Lincoln – The Nebraska basketball team erased a 16-point deficit, but could not complete the comeback, as the Huskers lost a hard-fought battle to Indiana, 70-65, in the Big Ten Conference opener for both teams on New Year’s Eve inside Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Nebraska (8-5 overall, 0-1 Big Ten) scored seven of the game’s first nine points, only to see Indiana (11-3, 1-0) respond with a 17-3 run. The Hoosiers led 36-20 with five minutes remaining in the first half before the Huskers made their move.

NU closed the first half on a 12-4 run and trailed 40-32 at the break after Terran Petteway nailed a late 3-pointer to cut the lead to single digits. The Huskers then opened the second half on a 14-2 run, capped by a Walter Pitchford 3-pointer that gave Nebraska a 46-42 lead with 15:28 remaining.

In turning a 16-point deficit into a four-point lead, Nebraska outscored Indiana 26-6 over a nine-minute stretch to end the first half and begin the second period. Despite the momentum, the Huskers’ lead would be short lived.

Indiana regained the lead at 49-48 and with the score tied 49-49, the Hoosiers used a 12-3 run to go on top 61-52 after a Johnson 3-pointer with 7:37 remaining. Indiana stretched its lead to 13 on a layup by Hanner Mosquera-Perea with 4:19 on the clock.

That would prove to be the Hoosiers’ final basket, as Nebraska held Indiana to only three free throws the rest of the way. The Huskers got as close as 67-64 following a pair of David Rivers free throws with 1:05 remaining, but a pair of potential defensive rebounds were lost out of bounds down the stretch, ending Nebraska’s comeback hopes.

Petteway had a game-high 23 points for Nebraska, while Shavon Shield added 20 points. The duo each notched 20 points in the same game for the sixth time in their careers and for just the second time in a conference game. Pitchford added 11 points, hitting 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Robert Johnson led three Hoosiers in double figures with 14 points, while Mosquera-Perea tied his career high with 12 points and posted a double-double by adding 10 rebounds.

Nebraska will look to even its Big Ten record on Monday, when the Huskers travel to Iowa City to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

Postgame Notes
*-Nebraska falls to 0-4 in Big Ten Conference openers and sees its eight-game Big Ten win streak snapped.
*-Today marked only the third time in 13 games NU had been outshot by an opponent, and the Huskers are 0-3 in those games.
*-Nebraska held Indiana to a season-low 70 points this afternoon. IU was fourth nationally in scoring at 86.4 points per game.
*-Indiana became the first opponent since Incarnate Word to shoot over 40 percent against the Huskers. NU had held its last four foes to 34 percent shooting.
*-It marks the first time in three tries that Indiana has defeated Nebraska in Lincoln since the Huskers’ joined the Big Ten.
*-Terran Petteway reached double figures for the 24^th straight game, which is the longest streak by a Husker since Venson Hamilton also had 24 straight games in double figures in 1998-99.
*-Petteway had his seventh 20-point game of the year and 19^th of his career with a game-high 23 points.
*-Shavon Shields had 20 points, his fifth 20-point effort of the season and 10th of his career.
*-It marked the fourth time this season that Nebraska has had a pair of 20-point scorers.
*-Nebraska committed a season-low eight turnovers. The previous low was 10 in the season opener against Northern Kentucky.
*-Walter Pitchford’s three assists is a career high, topping his previous best of two on three previous occasions. Pitchford also reached double figures for the fourth time in the last six game with 11 points and five rebounds.

Nebraska Coach Tim Miles
On winning games in the first half
“I think we played at their pace too much (in the first half). Anytime you’re going to miss against Indiana right at the rim, they are going to make you pay. They really got us in transition. They really hurt us and were able to build the lead. I told the players at halftime, ‘wishing and hoping isn’t going to get you a ‘W’, you have to go out and earn it. We have to play our game.’ I thought Coach Crean did a great job of changing defenses. We saw the same defense last year, and we attacked it. We planned for it, we practiced against it and looked good in practice. That’s why you never trust practice.”

On start of the 2nd half
“I thought we were playing good basketball. We weren’t allowing them transition. We were guarding the ball better. We were locked in more defensively. The way you beat Indiana is you have to guard the ball. That gives them less threes and less chance for an offensive rebound.”

