Huskers Ring in 2022 Against No. 13 Ohio State Sunday Night

Nebraska returns to Big Ten action on Sunday evening, as the Huskers welcome No. 13/12 (AP/Coaches) Ohio State to Pinnacle Bank Arena. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. and the matchup will be carried on the Big Ten Network and the Huskers Radio Network.  Tickets for Sunday’s game are available by visiting Huskers.com/Tickets, calling the NU Athletic Ticket Office at 800-8-BIGRED and at the Pinnacle Bank Arena box office beginning 90 minutes prior to tipoff.
 

The Huskers (6-7, 0-2 Big Ten) have been off since an 88-74 win over Kennesaw State on Dec. 22. In that game, Nebraska broke out of a shooting slump by shooting 52.6 percent from the field, including a season-best 15-of-29 from 3-point range. Alonzo Verge Jr. led the Huskers’ attack with 16 points and a career-high 12 assists, the most by any Big Ten player this season. Four Huskers finished in double figures, led by Keisei Tominaga’s 18-point night, as the junior college transfer went 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Tominaga is fourth on the team in scoring at 8.5 points per game, including a team-high 25 3-pointers.

Verge had 12 of the Huskers’ season-high 20 assists against Kennesaw State and enters the new year leading the Big Ten with 5.9 assists per game, a total which ranks 17th nationally. He is fifth nationally among power conference players in assists per game as of Dec. 28.  On the season, Verge tops Nebraska in scoring (16.4 ppg), assists (5.9 apg) and steals (1.6 spg).

Ohio State (8-2, 2-0) comes to Lincoln riding a four-game winning streak, but have been on a CoVID pause since mid-December. The Buckeyes have had their last three games canceled, including a matchup with New Orleans on Tuesday, and have not played since a 73-55 win over Wisconsin on Dec. 11. In that game, E.J. Liddell had 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting and nine rebounds while Zed Key added 11 points and nine boards. The Buckeyes, who are ranked 13th in this week’s AP poll, held Wisconsin to 34 percent shooting and out-rebounded the Badgers, 49-28.

Following Sunday’s game, NU will hit the road for three of their next four games beginning with a matchup at No. 10 Michigan State on Jan. 5.

B1G Numbers
3- Alonzo Verge’s three games with 10+ assists ties for third nationally, and matches the most by any power conference player in 2021-22 as of Dec. 29 (Kentucky’s Sahvir Wheeler). Verge never had 10+ assists in his two seasons at Arizona State.

15 – Nebraska’s 15 3-pointers against Kennesaw State was the most by a Husker team since also hitting 15 against Mississippi Valley State on Nov. 6, 2018. 

About Ohio State
Under the direction of fifth-year coach Chris Holtmann, Ohio State is 8-2 on the season and 2-0 in Big Ten play. Holtmann has guided OSU to four straight 20-win seasons and three NCAA Tournaments since taking over the program in 2017-18. Holtmann led Butler to three straight NCAA Tournaments in his three years at the school.

The Buckeyes returned four starters from a team that went 21-10 and reached the 2021 NCAA Tournament. OSU has two of the Big Ten’s best non-conference wins with a neutral-site win against Seton Hall (79-76) and a home win over No. 1 Duke (71-66) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. OSU’s two Big Ten wins were at Penn State and against Wisconsin, but OSU has been on a COVID pause since the win over the Badgers.

The Buckeyes return one of the Big Ten’s top players in junior forward E.J. Liddell, who returned after earning first-team All-Big Ten honors last season. Liddell is fourth in the conference in scoring at 20.6 ppg while shooting 56 percent from the field. The 6-foot-7, 240-pound forward also paces OSU in rebounds (7.2 rpg) and blocked shots (3.0 bpg). Sophomore Zed Key is second on the team in scoring at 10.4 ppg, while shooting 62 percent from the field, while Kyle Young comes off the bench and averages 10.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.

Ohio State leads the all-time series, 19-4, in a series that dates back to 1936. The Buckeyes are 15-2 against the Huskers since Nebraska joined the Big Ten with Nebraska’s wins coming in 2014 (Lincoln) and 2017 (Columbus). Nebraska looks to snap a five-game losing streak to the Buckeyes, while Sunday’s game is the 13th time in the 18 meetings that OSU has been ranked since Nebraska joined the Big Ten.
 
Last Time Out
Alonzo Verge Jr. scored 16 points and dished out a career-high 12 assists, as Nebraska broke out of a shooting slump with an 88-74 win over Kennesaw State on Dec. 22.

Verge posted his fourth double-double of the season, guiding a Husker offense that shot 53 percent from the field, including a season-high 15 3-pointers, and over 51 percent from long distance. Verge was one of four Huskers to finish in double figures.  Keisei Tominaga poured in a team-high 18 points, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, while Bryce McGowens and Derrick Walker Jr. added 11 apiece for Nebraska, which snapped a five-game losing streak.

Nebraska trailed by as many as eight early on before using a 15-0 spurt to build a 23-16 lead after a 3-pointer from C.J. Wilcher. NU held the Owls without a field goal for nearly five minutes in matching the Huskers’ largest spurt of the year.  Kennesaw State fought back with a 6-0 spurt, cutting NU’s lead to 27-24 before 3-pointers from Tominaga and Webster and a basket by Verge stretched the lead to 11. NU kept the lead around double figures and went into the locker room with a 45-34 lead after Trevor Lakes’ 3-pointer beat the halftime buzzer.

Nebraska took control early in the half, as Tominaga had eight of his 18 points in a 12-0 run that stretched the lead to 21, at 57-36 with 16:07 remaining. NU, which forced 21 turnovers and held the Owls to 41 percent shooting, stretched the lead to as many as 25 points, at 67-51 with just over eight minutes remaining and cruised to a 14-point win.
 
Worth Noting
• Nebraska’s 15 3-pointers against Kennesaw State were not only a season high, but marked just the sixth time since 1990 that Nebraska hit at least 15 3-pointers in a game. It was NU’s highest total since Nov. 6, 2018.
Most 3-pointers by NU Since 1990
 

 
• Alonzo Verge Jr.’s 16-point, 12-assist performance marked the eighth points-assist double-double by a Husker in Fred Hoiberg‘s two-plus seasons at Nebraska (Cam Mack-4; Dalano Banton-1; Alonzo Verge Jr.-3). Over the previous 30 years (1989-90 to 2018-19), it occurred just five times. Verge is only the second Husker to have multiple points-assists double-doubles in the same season since 1990.
 
• Nebraska added a player over the break as Denim Dawson enrolled for the start of the spring semester. Dawson, a 6-foot-6 wing who attended Southern California Academy as a postgrad. He played at Orange Lutheran, averaging 16 points and five rebounds per game as the school reached the California Division 2AA CIF-SS quarterfinals last spring. Dawson, who started practicing, is expected to redshirt this season.
 
• Nebraska is 2-9 all-time against teams ranked 13th in the AP poll. NU’s two wins were against Texas A&M (2010-11) and Oklahoma (1990-91). Ohio State will be the second ranked team the Huskers have faced in 2021-22. The Huskers look to snap an 18-game losing streak to ranked teams dating back to the 2019 Big Ten Tournament.
 
• Nebraska guard Bryce McGowens ranks third…