Jim Halpert may have said the black bear was best, but on Monday night, the Cornhuskers were better at basketball.
Bears. Beets. Nebrasketball Season-Opening Win.
Nebraska raced out to a 9-0 lead and never trailed on the way to their 79-66 victory over Maine.
“Proud of the guys,” Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “I loved our start. We need to duplicate that in the second half.”
The win, though, was not easy. Despite a 12 point difference at the half, Maine turned it on out of the break.
The Black Bears scored the first seven points of the half. From there, it was blow-for-blow between the teams.
Nebraska and Maine alternated scoring from a 40-35 Nebraska lead until a 56-53 Nebraska lead nearly five minutes later. That last bucket came after Maine brought the game to just a one point difference as NU was getting 2s and Maine 3s.
“We knew that coming in that they had guys that can really heat up,” Hoiberg said. “We made an adjustment…shut it down a little bit.”
From there, Nebraska extended the lead to double-digits and hovered there for the rest of the game.
Sam Greisel’s regular-season debut as a Husker was an efficient one. The Lincoln East grad scored 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 1-of-2 from 3 and 5-of-6 on free throws. Griesel added nine rebounds and three assists.
Fan-favorite Keisei Tominaga not only hit multiple triples on the night, he also scored 10-straight points to give Nebraska a boost late in the first half. Tominaga ended with 19 points.
Juwan Gary also scored in double-figures, dropping 14 points. Six of those points came during the second half shootout. Gary also led the rebounding charge with 11 total and eight on the offensive end.
“(Gary)’s just relentless on the glass,” Griesel said. “We’re glad that he’s on our side.”
Yes, the opponent is out of the American East Conference, but Nebraska dominated the boards. The Huskers had 44 rebounds, including 16 offensive boards, to Maine’s 27.
As a team, Nebraska shot 46.2 percent for the game, including 7-of-22 from 3. The Huskers made 12-of-16 free throws.
Maine shot 47.3 percent from the floor and made 12-of-29 3s. Because of the rebounding difference, NU got 10 more shots up and shot six more free throws.
Nebraska stays home Thursday to host Omaha. The Mavericks dropped their season-opener Monday 89-64 at No. 5 Kansas.
“The next 48 hours are gonna be very important,” Hoiberg said. “Playing a quality opponent on Thursday, we’re gonna have to play better than we did tonight for the full 40 minutes.”