LINCOLN, NEB. ? Nebraska got a 76-67 victory against South Dakota State on Thursday night, but the Cornhuskers weren’t celebrating.

On the contrary, they were disappointed in their performance against a team in just its second year in NCAA Division I basketball that has won only one game so far this season.

“We just didn’t come out,” said forward Wes Wilkinson, who led Nebraska with 17 points and 10 rebounds. “We shot the ball real flat tonight and didn’t play good defense in the first half. We let them stay in the game.”

Wilkinson’s comments were echoed by Nebraska coach Barry Collier, who was particularly disappointed that the Huskers were outrebounded by the shorter Jackrabbits.

“It’s really hard to read people’s minds when we point to the reason why we didn’t have the intensity we wanted,” Collier said. “It was one of those games when almost everybody out there did some good things at times, then made some errors.”

Nebraska (6-1), used a 19-7 early second-half run to pull away from the Jackrabbits. The Huskers led by as many as 12 in the first half and went up 36-26 on Aleks Maric’s free-throws just after halftime.

South Dakota State (1-7) then had a 7-0 spurt cutting the Nebraska lead to 36-33 on Mohamed Berte’s jumper with 17:59 remaining.

A Maric basket started the decisive Nebraska run. The Huskers went up 50-40 on Wilkinson’s 3-pointer with 14:28 remaining, then scored five unanswered points to go up 15 with 12:59 left.

The biggest Husker lead was 17 at 64-47. Eric Heien’s three-pointer with 4:13 left let the Jackrabbits cut Nebraska’s lead to 66-59.

But a Jason Dourisseau free throw, followed by a Wilkinson hook shot, then a Wilkinson 3-pointer put Nebraska up 72-59 with 2:47 left. South Dakota State hit a three-pointer in the final 30 seconds to cut the final margin to 9.

South Dakota State coach Scott Nagy also was disappointed in his team’s performance.

“I felt like we gave the game away,” Nagy said. “We should have been up by eight at the half. I’m proud of our kids, but I don’t want them to settle for losing at Nebraska.”

Collier and Wilkinson both said Nebraska’s lackluster performance was not because the Huskers were looking ahead to Sunday’s game against in-state rival Creighton.

“They haven’t been talking about that,” Collier said.