It took a half to get going, but the Nebraska men’s basketball team found their shooting touch in the second half to bury West Georgia, 86-53, Monday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena in the season opener for both teams. The Cornhuskers (1-0) shot 62.5 percent in the second half (20-for-35) after struggling at a 31.3 percent clip (10-for-35) in the game’s first 20 minutes.
Lincoln native Braden Frager led Nebraska in scoring in his NU debut, scoring 22 points on eight-of-11 shooting. Jemarcus Lawrence added 18 points on five-for-eight shooting from three-point range in his return to the Huskers after playing a year at Rhode Island. Connor Essegian tallied 12 points, while Rienk Mast registered a double-double in his return from missing all of last year with a back injury, scoring 10 points and grabbing a team-high 11 rebounds. Shelton Williams-Dryden led the Wolves (0-1) in scoring with 14 points on five-for-19 shooting.
West Georgia bolted out to an early 9-4 lead, and held a 19-13 edge with just under seven minutes to go until halftime. With five minutes to go until intermission, the Wolves led 21-16. But then an 8-2 NU run gave the Huskers a 24-23 lead, their first time on top since Sam Hoiberg hit a layup to start the game. West Georgia went back ahead, 25-24, with just under three minutes to go in the first half, but then Nebraska went on a 6-0 run to close the half. Lawrence made a layup and drained a three to tally the last four points of the half. The Huskers went into halftime with a 30-25 lead.
Nebraska opened the second half on a 10-0 run, highlighted by two three-pointers by Lawrence, and the Huskers opened a 40-25 lead with 17:19 remaining in regulation. After a pair of Wolves’ free throws, Nebraska sprinted out to another 10-0 run, building the lead to 50-27, with Frager punctuating the run with a dunk to cash in a West Georgia turnover. In all, it was a 26-2 Husker run covering 10 minutes that all but iced the game for Nebraska. The Wolves briefly pulled to within 19, but otherwise, the Huskers led by at least 20 the rest of the way and led by as many as 38 down the stretch.
Nebraska is next in action Saturday at noon against Florida International at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Pregame coverage begins at 11 a.m. on KLIN.