March 09, 2016 USATSI Gallery 
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INDIANAPOLIS - After a hard-fought first half, Rutgers (7-25) wore down after the break in an 89-72 loss to Nebraska (15-17) in the opening round of the Big Ten Conference Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mike Williams scored 14 points to lead the Scarlet Knights in a contest that featured nine ties and 12 lead changes.
Bishop Daniels, Omari Grier and Corey Sanders joined Williams in double figures with 13, 12 and 10 points, respectively. Grier was 4-of-5 from the field and 2-of-2 from behind the arc.
The teams shot in comparable fashion, with Rutgers making 42.9 percent (24-of-56) and Nebraska depositing 47.1 percent (33-70) of its field goal attempts. The Huskers capitalized on the boards, however, out-rebounding the Scarlet Knights 41-34, including 17 off the offensive glass. As a result, Nebraska took 14 more shots and scored 16 more points (48-32) in the paint.
Turnovers also proved detrimental for Rutgers. RU committed 17 miscues, which resulted in a 27-11 advantage for the Huskers in points-off-turnovers.
The first half was evenly contested, with the two squads battling back and forth. A step-back three-pointer from Sanders provided the Scarlet Knights a 9-8 lead. The defense held Nebraska to just 5-of-15 from the field to open the game.
Rutgers then heated up from the field, making seven of nine shots. Grier had a quick five point stretch, splashing a three-pointer and then finishing off a steal from Sanders for a fast break layup. With Greg Lewis knocking down a jumper from the foul line, RU took a 24-21 advantage.
A Williams three-pointer gave Rutgers a 27-25 lead. The Huskers closed the first half on a 12-6 run over the final four minutes, however, and took a 37-33 edge into the halftime locker room. The Scarlet Knights shot 48.1 percent in the first frame and assisted on 10 of 13 baskets.
Rutgers had a strong start to the second half. Williams and Sanders each knocked down early triples, and the game was tied at 43-43. Nebraska countered with a 17-2 burst, developing a 60-45 lead.
The Scarlet Knights battled down the stretch, but were unable to cut into the deficit.
Postgame Notes
The game marked the final career contest for Rutgers seniors Greg Lewis, Bishop Daniels, Omari Grier and Jalen Hyde.
Lewis finished his career with 83 blocks, tied for 16th all-time in Rutgers record book.
Rutgers started Corey Sanders, Daniels, Mike Williams, Jonathan Laurent and Lewis, its 16th different starting lineup this season.
Williams scored in double-figures for the 18th time this season and led the team in scoring for the 10th
Omari Grier scored in double-figures for the eighth time this season.
Daniels scored in double-figures for the 14th time this season.
Sanders scored in double figures for the 22nd time this season.
Nebraska now leads the all-time series against Rutgers 5-2.
Rutgers is 0-2 all-time in Big Ten Conference Tournament games.
Rutgers Postgame Quotes
COACH JORDAN: Okay. It was a heck of a season for us because of where we were, on demand and with injuries to most of our bigs. Greg Lewis was pretty much the only big we had to play with all year. He has played with a lot of injuries. Bishop started for us. He's been coming off the bench for us. He's taken on different roles for us because of where we are. He's played some forward and he's a point guard. So the ramifications of our injuries trickled down to a lot of areas that people don't really understand. And this group gave it 100 percent every single day. We had two guards playing power forward. We have had our backup three man playing center. And that's how it was for over 23 games. But every day, they came to work. They're good students. They're graduating. And I'm proud of them. I'm proud of how we behaved through the season. I'm proud of how we represented the Rutgers University. And the W's and L's do not measure what these players and young men have gone through and what they have achieved.
Q. For either one of you guys, obviously the last game of your guys career. Shortly after the game, hasn't sunk in yet. What are your thoughts about the season being over, your career is over here at Rutgers?
Bishop Daniels: Main thing is just talking to the young kids and thanking them Thanking them and Coach Jordan for giving us this opportunity this year to fight with us through all the struggles. This is a great man right here sitting next to me. I wish him the best. I know he has a good group of kids coming back. They're going to be good next year. Like I said, the main thing is just thanking everybody.
