3 takeaways from Nebraska’s sluggish win over Maryland

It took nearly six minutes for Nebraska basketball to score on Wednesday night. Midway through the second half, despite being a 17.5-point favorite, the Huskers found themselves down by three.

Eventually, the Huskers strung together enough stops and made enough shots to pull away for a 74-61 win over Maryland. Nebraska didn’t cover the spread, but who cares? They stayed alive for the Big Ten title for another day, and still control their destiny for the triple bye in the Big Ten tournament (top four finish).

Rienk Mast scored six points in a short stretch. Braden Frager scored seven to help put Nebraska in the lead, before a Pryce Sandfort pushed the lead to 10.

Maryland didn’t really threaten against after that. Frager led the way with 21 points. He made three 3-pointers. Sam Hoiberg also had a great night with 12 points (4-of-5 shooting) to go along with seven rebounds, four assists, and three steals.

Defense did the job

Nebraska’s offense had some issues. There were stretches that were troublesome in both the first half and the second half. Yet, the defense was consistently good. Maryland made 12 3-pointers but only shot 33 percent. They only got eight free throws compared to 24 for Nebraska, and the Huskers held Maryland to 9-of-20 (45 percent) on 2-pointers.

Maryland shot 38 percent from the field, turned it over 12 times, and only grabbed five offensive rebounds. That’s a job well done.

Braden Frager

The offense was struggling before Braden Frager provided a spark. It was something he did in both halves. His 3-pointer in the second half capped a personal 5-0 run that took a one-point deficit and turned it into a four-point lead.

Nebraska wouldn’t trail again. It was the sixth 20-point game of the season for the redshirt freshman, who came into Tuesday’s game scoring 11.7 points per game.

It really feels like this team goes as Frager goes. When he’s making shots and attacking the rim, Nebraska is just different, and teams can’t focus so much on Pryce Sandfort.

Another slow start

Slow starts have become too common for this team. It feels like this is the third or fourth straight home game with a slow start. Nebraska basketball did pull away from Penn State somewhat early, but the start felt sluggish.

Big Ten teams are making Nebraska work to get shots and move without the ball. However, the Huskers took care of the ball on Wednesday with only six turnovers. They only had 10 fouls and finished with more offensive rebounds than their opponent.

Still, the offense needs to be better to start games. You can’t open an NCAA tournament game and not score for the first six minutes. That’s a recipe for disaster, and Nebraska has flirted with it too much lately.

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