Talley leads Nebraska past Northwestern 64-49

LINCOLN, Neb. —Dylan Talley scored 20 points and Ray Gallegos broke out of his 3-point shooting slump in the second half to lead Nebraska to a 64-49 victory over Northwestern on Saturday.

The Cornhuskers (11-10, 2-6 Big Ten) won for the first time in four conference home games.

Brandon Ubel had 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Gallegos added 11 points.

Dave Sobolewski matched his season high with 21 points and Jared Swopshire had 11 points and a career-high 16 rebounds to pace the Wildcats (12-9, 3-5), who were coming off a seven-point win over No. 12 Minnesota.

Ubel made two free throws and converted Gallegos' pass through the lane into a dunk at the front end of a 16-7 spurt that gave Nebraska a double-digit lead in the middle of the second half. Gallegos followed Shavon Shields' three-point play with three straight 3s to make it 44-33.

Gallegos had been 14 of his previous 66 on 3-pointers (21 percent) before stringing together those three long shots.

Gallegos made it 52-37 after he took Ubel's pass off a steal and drove the length of the court for a dunk. Talley's jump shot and layup stretched it to 16 points.

The teams scuffled through the first half, with Nebraska shooting 37 percent and Northwestern 32 percent from the field.

Nebraska warmed up to 54 percent in the second half and finished at 45 percent. Northwestern stayed cold and ended the game at 32 percent. The Wildcats' only worse shooting performance this season was 29 percent in a 20-point loss to Iowa.

The Huskers took the lead for good when Talley snaked through the lane for a layup and Benny Parker stole Alex Olah's lazy pass and went in for a layup to make it 15-11.

Sobolewski's 3-pointer cut it to 24-22 at halftime, but the Huskers went on their decisive run after the first media timeout of the second half and posted their largest margin of victory of the season.