Jan. 5, 2011
 
Stong second half leads to 10th win in a row.
 
Lincoln. — Nebraska will take a 10-game winning streak into Big 12 play after the Huskers posted a 68-48 win over Savannah State on Wednesday evening at the Devaney Center.

With the victory, the Huskers (12-2) have held their last four opponents under 50 points, as Iowa State headed to Lincoln this Saturday for the league opener at the Devaney Center at 7 p.m.

Sophomore Jorge Brian Diaz pulled the Huskers out of a slow offensive start scoring all 13 of his points in the second half. Leading only 23-20 at the intermission, Diaz hit 6-of-7 field goals as the Huskers ran away from the Tigers with a 45-28 advantage over the final 20 minutes. Diaz and Andre Almeida teamed up to lead another strong defensive effort as Savannah State hit only 30 percent (17-of-56) from the field. Almeida totaled a season-high five blocked shots and added eight points on 4-of-4 shooting. Junior guard Kamyron Brown scored a season-high nine points, highlighted by a perfect 6-of-6 night from the free-throw line, as the Huskers won their 10th straight game.

Nebraska nearly doubled its scoring output in the second half, coming out of the locker room with an 11-2 spurt over the first 3 and half minutes. That spurt included eight quick points from Diaz on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting in the paint.

Senior guard Drake Beranek connected on Nebraska's first 3-pointer of the game with 13:39 remaining to give the Huskers a 15-point cushion at 39-24. That Nebraska eventually stretched the lead to 20 points at 50-30 on a Eshaunte Jones 3-pointer and cruised to the win, as the Huskers hit 64 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes.

After a slow start from the tipoff, Almeida scored six points on 3-of-3 shooting and tallied a pair of blocks to spark NU to a 16-11 advantage. Savannah State came back to take an 18-16 lead on a Preston Blackmon 3-pointer with 6:26 remaining, while Jovonni Shuler had seven early points. Nebraska trailed Savannah State (2-16) 20-17, but held the Tigers without a field goal for the final 4:46 of the half, scoring the final six points of the half to take a 23-20 lead on a Brandon Ubel layup.

With the win, Nebraska has now won 10 straight games, the longest winning streak by the program since a 10-game win streak during the 1994-95 season. The Huskers also finished the non-conference season on a 24-game home winning streak.

Nebraska opens Big 12 play Saturday when it hosts Iowa State. Tipoff from the Devaney Center is set for 7 p.m. Tickets are available on Huskers.com, by calling 1-800-8-BIG-RED or at the Devaney Center Box Office.

Nebraska Head Coach Doc Sadler On the first half "In the first half I think you have to give Savannah State credit for just completely controlling both ends of the floor tempo-wise. I think their control on the offensive end contributed to our standing around on the offensive end. We didn't have any pace either way.

On the second half "I thought in the second half the pace kind of picked up a little bit and obviously (if) you make some shots that always helps also. Again, we got a chance to play against some different types of defenses. That's the first time that we've been trapped in a half court, which is good. I think Savannah State does a very, very nice job defensively. Then we understood and we talked about getting the ball inside. When you're playing against perimeter guys you have to get it inside. I thought we did a much better job of that."

On entering Big 12 play with a 12-2 non-conference record "I'm very happy with that. I think our team has some confidence going into league play. I think they also, for the most part, understand that it's fixing to change. We have to be ready for every minute of the ball game. The mistakes that we made tonight get you beat on Saturday. We have to understand that we don't have the luxury of being up double digits very many times over these next 16 ball games."

On their defense being similar to Iowa State's "I thought in the second half we did a very good job. Any time you have (Jorge Brian) Diaz and (Andre) Almeida shooting 10-of-14, you'll take that pretty much every time. Iowa State, they're basically going to be four perimeter guys. Jamie Vanderbeeken is a perimeter guy, even though he is 6-10, more defensively than offensively."

Senior point guard Lance Jeter On if they have hit some fatigue in playing non-conference games "I don't think we've hit fatigue, it's just this week was kind of hectic with the North Dakota game getting pushed back, then we had to come for this game, so we were probably a little tired, but definitely that's not an excuse. We have to be ready every game, and I think we did that in the second half. We woke up a little more. That's how it's going to be in the Big 12. It's going to be game quick, quick every time so that's something we have to get used to."

On the pace of the game in the first half "In the first half we basically let them do what they wanted to do, not putting pressure them. They were pressuring us. We didn't do a lot of our easy cuts to get easy baskets and make them pay for it. I think in the second half we kind of fixed that a little more. (Jorge Brian) Diaz started going a little more, and also Andre (Almeida) was getting easy baskets, and that's something that we knew we had because they were so small, our big men were going to do a lot of good stuff. That's definitely what we saw today."

On where he feels the team is at entering conference play "We feel good about our chances. Everything is in our hands. It starts now, the real thing. Obviously, we let two games get away from us in the Puerto Rico Tournament, but that was in the past. We had a goal to win all our homes games when we came home from that trip and we've done that so far. We have a big one against Iowa State on Saturday and we're looking forward to that. Everybody is excited about that and ready to start playing some real good competition that we know is going to be hard every game. That's something that we're looking forward to, because it's definitely going to challenge our mental and physical abilities. A lot of teams are going to be bigger and quicker."

Savannah State Head Coach Horace Broadnax On the first half "Nebraska does a lot of switching and sagging on defense. We just tried to be patient with our offense and play good defense and that's why it was 23-20 (at halftime). I guess in the second half (our) guys just wanted to give it up. We fought hard to stay one possession down in the first half. Then we opened the second half with two turnovers and an ill-advised shot. We wanted to work the shot clock and make it look ugly. We wanted the score to be in the early 40s, late 30s."

On Nebraska using their big men in the second half "They (Nebraska) should go to their strength of dropping it into the post with their three big guys down there. I think we played as hard as we possibly could and managed the ball on the outside (in the first half), but we got away from that. The first three possessions of the second half we shot it too quickly and turned it over too quickly. That's a minute and a half that we could have made them chase us on the defensive end. They're bigger than us on the defensive end, (we should) make those big bodies run side-to-side before getting down on the offensive end. Our guys just lost focus and felt they were playing good basketball and chose to do what they wanted to do."

Nebraska Postgame Notes

*-With the win, Nebraska has now won 10 straight games, the longest winning streak by the program since a 10-game win streak during the 1994-95 season. It is the 10th double-digit win streak in program history and fifth since 1920.

*-Nebraska has won 24 straight non-conference home games and is 48-1 at home in non-conference games under Doc Sadler.

*-Nebraska improves to 12-2 entering conference play, its best record after 14 games since 1993-94, when NU was also 12-2. The last time NU had a better record after 14 games was in 1990-91, when NU opened the season with a 16-1 record, including a school-record 14 game win streak.

*-Nebraska has shot 50 percent from the floor in the last five games, the first time that has happened since a six-game stretch during the 2000-01 season.

*-Nebraska held SSU without a field goal for 7:27 spanning the end of the first half and start of the second half, using a 12-0 run to turn a 20-17 deficit into a 29-20 lead.

*-Nebraska has now held its last four opponents under 50 points and nine straight foes under 20 points.

*-Jorge Brian Diaz reached double figures for the sixth straight game, scoring all 13 of his points in the second half. Diaz hit 6-of-10 shots from the floor, the 13th time in 14 games he has eclipsed 50 percent from the field.

*-Andre Almeida had a career-high five blocked shots while hitting all four shots from the floor. He is averaging 9.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.0 blocks over the last three games.

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.