Story and photo by Andrew Ward
Deverell Biggs needed to tell Ray Gallegos something before
the Nebraska men’s basketball team’s game against South Carolina State Sunday.
The junior transfer from Omaha and Gallegos, a senior guard
on the team, both missed the Huskers’ first two wins of the season after being
suspended for violating team rules.
And Biggs wanted to make sure Gallegos knew he was going to
bring his A game Sunday.
“I just told him we needed to showcase our talent in front
of everyone,” Biggs said.
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| Nebraska coach Tim Miles speaks to media members following Sunday's win. |
That talent was on full display Sunday afternoon in Pinnacle
Bank Arena, as Biggs and Gallegos combined for 35 points in Nebraska’s 83-57
win against the Bulldogs.
Gallegos, last year’s leading scorer for Nebraska, led all
players with 18 points, knocking down six 3-point jumpers. Biggs attacked the
basket early and often en route to 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the
field. He also attempted 10 free throws.
Nebraska coach Tim Miles was pleased with his team’s overall
performance, especially with the way Gallegos and Biggs played.
“It was nice to get Ray some shots he was comfortable with,”
said Nebraska coach Tim Miles. “And Dev is just really clever with the ball.”
Gallegos and Biggs were just two of five Huskers to score in
double figures Sunday. Leslie Smith, another junior college transfer, added 12
points and seven rebounds off the bench, while starters Tai Webster and Shavon
Shields had 13 and 10 respectively.
Breaking away from a pesky South Carolina State squad proved
difficult for Nebraska until late in the matchup. Huskers only led by eight
with 15 minutes to go in the game and the Bulldogs cut the lead to five points
at the beginning of the second half.
However, the Huskers were able to score 25 points off of 16
SCSU turnovers to help expand their lead. Nebraska only had five turnovers on
the night and a season-high 11 assists.
Miles said those five turnovers may look low, but the
Huskers took some bad shots that might as well be counted as miscues.
“We took some questionable shots today, and that’s something
we have to get better at,” Miles said.
For Biggs, he didn’t care about some of the mistake him and
his teammates made. He was just happy to be on the floor.
“I’m really blessed,” he said. “It’s been a long road for
me. I’ve played at a lot of places. I’m just proud to be here and play for my home
state.”
Here are the Tweets from today's game courtesy of Storify.
Here are the Tweets from today's game courtesy of Storify.
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