The Nebraska guard duo of Shavon Shields and Terran Pettaway outscored the Spartans by themselves, tallying 13 points each.

Freshman guard Javon Bess and junior guard Denzel Valentine each have five points, and senior forward Branden Dawson has six rebounds.

Bess established himself on offense early, scoring MSU's first five points of the game. The freshman guard looked comfortable, using his quickness to get to the rim and sinking a jump shot for good measure

At the 16:17 mark, sophomore forward Walter Pitchford was ejected for throwing an elbow at junior forward Matt Costello.

Nebraska maintained the lead early on. Shields' layup gave the Huskers a 13-9 lead with 14 minutes to play.

A Valentine turnover almost led to Dawson's demise. Though this might be an exaggeration, Pettaway's missed breakaway dunk almost put the senior forward on a poster.

Nebraska recovered the missed dunk and fed Pettaway for a layup, on which he was fouled, to give the Huskers a 3-point play and 16-9 advantage.

MSU was crippled by an inability to take care of the ball. MSU turned the ball over six times in the first 10 minutes, led by Valentine who had three.

Sophomore forward Gavin Schiling scored at the rim to snap a nearly three-minute MSU scoring draught, and senior guard Travis Trice nailed a 3-pointer soon after to cut Nebraska's lead to two.

But Pettaway responded with consecutive 3-pointers to push Nebraska's lead back to eight. A pair of free throws Tal Webster made it a double digit lead with 5:17 on the clock.

Nebraska's lead ballooned to 15 before Trice nailed a 3-pointer and was fouled on the shot, though he missed the free throw.