(Lincoln, NE) — 13th ranked Nebraska ran their record to 14-0 by beating #9 Michigan St. 58-56 on Friday night in a Big Ten match up.
Michigan St.’s Carson Cooper had a chance to possibly force overtime but missed two free throws at the very end of regulation.
In the first half, with the game tied at 22-22, the Huskers went on a 6-0 run but Jaxon Kohler hit a three for the Spartans the game went back to being tied at 31-31. The game was tied 33-33 at the half.
The game swung back and forth in the 2nd half — Pryce Sandfort hit a huge three pointer to give Nebraska a 44-38 lead with 11:17 left. Moments later, Braden Frager added another three for the Huskers for the biggest lead for either team 47-38 with 9:31 remaining.
Michigan St. came back with a 6-0 run and Frager hit another three but Kohler answered right back for the Spartans and after a missed three by the Huskers, Kur Teng hit a three for MSU to tie the game at 50-50.
After a Sam Hoiberg lay-up, Teng hit another three for a 53-52 Spartan lead with 5:38 left. The Spartans lead went to 55-52 on a Jeremy Fears jumper with 4:41 remaining.
Hoiberg hit two free throws for the Huskers and Teng finally missed for Michigan St. Jamarques Lawrence missed a short jumper for Nebraska but Rienk Mast got a huge offensive rebound and was fouled. He hit 1-2 free throws to tie the game at 55-55. Off the 2nd miss, Mast got the rebound but Sandfort missed a three. After a media timeout, a Spartan mistake allowed Mast to hit a go ahead three with 1:54 left.
Mast led Nebraska (14-0, 3-0) with 19 points and was 6-13 on threes. Sandfort had 13 points and Lawrence added 12.
Michigan St. (12-2, 2-1) was led by Kohler with 19 points, Fears had 14 and Teng 12.
