The Billikens had a great overall team effort on Wednesday night to defeat Big XII Conference foe Nebraska 69-55 at the Chaifetz Arena.
All 10 Billikens played in the game and had a hand in this big victory from Kwamain Mitchell's (pictured) game-high 20 points in 30 minutes to freshman Jon Smith's three big blocks in just six minutes.
Everyone played their part and the result was a nice victory in front of an energetic crowd, which included former Billiken standouts Erwin Claggett, Scott Highmark, Justin Love, Corey Frazier, Joe Wiley and Troy Robertson.
After a quick start in which the Billikens jumped out to a 26-20 lead, the Huskers started to will their strength and athleticism on us on the defensive end. SLU was held without a field goal for the last seven in a half minutes of the first half, but still held on to a 28-27 lead.
Before we went on the air in the second half, I asked my partner Bob Ramsey if we could score 50 points tonight. We were really bogged down and Nebraska was really putting the wood to us defensively. I admit, I was a little frustrated.
The second half was a different story. The spacing on offense was excellent and some of the ball movement made my mouth water at courtside. It led to some great 3-point opportunities in rhythm for Christian Salecich, who finished with 11 points. Basketball is a beautiful game to watch when that ball is moving and players are making the extra pass. That was what we witnessed for much of the second half. I loved it.
With the offense clicking, the Bills continued to play lockdown defense in holding Nebraska to 33 percent shooting in the second half. They held their biggest lead of the game at 58-41 before salting away the game at the free throw line.
During our pre-game broadcast ( and in my pre-game blog), I thought two things needed to happen for the Billikens to knock off the Huskers.
First, the night needed to belong to No. 3 (Mitchell). I thought we need to get 18 to 20 points from our leader and he delivered 20 big points on 7 of 10 shooting from the field. Nebraska fielded a team of big, physical guards, including junior college transfer Lance Jeter who must have been on loan from Bo Pellini's football team. However, Mitchell was simply too quick and elusive for the bigger Nebraska guards. It was like a elephant trying to chase a mouse. Not gonna happen. The little fella was ballin' tonight. He added three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
I also thought we needed to make some perimeter shots. We ended up hitting seven of 19 for a decent 37 percent. Salecich drained three treys while Mitchell hit two and Kyle Cassity and Justin Jordan hitting one each. Christian really brought a lot of passion and energy, especially when he would hit a dagger 3-pointer. After two shaky games, Christian finally settled down and showed us the type of player he really is.
Cassity had his finest all-around performance as a Billiken with eight points, seven rebounds and four assists. Cassity was our leading rebounder for much of the game before Willie Reed started channeling Kevin Garnett in the later stages of the game, taking rebounds off the top of the rim. Reed finished with seven points, nine rebounds, one block while closing off the middle to the Huskers.
Femi John was also solid off the bench with nine points and four rebounds in 18 minutes. I was pleased to see Femi hit five of six from the free throw line after some dreadful free throw shooting during the preseason games. His strong body came in handy against the physical Nebraska swingman.
Freshman bigs Jon Smith and Corey Remekun made positive contributions in limited minutes as coach Rick Majerus continues to spoon-feed them into Division I basketball. Smith had a game-high three blocks, including two in one possession while Remekun scored his first bucket on a nice drop step move off Cassity's feed.
Meanwhile, Brian Conklin collected another head for his mantle when he nailed Nebraska's Ryan Anderson with a tough screen in the backcourt that had Anderson rubbing his head for several minutes afterwards. Brian loves to set those aggressive screens. Defensive guards, you better have your head on a swivel and your big man had better talk. Chalk up another one for the Eugene Enforcer.
It was a very enjoyable performance and I still have a smile on my face as I write about it. I had fun tonight. The kids played hard and competed with a lot of passion, especially when Nebraska started to come with the hard challenge. That effort will have to be a constant if we are to enjoy more nights like this, especially when we have to go on the road.
That is what you are supposed to do on your home court. Protect it with everything you got. It happened a year ago when we beat Boston College at home after being thrashed the previous year at their place. Now, it happened again.
I was really impressed with the growth that this team has shown in the last couple of weeks.
Hope you all enjoyed it. i sure did. We'll do it again on Sunday when we host Kennesaw State.
I'll have a pre-game report that morning.
Go Bills.
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