It was the slowest start of the season for Nebraska men’s basketball, but the Huskers eventually got it into gear to secure a 74-61 win over Maryland Wednesday night.
The Huskers didn’t make a field goal in the first six minutes of the game, and Maryland led 6-0 until Braden Frager knocked down two free throws at the 14:21 mark.
“I did think we guarded well,” Coach Fred Hoiberg said. “That kept us in it even when the ball didn’t go down.”
With the Terrapins leading 48-45 with 12:07 left in the game, things looked bleak for the Huskers.
“They went out in the first eight or nine minutes of the second half and they just got everything,” Hoiberg said. “They got all the loose balls. We couldn’t finish possessions. I didn’t like our body language. I talked about that in the huddle, we were down three and looking at their faces, it felt like we were down 20.”
The game flipped after the under-12 media timeout. Nebraska started making more hustle plays than the Terps. They tightened up defensively and forced more misses, which resulted in Husker defensive rebounds, particularly from Pryce Sandfort, Frager and Sam Hoiberg.
“Why we were able to get the lead and then pull away a little bit there towards the end,” Fred Hoiberg said. “It was the hustle plays, and it was the rebounding. We were more physical than we had been in the first part of the second half.”
Sandfort and Fager led the team with eight rebounds apiece, with all eight of Sandfort’s coming on the defensive end.
“Those were huge for Pryce to get in there and battle on the boards,” Hoiberg said. “He had zero in Iowa, and then the last game he had nine and then this game he had eight. So he’s definitely trending in the right direction. We need him on the boards. I did think he made some really good takes to the basket, and his shots, listen, those things missed by a millimeter that looked like out there.”
For Nebraska to win Wednesday night against a Maryland team that does all they do well on the offensive end is rebound, the Huskers needed to find a way to outrebound the Terps.
They did just that, winning the rebounding battle 35-34 and tying in offensive rebounds with seven.
“I told them before the game that if we win the glass, we’re going to win the game, and I think we won it by one,” Hoiberg said. “We found a way to continue to compete when things weren’t looking great out there. And again, give Maryland a lot of credit that these guys were competing at a very high level right now.”
Frager Saved The Day
With the Huskers’ offensive woes in the first 30 minutes of the game, they needed someone to step up and score. Redshirt freshman Braden Frager did just that. It wasn’t just the 10 first half points that made an impact, it was the instant energy off the bench.
“I thought Braden gave great energy,” Hoiberg said. “He was one really that took the lid off for us in that first half. The high-level dunk that he had, getting the ball on the inbounds play, I thought he was all over the place.”
In Saturday’s win over Penn State, Frager got the second start of his career due to Berke Büyüktuncel missing the game with an illness. In that game, he looked more like the pre-ankle injury version of himself, scoring 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting and 4-of-8 from the 3-point line.
Wednesday, Frager had a team-high 21 points on 6-of-13 from the field and 3-of-9 from 3-point range.
“One thing coach Hoiberg talks about a lot is when the shot’s not falling, go do something to make a play, get that energy going that other way,” Frager said. “So I think getting on the floor, going after rebounds and stuff like that kind of just got me back in it, and I think that really helps with the confidence with getting the ball going in the hoop.”
The Nebraska bench outscored Maryland’s bench 24-8 in the game, the first time in six games Nebraska had a positive scoring margin in bench points.
“You can tell how much better he’s feeling,” Hoiberg said. “He went through a little bit of a struggle, but a lot of that had to do with his ankle and his knee. You can see he’s feeling pretty much back to 100%. His shot is balanced and looks a lot better. He was a monster all night.”
Frager is clearly feeling better and the Huskers will need a confident version of the redshirt freshman to finish the season the way they and their fans hope.
“I think the confidence is really just the biggest thing for me,” he said. “Just seeing it go in the hoop outside of practice, and that’s kind of what carried over to these last two games.”
