Mayen scores 25, Nebraska cruises past Rutgers without Allen

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lat Mayen scored 25 points with five 3-pointers and Nebraska cruised past Rutgers 72-51 on Monday night, hours after announcing its leading scorer Teddy Allen had left the program.

Mayen capped a 7-0 run to give Nebraska a 23-11 lead and the Cornhuskers led by at least eight points the rest of the way. He scored 20 points in the first half on 7-of-8 shooting with four 3-pointers as Nebraska led 43-25. He finished 9 of 11 from the field, and Nebraska led by as many as 30 at 70-40.

Derrick Walker had 14 points and six rebounds for Nebraska (7-17, 3-14 Big Ten Conference). Trey McGowens had 12 points and five, and Nebraska had a season-high 19 assists on 28 field goals. The Cornhuskers won their second straight game — the first time doing so since beating North Dakota State and then South Dakota on Dec. 1.

Just last week, Allen scored a Pinnacle Bank Arena record 41 points in a 86-83 loss to Penn State. But he was limited to seven points in 20 minutes in a loss at Illinois two nights later, and he was not in the starting lineup for a home game against Minnesota on Saturday. He was averaging 16.5 points per game,

“After a lot of thought over the last few days, I have made the decision to focus on getting fully healthy in preparation for the next step in my basketball journey,” Allen said. “I will continue to stay at Nebraska for the spring semester and work toward graduation. I am looking forward to what the future holds, as I explore my options.”

Jacob Young led Rutgers (13-10, 9-10) with 12 points. Ron Harper Jr. added 10 and Geo Baker, the conference player of the week, was held to four points on 2-of-10 shooting. The Scarlet Knights were 3 of 23 from distance.

Nebraska is scheduled to play No. 5 Iowa on Thursday followed by Northwestern on Sunday to close the regular season. Rutgers plays Minnesota on Saturday.

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