Gallegos, Biggs return from suspension to lead Nebraska past South Carolina State

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.

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. 

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