The final nail in the coffin for Butler basketball’s season came on Wednesday as the Nebraska Cornhuskers (19-16) took down the Bulldogs (16-17) 80-76 in Lincoln.
After starting out hot with a 14-2 run to begin the game, the Bulldogs would be outscored 29-16 to close out the half.
Butler trailed 64-52 with less than five minutes left in the game. In a rare comeback effort, the Bulldogs would pull it to a 71-70 Nebraska lead with 91 seconds left, led by back-to-back 3-pointers by Sean McDermott, and three-point plays from Aaron Thompson and Jordan Tucker.
Nebraska would close it out by scoring on their final five possessions. The win gave the Cornhuskers their first postseason victory since 2008.
Isaiah Roby led Nebraska with 28 points. James Palmer would add 23, while Glynn Watson Jr. would put up 17.
The story of the game for Nebraska was how they played the game with just five scholarship players. Senior walk-on Johnny Trueblood would have his breakout game, scoring a career high six points, while adding seven rebounds and five assists.
Sean McDermott would lead the way for Butler with 14 points, Paul Jorgensen would score 12 as well.
The big performer for the Bulldogs was sophomore Aaron Thompson, scoring 11 points and dishing out 12 assists. The assists mark was the most since 2006 for a Bulldog.
Butler finished the season as the only Big East team with a losing record. It was their first losing season since 2013-2014.
Nebraska moves on to face TCU in the second round of the NIT.
