3 takeaways from Nebraska’s convincing road win against USC

Nebraska basketball was down by five points at the half, but the Huskers played so well in the second half that it was hard to remember after their 82-67 win.

USC tried to make things interesting, but the Huskers scored 15 consecutive points as they earned their 25th win of the season in what ended up as a romp. Nebraska is now 14-4 in the Big Ten and still controls its own destiny for a top-four finish in the Big Ten.

If Nebraska beats UCLA and Iowa, it will be the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten tournament. Saturday’s win was the 8th quad-1 win for the Huskers. Pryce Sandfort went off for 32 points. He caught fire in the second half, as USC couldn’t buy a bucket from 3-point range.

Nebraska basketball won the turnover battle, had the same amount of fouls (an accomplishment against USC), and made twice as many 3-pointers.

It’s no wonder they won going away in the second half. Nebraska also had a massive EDGE in offensive rebounds (14-4).

Here are three takeaways from the Huskers 25th win of the 2025-26 season.

Offensive rebounds were the X-factor

The Huskers turned the tables. They aren’t a strong offensive rebounding team, and normally struggle to keep the opposing team off the glass, but on Saturday, Nebraska dominated the boards.

When you give up 14 offensive rebounds as USC did, while getting just four, you’d better shoot the lights out, which isn’t in the Trojans DNA. Nebraska only shot 35 percent from 3-point range (8 makes). That’s normally Nebraska’s outlier.

Today, it was offensive rebounding.

Defense won the day, again

USC found a way to get itself to the free-throw line a bunch. It’s what they do. But overall, Fred Hoiberg has to be stoked with his team’s defense. USC shot 19 percent from 3-point range. It’s hard to win doing that.

That’s exactly the shot Nebraska wants you to take. USC did a decent job of avoiding that fate, but not enough. USC made 59 percent of its 2-pointers — an even better percentage than Nebraska, but the 12-point edge from beyond the arc was too hard for the Trojans to overcome.

Pryce Sandfort was the best player

If Pryce Sandfort shoots the ball as he did against USC, making 5-of-10 shots, this team will be hard to beat. Braden Frager added 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting. The tandem scored 49 of Nebraska’s 82 points. Rienk Mast needs to get going.

The talented big man has been off for weeks. He was 4-for-11 on Saturday. Yet, one Husker star found his groove, and that was Sandfort, who scored 15 more points than anyone else on the floor, for either team.