Nebrasketball Falls 75-54 to No. 23 Ohio State

Over the course of this now 13 game losing streak, Nebraska (7-21, 2-15 Big Ten) has had blowouts and down to the wire finishes.

Thursday night felt as ho-hum as any game could have been.

There was no giant run that the Huskers didn’t stem; no school record for shooting from the opponent. There was simply the steadiness of No. 23 Ohio State (19-9, 9-8 Big Ten) from start to finish and the slow grind of extending the lead then holding it.

“When things get tough, you can see it,” said Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg. “You can see the heads drop. You can see it in the huddles. It’s just not the same energy. We have to find a way to get past that.”

Nebraska struck first with an Yvan Ouedraogo bucket in the paint. This would be the only lead of the night for the home team.

Ohio State answered with a trio of triples form Duane Washington Jr. and never looked back. The Buckeyes used a 12-2 run and later a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 21 before a 7-0 Nebraska run brought things back with a minute to go in the half. Ohio State led 43-27 at the break.

“I thought in transition we did a solid job,” said Hoiberg. “On the boards, they had four offensive rebounds in the first half. I thought we did a lot of good things, even though they scored 43 points. Give Ohio State credit. They came out in great rhythm and great pace in their offense.”

Ouedraogo started the second-half with another bucket, but the game was never in doubt as the deficit flunctuated from 14 points to as much as 23 as Ohio State grabbed the road win 75-54.

“I thought we played our best half at Maryland when we had a 13-point deficit there,” said Hoiberg. “To be able to fight back on the road against the number one team in our league, we talked about coming out with that same mentality. It just wasn’t the same. We lost the second half by five and the first half by 16. Defensively in the first half, we limited them in places we wanted to limit them. The second half was too easy for them.”

After starting 5-of-6 on three-pointers, the Buckeyes went 1-of-19 the rest of the way. They also shot 40.3-percent from the field as a whole.

The Huskers shot just 35.6-percent on field goals, making just 3-of-16 from deep. The first made triple for Nebraska came with 11:29 to go in the game.

“If we weren’t giving any effort in practice, I would be worried about this group, but they still come in to work,” said Hoiberg. “When you come out in the game, hopefully you can consistently put effort in 40 minutes. For the most part of the season, our guys have had great effort. Our guys, especially some individually, have gotten better.”

Dachon Burke Jr. and Cam Mack were the only Huskers in double figures with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Ouedraogo grabbed six rebounds, moving him into first place in program history for rebounds by a freshman.

“Personally I can say the Big Ten Tournament, it doesn’t matter how the season ends every team gets a shot,” said Thorir Thorbjarnarson. “With three games to go, we just have to try to get some momentum going into that, and we have a perfect opportunity on Sunday. I think that’s going to be a key game for us to head into the tournament in Indianapolis.”

Nebraska hosts Northwestern (6-21, 1-16 Big Ten) on Senior Day March 1. The Wildcats won the first meeting 62-57 in January. The loser of that game will likely be the last seed in the Big Ten Conference Tournament.