Holding a 33-23 lead with 2:37 remaining in the first half, Northwestern looked poised to run away from Nebraska and snap a two-game losing streak Sunday.

Instead, the Cornhuskers (9-7, 3-1 Big Ten) caught fire to spoil a good half’s work by the Wildcats (13-4, 2-2). Nebraska guard Tai Webster, who scored 8 points in an end-of-half 14-0 run by the hosts, drained a long pull-up 3 at the buzzer to bring the home crowd to its feet at the end of the first.

“We felt we were in control of the game, we were playing really well,” coach Chris Collins said. “And then it kind of just hit us, like a buzzsaw.”

The Cornhuskers’ run to close the first half seemed like the harbinger of another disappointing defeat for NU; instead, the Cats responded and earned a stabilizing 74-66 victory on the road.

Although the team faced a 37-33 deficit at the break, NU’s offense hummed for the majority of the first half. The Cats shot 52 percent from the field and hit 6-of-14 attempts from 3 in the period, playing efficiently enough on that end to earn a halftime lead on most days.

Sunday wasn’t one of those days, but NU stayed the course and ultimately found similar success in the second half. The Cats connected on half of their field goals and 3s after the break while clamping down on the defensive end, holding the Cornhuskers to a 37.5 percent clip from the field.

NU also solved the 1-3-1 zone that Nebraska rolled out in its first period run, with junior guard Scottie Lindsey putting up 15 of his 19 points in the second half to help blow open the Cornhuskers’ defense. The visitors took a 53-50 lead with 11:01 remaining and never relinquished it, as the Cats closed out the game with relative ease in the final moments.

Mired in a two-game losing streak ahead of the trip to Lincoln, NU ended both of those losses ice-cold on the offensive end, shooting just 30 percent from the field combined in the second halves of the games. With that recent form in mind, Sunday’s second-half surge was an encouraging sign for a Cats team looking to shake a reputation for folding late in games.

“We know we have good players, we know we have a good team,” Collins said. “In this league, you’ve got to be incredibly tough to win.”

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