Shields and White lead Nebraska past Prairie View A&M 81-50

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) It took Nebraska a half to get over Sunday's loss to Samford, and then the Huskers blew past Prairie View A&M 81-50 Tuesday.

''You don't shake out of these losses quickly and easily like we had against Samford,'' said Nebraska coach Tim Miles. ''Sometimes there's this period where you still feel like you're at the dentist's office, `I'm still not done with this root canal yet'. ... We relaxed in the first half and they went on that 16-0 run. We came out and cleaned it up the second half.''

Shavon Shields and Andrew White III each had 19 points and five rebounds and Nebraska (8-5) led by as many as 16 in the first half, but saw Prairie View A&M (0-11) come back to take the lead at 32-31 early in the second half.

After Zachary Hamilton's basket with 18:40 remaining gave the Panthers the lead, Nebraska responded with a 23-5 run, going up 45-34 on Tai Webster's steal and layup with 14:40 left and taking a 54-37 lead on White's 3 pointer with 11:40 remaining.

The Panthers got no closer than 15 the rest of the way. Nebraska's biggest lead was 32.

White attributed Nebraska's team togetherness to a players-only meeting that lasted more than an hour Monday.

''We had a meeting this week and we were just talking about holding everybody accountable for what they do, on and off the court,'' White said. ''We really stressed togetherness. I think by us having a slow first half, it really tested our togetherness. I think we made a lot of strides in that aspect. That helped us get our feet up underneath us and have a breakout second half.''

In the first half, Nebraska built a 26-8 lead capped by Shavon Shields' six free throws as the Panthers hit just four of their first 18 shots. Prairie View A&M then hit six of their next seven shots for a 16-0 run that cut the lead to 26-24.

Prairie View A&M coach Byron Rimm II took no solace in the fact that the Panthers stayed with Nebraska for the first half and into the second.

''We didn't adjust to certain things, and we didn't play hard and just didn't listen,'' he said. ''I'm very disappointed in how we played and that's kind of been an ongoing thing all year. We've been staying close with a lot of big teams and the second half, they've been beating us up and blowing us open in the second half. We've got to figure out a way to get better.''

Tai Webster added 10 points for the Huskers. Karim York led Prairie View A&M with 16 points and Hamilton finished with 13.

---

TIP-INS

Prairie View A&M: Has played just one home game this season, a loss to Texas State on Dec. 16. The Panthers return home for a Jan. 2 tilt against Alcorn State.

Nebraska: Is now 21-1 all-time against schools from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Tuesday's game was the first meeting between the Huskers and Prairie View A&M.

UP NEXT

Prairie View A&M travels to Louisiana Tech on Monday.

Nebraska hosts Northwestern Dec. 30.