Fred Hoiberg knew Sunday’s home game against the Ohio State Buckeyes was going to be tough. They all are in this dog-eat-dog Big Ten Conference.

On top of Ohio State being a good, physical group likely headed for the NCAA Tournament, Hoiberg’s Huskers were faced with trying to beat Jake Diebler’s team on short notice with an early 1 p.m. tip after returning from an exhausting two-game swing through the Pacific Northwest on Thursday.

And early in the game Sunday inside Pinnacle Bank Arena, Hoiberg thought Nebraska wasn’t winning enough of those 50-50 balls he talks about so often.

“The biggest thing we talked about at halftime was the rebounding and taking care of the basketball,” Hoiberg said about his Huskers, who went into halftime trailing 39-34.

But with the calendar flipped to February, Nebraska is now showing it can be a good basketball team, too. Perhaps one that can make noise in the Big Ten Tournament and solidify a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.

A good team, yes. But it’s also a group with one of the Big Ten’s best bucket-getters in Brice Williams. And it was the 6-foot-7 Williams who recorded a double-double of 24 points, 10 rebounds and four assists to power the Huskers to a come-from-behind win, 79-71.

The victory is Nebraska’s fourth straight and improves the record to 16-8 overall and 6-7 in the Big Ten. The loss drops Ohio State to 14-10, 6-7.

NU has now won four of the last five meetings against OSU. Sunday’s win also gives NU an all-important Quad 1 victory, the fifth of the season for the Huskers and third in this four-game win streak (Illinois and Oregon being the others).

Three thoughts on Nebraska’s win over Ohio State

Williams, who recently earned honors like AP National Player of the Week and Big Ten Player of the Week, went 5-of-5 at the free-throw line in the win, all of which came in the second half when NU was putting OSU away in the final moments.

Sunday marked Williams’ fourth consecutive game with at least 23 points.

“Brice isn’t being a pig out there. He’s not going out and shooting the ball every time. He’s making the right play,” Hoiberg said in the postgame press conference. “He’s getting it in the pocket, he’s making the shake pass. He hit Sam (Hoiberg) on an exit where he curled, got fouled, and we scored there. He’s just making the right play.”

Nebraska allowed OSU to score 39 points and shoot 48.4% from the field in the first half. NU also turned the ball over seven times, which OSU used to score nine points. In the second half? The Huskers held the Buckeyes to 32 points, just 36.7% shooting and limited the turnovers — only three turnovers, and the Buckeyes didn’t score any points off them.

“Our edge in the second half was where we needed it, and we did a good job of coming away with a lot of those 50-50 balls,” Hoiberg said.

A big part of that second half comeback was Juwan Gary, the Robin to Williams’ Batman. Gary was one of four rotation players who had to sit most of the first half due to foul trouble. But in the second half, Gary was everywhere and provided a spark that led to NU outscoring OSU 45-32 in the final 20 minutes.

Gary ended his day with 19 points, five rebounds, one block and one steal.

There was a moment when Hoiberg thought about taking Gary out of the game when he picked up his third foul fairly early in the second half. But Hoiberg rolled the dice, took the gamble and let Gary, who scored NU’s first five points in the second stanza and was doing good things on both ends of the court, stay in the game. It worked out.

“We’re thankful he didn’t end up picking up his fourth,” Hoiberg said. “We switched the matchup a little bit to get him off their driver, their aggressive player, because I knew they were going to go at him to try to draw his fourth. He did a good job staying on the floor.”

NU got several winning plays from role players in the win. Among them, moments from Connor Essegian, Andrew Morgan and Rollie Worster stood out.

Essegian’s offensive rebound and putback tied the game at 48 midway through the second half. That was a bright spot on an otherwise quiet night for NU’s sixth man — Essegian ended with five points and was 1-of-4 from 3.

Knowing he only played six minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, Morgan went into the second half determined to ball out and empty his tank. So when the North Dakota State transfer saw a loose ball, he hit the deck and was able to get the ball to Worster.

After collecting the steal and resetting, Morgan floated down to the paint, and Ohio State lost him. Worster sure didn’t, though, and the transfer point guard from Utah found Morgan under the hoop for an easy two to give Nebraska a 50-48 lead.

“Connor gets the second-chance point, the offensive rebound off two feet, and then Andrew Morgan may have made the play of the game, diving on the floor and then getting the layup on the back end of it,” Hoiberg said.

Worster, who entered the game as a 21.6% 3-point shooter and only had eight treys coming into the game, wound up connecting on a huge 3 late that put the Huskers up 65-60 with 3:05 left in the game.

Nebraska trailed 39-34 at halftime and dealt with foul trouble with four key players. Gary, Berke Buyuktuncel, Worster and Morgan all picked up two fouls — many of which were ticky-tack if you ask the PBA crowd — and didn’t play as many minutes as they usually do.

In the first half Nebraska had held a nine-point lead, 21-12, thanks to a 13-2 run that included six points from an aggressive-driving Williams. But Ohio State never went away and was hitting shots.

Micah Parrish and John Mobley Jr. combined to score 25 points (Parrish 14, Mobley 11) and five 3s (Parrish was 2-of-5 from 3, Mobley 3-of-5) in the first half. They finished with a combined 51 points, with Parrish scoring a game-high 30 and Mobley 21.

Starting big Berke Buyuktuncel left the game with a sprained ankle, Hoiberg confirmed in the postgame presser. The transfer from UCLA finished with 15 points (3-of-5 from 3), six rebounds and three assists. He provided outside scoring, too, going 3-of-5 from 3.

“He twisted it pretty good,” Hoiberg said of Buyuktuncel’s ankle. “We don’t know exactly what it is yet. We’ll reevaluate him in the morning. But the early diagnosis is it’s a pretty good sprain.”

Hoiberg also added this about the 6-10 UCLA transfer: “That was his best game in a Husker uniform.”

Another game, another opportunity to strengthen the NCAA résumé with a ranked team coming to town. No days off in this Big Ten league.

Nebraska welcomes the No. 18-ranked Maryland Terrapins (18-6, 8-5) on Thursday inside PBA. Like Ohio State was, Maryland will provide Nebraska with another Quad 1 opportunity. That game is set to tip at 7:30 p.m.

Maryland was riding a four-game winning streak until letting a 17-point lead at Ohio State slip away for a 73-70 loss last Thursday. In that game, the Buckeyes outscored the Terrapins 41-29 in the second half.

Maryland hosted Rutgers on Sunday and got back in the win column thanks to a 90-81 victory. Derik Queen went berserk with a double-double of 29 points, 15 rebounds (six offensive rebounds) and five assists. The 6-10 freshman also went 11-of-13 from the free-throw line.

The Huskers will be aiming for some payback after losing 69-66 to Maryland in College Park on Jan. 19, but will need to bring their A-game.

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