 "Photo: Dan Bracaglia / Photography Editor")
LINCOLN, Neb. - When away from the comforts of the Louis Brown Athletic Center, the Rutgers men's basketball team has looked as flat as this weekend's Midwest surroundings.
After coming off a strong 90-79 home win over Lafayette last week, the Scarlet Knights were inconsistent on the offensive end against Nebraska yesterday, leading to their third loss of the season, 63-51.
Rutgers is now 0-3 on the road, compared to a solid 6-0 showing at the RAC.
After the loss, freshman guard Corey Chandler said he feels the team has to get used to the different environment.
"We play hard [at home]," Chandler said. "We can play with anyone in the country. When we're on the road it's a big difference, and we have to find a way to play together. The atmosphere is different [on the road]. It's kind of hard to concentrate and to listen and hear what the coaches are saying."
The Knights went up 15-8 to start the game after two foul shots by Chandler, but then everything seemed to come apart as the Cornhuskers went on an explosive 24-6 run to go into the half up 32-12.
RU finished the half shooting a dismal 24.1 percent from the floor and struggled to get anything going offensively.
"We couldn't make a shot. That's basketball," head coach Fred Hill Jr. said of the Nebraska run. "I don't think we particularly got great shots, and I thought that was our doing. They got some easy baskets on transition, which we normally don't do.
"It was a case where you're offense wasn't going good, and it lead to some poor defense for just a short stretch."
After Nebraska went up by 16 with 14:32 left in the game, the Knights got things going on an impressive run of their own.
RU went on an 11-2 drive, sparked by Chandler three straight Chandler buckets, to cut the Husker lead to 44-39.
But on the next play, Nebraska sophomore guard Ryan Anderson drilled a three from the left corner, to halt the Scarlet threat and regain momentum at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
At the end of the game, Chandler felt the Knights just fell behind to early on the road.
"They came out with a lot of intensity in the last 10 minutes of the first half, and we lost concentration," Chandler said. "From that point on we dug ourselves in a hole."
Chandler led the Knights with a career-high 25 points on 10-of-20 shooting for the game. Although he also collected six rebounds and three steals, he turned the balled over seven times.
RU junior forward JR Inman rattled home 12 points, but only grabbed four rebounds and shot 0-from-4 from three-point land.
Huskers senior center Aleks Maric scored 19 points and posted eight rebounds to lead Nebraska (6-2). But Hill thought his team did a solid job covering the big man.
"Maric is a load inside, but we did the best we could against him," the second-year head coach said. "Actually, we did a pretty good job against him, in terms of what he's capable of doing. It was the other guys we couldn't let beat us and we did that."
Anderson finished with 14 points for the Huskers on 4-of-6 shooting, and junior guard Ade Dagunduro scored 13 points.
Rutgers (6-3) was only able to collect one point off the bench on a freshman Mike Coburn free throw. The bench was 0-for-6 from the field.
