Dylan Widger photo-USA TODAY Sports
Husker Men’s Hot Start Fuels Solid Win Over Omaha
Hosting the Omaha Mavericks on Thursday night, Nebraska men’s basketball started strong, weathered a dry spell and pulled away for a 75-61 victory.
Sophomore guard CJ Wilcher had 10 points by halftime and led all scorers with a career-high 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including a game-best 4-for-7 from beyond the arc. Senior point guard Sam Griesel added 18 points and surpassed 1,000 career points.
The second game of the season started with NU hitting four of its first five shots while forcing six straight UNO misses on the other end of the floor, good for an 11-0 run right out of the gate. Senior SMU transfer Emmanuel Bandoumel buried a pair of three-pointers in between a three-point play from 6-foot-11 sophomore forward Blaise Keita and a Griesel layup.
The largest lead of the half was 17 after Denim Dawson brought the house down with a slam dunk with nine minutes remaining. The highlight-reel play made it 26-9, and Wilcher matched that margin at 29-12 with a putback about a minute later.
Then the patented Nebrasketball scoring drought arrived.
The Mavs launched an 11-0 run of their own, trimming Nebraska’s lead to 29-23 with 5:15 to go before halftime. Bellevue West alum Frankie Fidler scored five of the 11 points in the run, including all three free throw attempts after being fouled while shooting a three.
During the dry spell, the Huskers missed layups on three straight possessions, then committed a couple of charges. Wilcher then missed a three, but redshirt freshman Denim Dawson nabbed an important rebound that Griesel turned into a drawn foul and two made free throws.
Griesel scored NU’s next seven points after stopping Omaha’s run, including going 5-for-6 from the line. Overall, the Huskers went 5:56 without a made field goal and 3:13 without scoring at all.
Wilcher then pushed the Husker advantage back to double digits before the break with Nebraska’s last five points of the half. The score was 41-31 at intermission.
Omaha managed a 6-0 run around the midway point of the second half, cutting the Husker lead to seven at 55-48. Wilcher stopped the bleeding by knocking down a three at the other end, and the Mavs never got closer than nine points.
Eventually pushing the lead as high as 19 points at 74-55, Nebraska closed out a 14-point win for their first 2-0 start under head coach Fred Hoiberg.
How long has it taken the Huskers under Hoiberg to get their second win? The 2019-20 team took four games, the 2020-21 squad got it done in three games, and last season’s group needed four games.
For reference, Tim Miles started 2-0 or better in six of his seven seasons in Lincoln, the one exception being a game two loss at eventual national champion Villanova in the 2015-16 season.
In addition to Wilcher and Griesel, Bandoumel scored in double figures with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting and 2-for-4 from deep. Keita finished with nine points and 12 boards. Junior Juwan Gary rounded out NU’s starting five, scoring zero points but finding one rebound and one steal.
Dawson contributed eight points in 21 minutes off the bench. Jamarques Lawrence, a true freshman guard, made his Husker debut and hit one of two free throws. No other Huskers scored, including sophomore big man Wilhelm Breidenbach and junior guard Keisei Tominaga, who each missed two shots.
Leading the way for UNO were Jaeden Marshall and Marquel Sutton, who scored 16 and 14 points, respectively. Star scorer Frankie Fidler was held in check with eight points on just 1-for-8 shooting from the field before fouling out late.
Senior forward Derrick Walker, the longest-tenured Husker on the roster, sat out again with an unspecified medical issue. Juwan Gary left the game early in the second half with an apparent shoulder injury, but Hoiberg said postgame that he could have come back in if needed.
The Huskers will hit the road next Thursday, Nov. 17, for their next game at St. John’s in a matchup for the Big Ten vs. Big East Gavitt Games.
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