Greg Lewis: Yeah, I feel the same way. Just thanking the guys. Like coach said, we was down, all the types of adversity, and we still came to fight every day. So I'm appreciative.
Q. For Greg and Bishop, both you guys again, third time against Nebraska this season, this time on a neutral court, third loss. What makes that team so hard to match up against?
Greg Lewis: They're not the biggest team. I think they have a greatest year. They have a couple of matchup problems in Shavon Shields and White. I think they caused us problems the last two games.
This game was just another one that we just didn't get it done. I thought we did a good job on both White and Shields in the first half, but got away from us that second half.
Bishop Daniels: They are a great team. They have players out there that get it done. I think the main thing is, with us, we had matchup problems because we're smaller than we were. We have injuries, people that can't perform 100 percent. So I think that's the main thing for us is put it all together was the main matchup problems.
Q. This is for both of you guys. I know coach mentioned some of the issues with the season. What would you say is described as the most difficult part, maybe that doesn't appear on the court or, obviously, like coach said, had ramifications on you guys' play?
Bishop Daniels: I think the main thing was us just being undersized and guys playing out of position. We went down with players from as early as before the season started with Shaquille Doorson, so it's kind of tough with us playing different positions that we never played before. So we had to get adjusted to it. And then halfway through the season we're losing kids to concussions, broken foot. That's the main is this just trying to stick through it and keep fighting.
Greg Lewis: Yeah, I agree. I agree. It's been a battle. It's been a struggle all season. But I applaud the guys that did it, that kept playing. And, hopefully, the team is on next season.
Bishop Daniels: I would like to add to it. Part of that is we didn't have practice where we could simulate the other team. We have three walk-ons that were playing. They were all under 5'10", and they're playing forward positions. And you just can't duplicate Shavon Shields' driving with a 5'10" or 5'9" walk-on. You can't duplicate Andrew White coming off the screens with a 6'1" walk-on. So there's a lot of things in practice we could not do, we couldn't simulate. We couldn't play against a zone that made sense. When I wanted to go zone offense, we're playing against five guys that maybe two or over 6'2". So those are ramifications that you just can't get better in the areas. And some places, you can't grow as fast as you would like because you just can't simulate the other team, a scout team. And that's just a small part of it.
Q. Eddie, talk a little bit about you guys had 17 turnovers, Nebraska scored 27 points off those 17 turnovers.
COACH JORDAN: You have to give credit to them. I thought Parker and Watson got into Corey. That was probably one of their emphasis on their game planning. And Corey didn't have his typical efficient game for us. And then we just didn't execute some areas where we should have. But, again, when the other team gets into you and they're bigger and you're trying to make plays, we just didn't make them. We have to give them a lot of credit. There were some plays I thought we shot ourselves in the foot, but you have to give Tim a lot of credit for coming up with a game plan that really
pressured us, got into Corey a lot, took away a lot of our backdoor plays that we were successful against them in the past.
And then they saw that when we did go smaller, they started some pick-and-rolls that I thought really broke the game open. And they started going inside, hitting the offensive glass. And, obviously, the turnovers in the first half. It was a four-point lead by them and they had 16 points off of turnovers, I believe. So that's part of it. You have to give them credit for coming up with a game plan that pressured us.
Q. Coach, you mentioned this was a get Sanders night. He usually gets 15 points a game; he only got 10 tonight. He shot 3-for-12. Would you attribute that completely to Nebraska's way of handling him, do you feel like it was just an off night for him, or was it the pressure being in a tournament or --
COACH JORDAN: He's a freshmen. He was a little bit taken aback that he wasn't chosen on the All-Freshman Team. I think he was the leading-scoring freshman in the league. And I think he leads the league in assists as a freshman. So maybe there's a lot of emotion going through his mind and what he had to handle. But, again, I have to give them credit, Parker and Watson and whoever guarded them, their game plan, even Webster, their game plan was to get into him, deny him the ball, make him drive into another defender. So they really shut down his driving lanes. So part of it is he's a
young player. But most of it, I give them credit. Tim did a great job.