On emotions
“I thought our guys were pretty good…the second half. In the first half, we were just too uptight. I feel like we gave them a good run. It’s hard not to feel like you beat yourself.”

On practice
“I thought we made shots in practice. I thought we attacked it right. I thought we got our other guys more free. I decided to insert Nick (Fuller) and see if we could get him going a little bit. I don’t know how many minutes we went without scoring, but it was too many.”

On why they succeeded on the glass
“I think they got one third of their misses. We missed thirty-six shots. That tells me we didn’t guard the ball. I think it was their ability to have their guards get on the rim. That really hurt us.”

On possible fatigue from trip
“I thought early, but we played through it. Maybe the first 8 or 10 minutes we looked sluggish but it’s the price of doing business. We’ll be ready for Iowa.”

Nebraska Guard Terran Pettaway
On the defensive game
“In the first half, we tried to play at their pace and that is why they got their lead on us. In the second half, we looked liked us, but we have to put together a full game.”

On feeling fatigued from all the traveling
“No.”

On the difference between the first half and second half
“We slowed the pace down, and we really just made them play defense really. We stopped their transitions. The first half we were taking quick shots and that was giving them a chance to get out and run, but we slowed it down in the second half and made them grind on defense. We played tough defense too, we just couldn’t pull it out in the end.”

On Indiana’s adjustments after the second-half comeback 
“They kept changing their defense on us, but we just could not make any shots. We really weren’t. They kept changing that wasn’t really the reason. We just were not hitting shots.”

On Walter Pitchford’s two early fouls and if that affected Nebraska’s defense
“It is all of us it is a team thing. We didn’t do well as a team in the paint.”

On the feeling after three home losses:
“No. There is no bad mo-jo, we just have to come out and play basketball. There is no mo-jo in basketball.”

Nebraska Guard/Forward Shavon Shields
On the Huskers’ not playing at the pace they wanted 
“We didn’t finish possessions. Once we finish possessions, we got transition after transition and we stopped getting stops and getting rebounds and that kind of killed our transition and killed our flow. Like Terran said we just need to put a full game together and just get stop after stop. Like what our identity is and just kind of play thought it.”

On struggling at the rim tonight 
“You just have to stay with it. That is one thing you can control. It is not like you are trying to miss it, you are doing what you can and some nights they just are not falling. That is kind of how it was tonight.”

Indiana Head Coach Tom Crean

Opening Statement 
“We are excited to come in here and get a win–it is a very tough place to play, a great environment, very good team. Our key is to just keep getting better in every way we can. We made strides in the last couple of weeks, but more importantly than that, it is very important to make strides from game to game. We closed the game well. Obviously they made a comeback there at the end and we were still able to withstand that. One of the keys to the game was it started out 21-4 in the second half, and I think we closed with a 25-10 run. That is a great sign of maturity for us. I may be a little off with those numbers. You can’t guard them one way, they have a lot of versatility. They have a lot of guys that can make plays and so do we. We are very excited about the win. It is one win and we want to build on it and get better for our next one.”

On struggling to close games and what was different today
“It is very encouraging. Again the key is to keep improving with it and it takes a while for that maturity process to really kick in. Especially when they are away from your bench. It is usually not the offensive end, where you have trouble closing, it is the defense where they can’t rely on their teammates on the bench or their coaches. They have to rely on each other. That is a huge-huge thing when you are on the road, and that is a sign of growth when you can do that. I thought we did, I thought we switched defenses effectively. If you do that you have to communicate and be in the proper place. We had a lot of good basketball, especially in the first half. We want to get a team, that no matter who is out there, they can execute offensively and more importantly they can communicate and cover for one and another and do their job defensively.”

On going inside
“At times, we don’t have that big of team ourselves. It is very important that we score points in the paint, and when we do play through the paint we are effective.”

On NU’s run in first half going into the second, what is that a product of
“I got to go watch the film. I am just going to focus on the win now. I think we covered it, and were able to come back. I think some of it was (Mosquera-Perea) was not in the game. I think we took Troy out, and they are good. Make sure you put that in there, they are good. They have good offensive players that can score. They have a veteran group that is certainly well-coached. you know they are going to make runs.”