• Box Score: Nebraska 79, Iowa 73

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IOWA CITY — In practice, Nebraska men’s basketball coach Doc Sadler practically begs Brandon Richardson to shoot more.

“It’s something Coach has told me since Day One, and I’m talking about five years ago when I first stepped on campus,” the senior from Los Angeles said. “But that’s just the type of player I am. I’ll take an assist over a jump shot any day.”

Richardson finally went against form Thursday night, and Iowa paid the price.

The 6-foot guard, averaging 6.5 points a game, scored a career-high 25 to lead the Huskers to a 79-73 win — just the second victory in a road conference game in their past 20 tries.

Richardson entered the game shooting 38.3 percent overall. He made 9 of 10 field goals. On 3-pointers, he had been at 30 percent. He made 6 of 7.

What changed?

“My teammates made it easy for me to catch and shoot,” said Richardson, whose previous career high was 20 points two years ago against Texas Tech. “And I was confident when I let the ball go.”

Richardson wasn’t alone. Nebraska (11-9, 3-6) shot 50 percent or better in both halves, finishing at 51.9 percent (27 of 52).

Guard Bo Spencer scored 16 points, and four others added at least seven. The 79 points marked just the fourth time in Sadler’s six years that NU hit that mark in regulation time in a conference game.

Amazingly, the Huskers produced points on 17 of their final 19 possessions (11 field goals, 10 free throws). This was five days after making only 13 field goals in an entire mess-of-a-defeat to Ohio State.

Understand that defense isn’t Iowa’s forte. The Hawkeyes (11-10, 3-5) are last in the Big Ten in scoring defense (71.2) and field-goal defense (45.2 percent).

“Defensively, that’s about as bad as you can play,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. “Richardson is a good player, but 9 for 10 and 6 for 7 for 25 points? He hasn’t shown that.

“But you’ve got to give him credit. He was going off the dribble, and he was mixing it up.”

Still, the Huskers felt if Richardson hadn’t scored that many, someone else on the team would have.

“I don’t think there were many possessions in the last 15 minutes that we didn’t try to run a special play,” Sadler said. “When we did get something, we were fortunate to make a shot.

“When we didn’t get anything, we didn’t panic. I bet a lot of the shots Brandon got weren’t until the last seven or eight seconds. We were patient enough to go to the end.”

Richardson had seven points early as Nebraska jumped to a 15-12 lead. After NU fell behind 31-20, his 3-pointer capped a run that cut the gap to 33-31 with 2:12 to go in the first half.

To start the second half, Richardson scored six points in less than four minutes as the Huskers turned a 38-31 deficit into a 41-40 lead.

A key to getting the offense humming, Richardson said, is that many of Nebraska’s new offensive sets are geared toward throwing the ball to the low post to Brandon Ubel, Jorge Brian Diaz and Toney McCray.

“Once we get Ubel and Diaz and Toney making plays on the block, it opens things up for everybody,” Richardson said, “The game is played inside out.”

Nebraska played it that way to near perfection down the stretch.

After falling behind 50-43 with 11:20 to play, Dylan Talley’s 3-pointer started a rare offensive explosion — 36 points in the final 10:53. Richardson had nine of those. Oh, and then there were his six rebounds and five assists to one turnover.

“He’s capable of that every game,” Talley said. “He didn’t surprise us. He may have surprised the fans, but that’s what we should be expecting out of B-Rich.”

Richardson is one of four seniors who plays regularly and is starting to hear his eligibility clock ticking loudly.

“We’ve got nine games left in the league,” he said. “Us four seniors want to make a run here. Before each and every game, we give it all in practice.

“We always play with a lot of effort. Now, it’s time to come away with some wins.”

Contact the writer:

402-444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com

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