallied from a 13-point first-half deficit.
Kansas (16-4, 5-0) overcame 21 turnovers and a Nebraska defense that shut down the 6-foot-11 Cole Aldrich to win its fifth straight and remain one of two unbeaten teams in Big 12 play. The defending national champion Jayhawks are a half-game behind league-leading Oklahoma.
Kansas didn’t take its first lead until midway through the second half, and when it looked like the Jayhawks would pull away, Nebraska kept coming. Sek Henry hit back-to-back 3s to get the Huskers within 63-62 with just over a minute left.
But Collins hit four free throws in the final 29 seconds to seal KU’s 12th straight win over the Huskers.
Brady Morningstar added 11 points for the Jayhawks. Steve Harley added 11 for the Huskers and Henry had 10.
“This is one of the ugliest games we’ve played all year,” Collins said. “It just came down to making plays at the end. We just made enough plays to win.”
Nebraska (12-7, 2-4), which got 24 points from Ade Dagunduro, lost for the fourth time in five games.
The loss was another disappointment for the Huskers, who lost 76-74 in overtime to Oklahoma State at home on Saturday. That followed a 72-61 loss at then-No. 5 Oklahoma last week in a game in which the Huskers had led well into the second half.
“Any loss with this team is going to hurt bad because they give you everything,” Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said. “It has not been a situation that when we’ve been beat we didn’t give maximum effort. At some point this team has to be rewarded for that.”
Aldrich, who came in with a team-leading 11 double-doubles, was held scoreless and had no rebounds in the first half. He also committed three of Kansas’ 13 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
His first basket came on a baseline hook shot in the first minute of the second half, and he finished with a season-low eight points.
Aldrich had eight rebounds as the Jayhawks outrebounded the undersized Huskers 26-9 in the second half and 38-22 for the game.
“It was real rough,” said Aldrich, dabbing a bloody nose after the game. “They come from all angles. They’re flying around and they made it really uncomfortgable for me. They were going for us hard right at the beginning. We had 21 turnovers and under 10 assists but we got the win. That’s one thing we can come out of this with. We can grind it out.”
Nothing went right for the Jayhawks to start. KU’s first two possessions ended with steals by Harley and Dagunduro, and the Huskers were up 6-0 when Self angrily called timeout less than 2 minutes after tipoff.
The Huskers’ lead grew to double figures when Dagunduro forced home Henry’s alley-oop pass, and a Henry layup with 8:29 left in the half gave Nebraska its biggest lead, 26-13.
“We thought we could attack them inside, but Cole was not a factor,” Self said. “He had a bad game. He’d be the first tell you that. But our guards don’t do a good job feeding the post.”
Nebraska went into halftime ahead 34-29, but the Huskers missed 12 of their first 13 shots in the second half, allowing Kansas to work its way back into the game. The Jayhawks took their first lead with 10:43 left on a Collins jumper that made it 42-41.
Back-to-back 3s by Tyrel Reed and a couple Aldrich free throws stretched KU’s lead to 57-50, but the Huskers wouldn’t quit. Henry’s 3-pointer from the right corner pulled Nebraska within a point with 1:06 to play.
But Collins, fouled by Ryan Anderson along the baseline, made two free throws to make it a three-point game. And Collins made two more after stealing Henry’s inbounds pass and getting fouled with 16 seconds to play.
“I don’t know how many teams have had this many close games and still not come out with a win,” Dagunduro said. “I can’t speak for the team, but me personally, I’m tired of us giving 100-percent effort and not coming out with the win. The win is what matters.”
