Nebraska men’s basketball ties regular season wins record, handles tricky Maryland squad, 74-61

The Husker men’s basketball team took care of business against an overmatched but scrappy Maryland team on Wednesday night. Nebraska outlasted the Terrapins, 74-61, at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.

With the win, the Cornhuskers tied a school record for regular season wins, improving to 24-4 overall and 13-4 in Big Ten conference action. The 24 wins ties the 1990-91 team, while the 13 conference wins ties the 2017-18 for the best in program history. Maryland is now 11-17 on the year with a 4-13 conference mark.

One early bright spot for NU was Jamarques Lawrence making the starting lineup. The senior guard missed some practice this week with an illness. He also missed the end of a win against Penn State on Saturday with a leg injury.

Both offenses stumbled out of the gate in the first half, and Nebraska didn’t score until more than five minutes into the game.

Finally, freshman Braden Frager took the lid off the rim with two free throws and a running, transition layup, high off the glass, after he tipped and stole a Maryland pass. Junior forward Pryce Sandfort extended his school record for three-pointers in a season on the next possession.

That gave the Huskers their first lead of the game at 7-6.

About one minute later, point guard Sam Hoiberg flipped a pass back out to Frager on the fast break. Frager drilled the three to give NU a 10-8 advantage. He would find the bottom of the net again from distance, hitting a three around the eight- minute mark. Frager had 10 points in the first half to lead his team — all coming in the first 12 minutes.

That and a short shot from Hoiberg gave Nebraska a 19-13 lead.

An 8-2 run from the visitors tied the game at 21, before junior Berke Büyüktuncel hit an inside shot that gave the Big Red a small edge, 23-21, going into the final media timeout of the first period. Made free throws and a layup by Sandfort, along with a three and a free throw from Hoiberg, were a part of a 10-3 run, giving the Huskers a 31-24 lead.

An acrobatic triple to beat the shot clock by Andre Mills of Maryland cut the lead to four at 31-27. Büyüktuncel dropped a couple of free throws, which made it 33-27 at the break.

Maryland came ready to play early in the second half.

The teams traded threes out of intermission. Rienk Mast followed that up with a three moments later to give Nebraska a 39-32 lead.

Maryland, helped by two threes from Mills, one was later overturned and called a two, tied the game at 39-39 on a 7-0 run.

The Terrapins eventually grabbed the lead on a three from Elijah Saunders. That and a mid-range jumper from Mills gave Maryland a 48-45 advantage.

The Big Red offense started to flow with its back against the wall.

Mast restarted the offense with a couple of good looks under the basket. Sandfort also made his 100th three-pointer of the season during a 22-6 run. Hoiberg scored six straight points for the Huskers to push the lead out to 67-54. The lead got as large as 15 before NU coasted to a 74-61 win.

Frager paced the offense with 21 points off the bench, followed by Sandfort with 16, Mast with 13 and Hoiberg with 12. Mills and Saunders led Maryland with 19 points and 15 points, respectively.

The Cornhuskers will travel west this weekend to face USC on Saturday.