After going back-and-forth to open the game, Nebraska had the game tied at 13-13 on a 3-pointer by Teddy Allen with just over 13 minutes left in the first half.
From there, though, the Huskers’ shooting would completely disappear.
Nebraska would go on to make just one basket over the final 13:15 of the half, including a 10:14 field goal drought in which NU missed 13 straight shots.
That allowed Ohio State to close the half on a 25-8 run and take a 38-21 lead into the break. The Huskers shot just 20.7 percent from the field, went 3-for-16 from 3-point range, and missed 17 of their final 18 first-half shots in the opening 20 minutes.
Things didn’t get any better for NU after halftime, either.
The Buckeyes made five of their first six shots to begin the second half on a 16-2 run and pushed their lead up to 28 after just 5:30 of play.
The avalanche only continued from there, as Ohio State’s run would grow to 30-5 to push the margin to as much as 41 points before all was said and done. Kyle Ahrens came off the bench and scored 15 of his game-high 18 points in the second half on 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point range.
Allen was the only Husker to score in double figures with 13 points but was 3-of-9 from the field, while Dalano Banton added six points (on 3-of-11 shooting) and a team-high eight rebounds.
Nebraska will ring in the New Year on Saturday against its fourth-straight ranked opponent, as No. 17 Michigan State comes to town for a 7 p.m. CT tip on BTN.
1. Nebraska has zero trust right now
It’s one thing to shoot poorly, especially on the road against a ranked team. It’s an entirely different story to play the way Nebraska did offensively on Wednesday night.
The loss to Ohio State was the most glaring example of the level of issues head coach Fred Hoiberg and his staff are dealing with in terms of NU’s mentality with the basketball.
They weren’t just missing shots. There was no ball movement, with rushed 3-pointers early in the shot clock that never had a chance of going in.
The Huskers look like a group of players who don’t trust themselves to knock down baskets and make clutch plays. Even worse, they look like players who don’t trust each other to do the same, either.
Hoiberg said he believed his team was still together after a 20th straight Big Ten loss. Yvan Ouedraogo said the same thing.
But when you’re missing countless open looks and then panicking and forcing the issue to try and snap out of it, you get results like Wednesday night.
Nebraska has some serious issues on its hands right now, and it’s hard to say whether it will be able to fix them any time soon.
2. The go-to guys were off
Nebraska is already walking an very fine line when it comes to offensive productivity, so when guys like Banton and All are off, things get ugly.
That was the case at Ohio State, as the Huskers’ top two scorers scored a combined 19 points on 20 shots, five fouls, four turnovers, and two assists.
After making his first two shots to open the game, Banton finished 1-for-9 the rest of the night and did not record a single assist. He came into the game ranked fourth in the Big Ten with 5.2 assists per contest.
Allen played just 22 minutes and only eight in the second half after picking up his fourth foul with 17:24 still to play. Five of his team-high 13 points came when NU was down 38 or more in the final six minutes.
Understandably, those guys will have bad nights, but this loss highlighted just how costly it could be when either player – let alone both of them – goes cold in the same game.
The Huskers aren’t getting nearly enough from their bench or even some of their starters at this point.
Trey McGowens (6), Lat Mayen (7), and Yvan Ouedraogo (4) combined to score 17 points. Nebraska’s bench was out-scored 47-18.
The only chance they have is when Banton fills up the stat sheet at an efficient clip and Allen is in a groove. That’s going to be a risky path to travel over the next 17 games.
3. The offense had zero flow
Missing shots, many of them on good, open looks, was only part of the problem for Nebraska offensively on Wednesday night.
After the first handful of possessions, the Huskers had zero offensive flow, especially when Ohio State got going and separated on the scoreboard.
When the final buzzer finally sounded, NU had managed just three assists on 17 made shots, did not score a single Fastbreak point, and was 5-of-33 on 3-pointers.
Hoiberg said he couldn’t remember being part of a game as a head coach where a team had a 3-to-15 assist-to-turnover ratio.
On many of those missed threes, the ball was shot after just one or two passes, as the ball movement Hoiberg has been preaching since Day 1 was non-existent much of the night.
When you’re shooting as poorly as Nebraska is right now, the worst thing you can do is start jacking up quick, bad shots without trying to manufacture anything in the half-court.
The Huskers aren’t good enough to shoot themselves out of their current funk, as this loss proved precisely why.
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