LINCOLN, Neb.—Ryan Anderson showed his battle scars after Nebraska’s 50-44 win over Oregon State Saturday night, a bright red scratch above and below his left eye.
“I needed some Vaseline and a cut man, it was like boxing out there,” said Anderson. “That’s what happens when you’re down there in the paint. That’s where the bleeding goes down.”
At 6-foot-4, Anderson was giving up at least four inches to each of Oregon State’s forwards and centers. But he pulled down a career-high 14 rebounds and had 16 points to lead the Huskers to a hard-fought win.
“He was unbelievable,” said Nebraska coach Doc Sadler. “Ryan is, consistently, going to be a guy who’s going to bring it as much as anybody.
“Ryan was just a little quicker than everybody else tonight to the ball, to the rebounds. That’s what happens when you chase everything.”
Nebraska (7-2) hit its last field goal of the game with 6:53 remaining and scored its final five points from the free-throw line, including two each from Lance Jeter and Anderson in the final minute to seal the win.
Oregon State (4-4) struggled offensively as well, getting just four points in the final four minutes on a free throw by Calvin Haynes with 52 seconds left and a three-point play from Seth Tarver with 21 seconds left that made the score 48-44.
“I knew it was going to be difficult to score,” Sadler said. “I knew we were going to struggle. I didn’t know we’d go 0-for-11 (to start) on 3-pointers.
“You’re obviously going to have to score more points than 50. But I don’t know we’ll face another zone defense any better. Overall, I was very pleased.”
Nebraska finished 3-for-19 from 3-point range, while Oregon State was 2-for-11.
Oregon State coach Craig Robinson said his team made too many errors to win on the road.
“I can’t tell the team how hard it is to win these kinds of games on the road,” he said. “You can’t make the kind of mistakes we made and expect to win the game. You can’t have 16 turnovers, you can’t give up 10 offensive rebounds and you can’t shoot 50 percent from the foul line. If you take any one of those three things out, it could be a different outcome. We played like a team that was immature.”
Nebraska led 24-19 at halftime, but the Huskers could not pull away from the Beavers, who got 12 second-half points from Roeland Schaftenaar. He finished with 16.
The Huskers opened up the only double-digit lead of the contest following a Ray Gallegos 3-pointer with 6:50 remaining and Sek Henry’s free throw with 6:21 left, making it 46-36 Nebraska.
The Beavers got back-to-back baskets from Schaftenaar and Seth Tarver to cut Nebraska’s lead to 46-40 with 4:04 remaining.
Both teams hit 36 percent of their shots from the field and each had 34 rebounds, with Anderson pulling down more than a third of Nebraska’s.
“I kind of had that feeling like it was practice—go up and get everything,” Anderson said. “I was just trying to help my team. I tried to keep (Daniel) Deane off the boards and not give them any second-chance opportunities.”
