Huskers welcome hot-shooting North Florida to Pinnacle Bank Arena

Fred Hoiberg’s Nebraska Cornhuskers (5-1) welcome the North Florida Ospreys (5-2) today for a 3 p.m. contest inside Pinnacle Bank Arena.

The game will be televised by BTN.

Nebraska is hoping to continue the shot-making it showed last Wednesday in a 96-79 win over South Dakota. The Huskers made 13 3-pointers in the victory, 10 of which came in the first half. Going into the game, the previous high for 3s in a game was just seven.

NU’s 96 points were the most since it scored 100 in a 104-100 three-overtime loss at NC State in 2001. NU is 8-2 under Hoiberg when scoring at least 90 points, and both losses came in overtime.

But while the Huskers haven’t shot it well prior to South Dakota, they have been good about manufacturing points in different ways, and the free-throw line is one. NU ranks second nationally in average free-throw makes (22.2), eighth in free-throw attempts (28.2) and 25th in free-throw percentage (78.7%). Brice Williams, the Huskers’ leading scorer at 18.7 points per game, has been clutch at the line, shooting 91.3% (42-of-46).

North Florida comes into the game with a 3-point-heavy focus offensively. The Ospreys lead the nation in made 3s per game (13.4) while they’re second in average 3-point attempts (35.1) and 43rd in 3-point percentage (38.2).

North Florida has seen major success already this season as it has wins over power conference opponents South Carolina (74-71) and Georgia Tech (105-93).

“You look at their wins, not only did they win but they won significantly in opposing gyms against high major opponents. So this is a really good basketball team we’re playing that a great year last year,” Hoiberg said after the South Dakota game. “They’re well coached, and we got our hands full on Sunday.”

Look for NU to use its size advantage against the smaller Ospreys, who have just one player listed over 6-foot-9: 7-foot freshman Arden Begaj, who hasn’t played yet this season.

One thing to watch for are the statuses of two starters in the 6-6 Juwan Gary and 6-10 Berke Buyuktuncel. Both left the South Dakota game in the first half with injuries. Gary was hit in the eye and was seen with bruising on his face when he returned from the locker room. Hoiberg said Buyuktuncel was dealing with a left hip injury and didn’t know how serious the injury was. Buyuktuncel returned to the bench but didn’t play.

A big part of the game plan could include Braxton Meah, NU’s 7-2 transfer from Washington. Meah is coming off his best performance offensively as a Husker. The native of Utah scored 12 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting against South Dakota. All of his buckets came off dunks.

Playing in NU’s system has been a work in progress for Meah, he said after the South Dakota game.

“It took a minute trying to understand everything,” Meah said. “There’s a lot coach Hoiberg puts into his system, so it just took me a little while to figure it out. We’re getting there.”

North Florida boasts six players who average double-digit scoring, and one of them hails from Nebraska in Seward native Nate Lliteras. Lliteras is a sixth-year player who spent the first four seasons of his college basketball career at Longwood.

The 6-6, 215-pound Lliteras averages 14.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game while shooting 44.3% from 3-point range (15-of-34).