Nebraska men’s basketball overwhelmed Penn State Saturday afternoon inside Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Huskers’ depth showed in the 87-64 win over the Nittany Lions.
Pryce Sandfort has been on Cary Cochran watch for a few games after breaking his single-season program record for made 3s on Tuesday. Saturday, the junior from Waukee, Iowa, hit his first four 3-pointers of the game, with his first on a baseline out-of-bounds play 3:12 into the game.
Sandfort finished the first half with 20 points on 6-of-7 from the field, including 5-of-6 from 3-point range. He finished the game with a career-high 33 points on 65/57/100 shooting splits.
“I thought we had a little bit more pace, getting back to that swagger we play with and all credit to my teammates for giving me the ball on time and on target,” Sandfort said after the game.
Sandfort’s eight 3-pointers also tied the Nebraska single-game record held by Cochran (against Baylor on Feb. 27, 2002)
The one area of concern for the Huskers following the game is Jamarques Lawrence’s ankle. With 6:15 remaining in the game and Nebraska leading 66-49, Lawrence, the Huskers’ starting point guard, appeared to injure his ankle.
“I won’t really have an update on it,” Fred Hoiberg said after the game. “It’s his ankle, that I know. He just tweaked it. It didn’t appear to swell up too much initially. You never know how those things react overnight and he’s still got adrenaline running through his body. We’ll know a lot more about Jamarques tomorrow.”
Depth tested
Saturday, redshirt freshman Braden Frager got the second start of his career with Berke Büyüktuncel missing the game due to illness.
“He was a late scratch,” Hoiberg said. “He actually didn’t practice two days ago, had something very similar to what Rienk (Mast) had with his stomach. Yesterday he came in and he felt completely fine, was at our shoot-around, in our film session this morning and right before his warmup, at about 60 minutes on the clock, he had to go back into the bathroom and started throwing up again.”
Fager had an immediate impact, particularly on the offensive glass. In his seven first half minutes, he grabbed three offensive boards and scored six points on a pair of triples. Frager finished the game with 15 points and six rebounds in 23 minutes.
With Büyüktuncel out, the Huskers’ post depth was tested.
Jared Garcia and Leo Curtis saw the most minutes the duo has played since Big Ten play started.
Garcia’s impact off the bench was big. In his 11 first half minutes, he recorded six rebounds, two blocked shots and two points on two field goal attempts.
“I thought Leo and Jared were unbelievable in the first half,” Hoiberg said. “Braden got us off to a really good start, making some effort, hustle plays, getting on the offensive boards, and then Jared came in when Braden got the two fouls and really picked up for him.”
Garcia finished the game with four points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots in 18:43 of game play.
“Approaching practice every day with the mentality to get better and stay ready,” Garcia said of handling his recent limited playing time. “Whenever my name is called, I come in and bring some juice.”
Curtis and Garcia played the final 4:55 of the first half and helped the Huskers take a 38-20 lead at the half.
“They were huge,” Sam Hoiberg said. “They were huge for us today and it’s really impressive to be able to stay locked in and make an impact like that.”
Hoiberg, a regular starter, also made a big impact. He recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 10 assists.
Next Up
Nebraska will face Maryland in its second-to-last home game of the season on Wednesday with a 6 p.m. tip.
“It’s a great win for us,” Coach Hoiberg said. “Now we’ve got to win the recovery day tomorrow. I know I talk a lot about that, but it’s important. These guys have to get back, if you didn’t get a lot of minutes, get in there, get your shots up, get a little conditioning in. If you need to sit in the ice tub, sit in the ice tub. We need to be ready to get back on the floor on Monday and play a Maryland team that’s playing their best basketball of the season right now.”
