LINCOLN, Neb.—Quincy Hankins-Cole said he was just taking what Jackson State was giving him when he scored 11 points in a 24-7 run that gave Nebraska a 57-41 win over the Tigers Saturday.
“There happened to be a mismatch on the court at that time,” Hankins-Cole said. “Jorge (Brian Diaz) told me to take advantage of it.”
Nebraska (8-2) trailed just once at 3-0 and led by 15 at half. Jackson State (0-8) cut the Cornhuskers lead to 27-20 on Tyrone Hanson’s layup with 13:55 left, capping a 11-3 half-opening run for the Tigers.
Nebraska countered with their game-clinching spurt. Hankins-Cole’s layup and free throw with 10:59 left put Nebraska back up by 14. He hit three straight layups to push the Husker lead to 48-27 with 8:13 remaining.
Sek Henry’s free throw capped the run at 51-27 with 6:01 left.
Jackson State made their first shot of the game, then missed 15 straight.
The Tigers finished the first half with 9 points, shooting 3 of 23 (13 percent) from the field and 2 of 8 from the free-throw line. The 9 points was the second-lowest total for a half for any team since the Bob Devaney Sports Center opened in the 1976-77 season. Nebraska held North Carolina Central to eight points in a half in 2007.
“I don’t want to make excuses, but I think it was our offense more than anything,” said Jackson State coach Tevester Anderson. “They play good defense and we told our team during the scouting report (Nebraska) would be really aggressive. We were a little apprehensive about that.”
Nebraska coach Doc Sadler agreed with Anderson.
“I’m not so sure we had that much to do with them scoring nine points in the first half,” Sadler said. “It was a lot of missed opportunities for them.”
Sadler found little positive to take away from Saturday’s game.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, wow,” he said. “Offensively, there’s not a lot of execution going on now. I told the team that you were probably going to win the Jackson State game, but we’re not playing just Jackson State. We’re trying to get ready for Jan. 9 (Big 12 conference play.) I don’t know if we took a step forward tonight in any area except we got the win.”
