UT falls to Nebraska 82-71 in NYC
NEW YORK — Wait until Tai Webster feels well.
The junior guard from New Zealand played both games of the Barclays Center Classic feeling under the weather with stomach issues. Still, he was able to score 39 points in the two games, including 18 on Saturday in the tournament’s third-place game, an 82-71 Nebraska victory over Tennessee.
“It’s definitely on its way out but not quite 100 percent,” Webster said of his upset stomach.
Nebraska coach Tim Miles was really impressed by Webster’s effort against the Volunteers.
“He was really strong to the rim. I think the last two days was as strong as I’ve seen him play at the rim,” Miles said. “He’s using an inside game instead of an outside game and then obviously he’s been an excellent defender for us, too. That’s a staple of our program.”
The Cornhuskers (5-2) used a 21-5 run spanning halftime to take command and their biggest lead was 60-38 with 12:29 to play. Nebraska used some stifling defense and control of the boards to take control, holding the Volunteers to 2-for-16 shooting during the big run.
Tennessee (4-3) was able to get to 70-60 with 7:19 to go but couldn’t cut the lead to single digits until the final minute.
Andrew White III scored all of his 15 points in the second half for Nebraska.
Shavon Shields and Jake Hammond both had 11 points for Nebraska, whose only losses this season have been to ranked teams: then-No. 11 Villanova and No. 24 Cincinnati in the opening round of this tournament.
Kevin Punter led the Volunteers with 23 while Robert Hubbs III had 13 and Admiral Schofield added 12.
Hammond had 10 rebounds to lead Nebraska, which dominated the rebounding 46-30. Tennessee was outrebounded 47-30 in its opening-round loss to George Washington,
“I think we got outplayed and outworked and the rebounding edge, when you look at that, that really kind of speaks to what happened in the game, 46-30 with 14 offensive rebounds,” Tennessee assistant coach Rob Lanier said. “A lot of that was a byproduct of how often we were getting beat off the dribble during the course of the game.
“Defensively we’re just not very good right now,” he said. “We got a long way to go. We’re a team with a lot of growth ahead of us.”
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes has been fighting a bad cold and he didn’t address the media after the game.
There were five ties and five lead changes in the opening 14:30 before Nebraska’s defense turned the Volunteers’ shooting cold and the Cornhuskers took a 40-32 halftime lead. Nebraska opened the second half with a 7-0 run.