2025 OL Brock Heath enjoys return visit to Nebraska as a recruit.

It is uncommon for an out-of-state recruit to visit Nebraska already well-versed in Nebraska football history or having visited every inch of Memorial Stadium, but Brock Heath, an offensive lineman from Blue Valley Northwest in the suburban Kansas City area, was one of those rare exceptions.

As the brother of former Nebraska football player Blake Lawrence, Heath is familiar with both Nebraska football and Lincoln. When he was in town to watch Lawrence play in the late 2000s, he would recall that he almost grew up playing catch under the stadium.

After big comeback to end regulation, Huskers lose heartbreaker at No. 14 Illinois.

Nebraska was just nine seconds away from winning its second Quad 1 match in as many days and removing a hot topic from the table.

The Huskers had won 11 games in a row until Rienk Mast maneuvered his way for a bucket in the final seconds of regulation. More significantly, NU was leading. traveling. After one defensive halt, and…

Illinois sprinted to the opposite end with the ball. Someone whistled. With three seconds remaining, Marcus Domask of Illinois was going up for a jumper when C.J. Wilcher was called for a foul. He would hit one, miss the other.

The drama persisted in overtime as the 14th-ranked Illini held on to an 87-84 victory over Nebraska despite many close turnovers, including one that the Husker supporters likely mistook for a jump ball rather than a foul in the final 30 seconds.

“They’re good,” mostly in relief, Illinois coach Brad Underwood remarked about the Huskers on BTN immediately following the game.

There’s no doubting Nebraska’s fight in this one. Keisei Tominaga, who had only 14 points in his previous three games, also found his rhythm. On 9 of 14 shots, he scored 31, making 5 of 7 from beyond the arc.

The outcome, which saw Nebraska fall to 16-7 overall and 6-6 in the Big Ten, will still hurt. The Huskers are currently 0–6 on the road in conference play, but this was by far their strongest effort against a club that is currently tied for second place in the Big Ten standings with Wisconsin.

Head coach of Nebraska Fred Hoiberg said, “I’ll say this: We showed we can do it, that’s for sure,” during the Husker Radio Network postgame program. “Those two keys are what we always talk about; if you look after them, you’ll succeed. You’re going to get your ass kicked if you lose both. You will be playing in a close game if you lose one.”

Rebounds and turnovers are those two items.

The changes in numbers? Alright. Illinois had fourteen points while Nebraska had just nine, with the Huskers leading by seven points in points off turnovers.

Coming back? Not in that way. In that statistic, Illinois had a 50-to-33 advantage, and on the offensive glass, it was 17–5. Ty Rodgers, who had 14 rebounds, was extremely dangerous.

“We now know we can do the task, okay? That’s what I spoke with the men in the locker room. We need to move past it when we are ahead of the No. 14 team in the nation and have a chance to win after defeating the No. 6 squad. We must move on from this as quickly as we did against Wisconsin.”

The Huskers went a perfect 14-for-14 at the free-throw line and hit 12-of-28 from beyond the arc. Illinois hit 20 of its 30 trips to the charity stripe.

Even though Illinois outrebounded Nebraska on the glass, the Illini were unable to gain any ground until 3 1/2 minutes remaining, when three 3-pointers in a minute and a half gave the home team a 72-62 advantage.

This squad has a lot of weapons and can definitely burn you. With twenty points, Coleman Hawkins led Illinois (17-5, 8-3), Domask had nineteen, while Terrence Shannon scored eighteen.

However, with his team losing by ten points at the under-four timeout, Fred Hoiberg issued a challenge, reminding his group that they needed to win by not giving up one more score. In essence, he was correct.

But three nights after defeating No. 6 Wisconsin 80-72 in overtime, the Illini free throw on the other end meant that Nebraska would need to play in overtime once more.

Illinois owned the le

The Huskers need a three-pointer to tie it on the ensuing possession. They got it to Mast, who had 22 on the night and isn’t scared of big shots. Although it appeared as though he was about to shoot a three, he ultimately chose not to, and the authorities decided to take the ball away cleanly. With 1.7 seconds remaining, the Illini were fouled and missed a pair, but Tominaga’s desperate heave from the other end of the floor—possibly after the horn—went unanswered.

ad for the majority of the overtime period, but in the final 30 seconds, Nebraska had a few close calls that could have cost them the game and/or the ball. Two free shots by Tominaga made the score 83-82. As planned, Nebraska set up a trap in the corner. A whistle blew. A jump ball call appeared to be feasible, and some Huskers on the bench obviously believed it was justified. With twenty-five seconds remaining, such a call would have handed NU the ball back down one. However, Sam Hoiberg was called for a foul.

Just as the Huskers appeared to go past a significant victory three nights prior, they must also move past this close defeat. Because there’s another road game in three nights against a formidable Northwestern team that is determined to get revenge for their recent six-point loss in Lincoln.

“Two overtime games in a row and another short prep again against another team in a tough environment coming off a loss is going to be tough for us,” Hoiberg said regarding the Wildcats. “But we’ve got to get ready and get back on it and hopefully come back and play with great effort on Wednesday night.”

The Huskers will have to bring along the same counterpunch style of play.