Almost.

Nebraska men’s basketball almost got another signature win. They almost set a school record for ranked wins in a season. And they almost took the lead in the final seconds.

Almost.

Nebraska fell to No. 15 Michigan 49-46 Monday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Huskers are now 17-11 on the year and 7-10 in the Big Ten Conference while the Wolverines improve to 21-6 overall and 13-3 in the league.

An ugly game from start to finish saw neither team shoot above 30%. The Huskers were only in the game for two reasons: defensive energy that kept the Wolverines from getting hot and Brice Williams.

Williams scored 18 of Nebraska’s 21 points in the first half as the Big Red trailed by four. He was 7-of-13 from the field at the break, making 4-of-7 3s. The rest of the team was 1-for-19 on field goals and 0-for-10 on 3s.

Neither team could pull away, with the largest lead being six points after a Michigan 8-0 run. But Nebraska closed that gap back to a single point with a 5-0 run and 1:36 to play.

After the teams exchanged a trio of missed shots, the basketball game became a free throw contest.

Michigan made a pair to go up by three. Williams answere with two to cut it back to one.

With 12 seconds to go, Wolverine Roddy Gayle Jr. missed the front end of a one-and-one. Husker Rollie Worster grabbed the board and quickly got the ball to Williams, who pushed into the frontcourt and was cut off by multiple Michigan defenders. He handed the ball off to Connor Essegian on the wing who let it fly.

Miss.

Michigan grabbed the rebound and went the other way, getting fouled with four seconds to play. After two made free throws, Nebraska threw the ball deep. The pass somehow found Berke Buyuntucel’s hands. He tried to find a teammate but with time running out was forced to put up a shot at the buzzer, missing his 10th attempt of the game.

The Huskers shot 25.8% for the game, making 6-of-28 3s. The Wolverines made 29.5% of their shots, including 5-of-27 from deep.

Williams finished with a game-high 26 points. No other Husker scored more than six points.

Nebraska stays home Saturday to host Minnesota. Tip from Pinnacle Bank Arena is set for 1 p.m. CST on Big Ten Network.

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