A gritty Huskers performance, beating Ohio State 63-60

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Behind a Big Ten season best for Nebraska, the Huskers scored 42 points in the second half to beat Ohio State 63-60. The defense was also impressive holding the Buckeyes to a season low 60 points. Sam Griesel returned from an injury and scored 15 points with ten of those coming in the second half. Keisei Tominaga added 11 points in his second start of the season. Denim Dawson had a career eight rebounds, he also played a career-high 30 minutes for the banged up Huskers.

Fred Hoiberg said, “First of all, I want to say how proud I am of our guys for coming out and showing a lot of resolve in that first half. Obviously, it was a rock fight out there and the ball wasn’t going through the hoop on either side, but we didn’t hang our heads. We were missing some really good looks out there, and I thought we kept guarding. I was really proud of Demin (Dawson). I thought he had a tough assignment with (Brice) Sensabaugh who is one of the tougher covers in this league.”

Nebraska committed itself to the boards outrebounding Ohio State 39-38, coming into the game the Buckeyes ranked top-30 nationally with a rebound margin of +6.2. With a win last year in Columbus this is the first time the Huskers have beat OSU in consecutive games.

The team also announced Juwan Gary will miss the rest of the season with a shoulder injury, he will have surgery next week. Gary started all 17 games in his first season after transferring from Alabama.

“I feel for Juwan to have his season end because of injury,” Hoiberg said. “He brings so much to our team with his toughness and rebounding, and he was playing some of his best basketball when he got hurt. For Juwan, having the surgery now allows him to rehab and get back to 100 percent for the start of next season. Our team has taken a ‘next man up’ approach when we been without players, and that is what we will have to do in Juwan’s absence.”

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