Sam Hoiberg will never be the first player mentioned when talking about the reasons Nebraska basketball wins basketball game after basketball game, but he probably should be. He was far from the only Husker who shone bright in Saturday afternoon's 68-49 win over Northwestern. Still, without his Energizer Bunny-type play, the day could have been quite scarier.
Despite a bunch of talk from NU about not taking the Wildcats lightly, Fred Hoiberg's squad didn't look all that locked in when the game started. After playing sloppy basketball for most of the first half, they were lucky to get to the break leading 28-27.
They started rough in the second half as well, and then, Sam Hoiberg took things over for Nebraska. His stepping up was especially important in a game where Rienk Mast (who seemed to injure his hand before the game) had his worst outing of the season.
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The big man was just 1-4 from the field, and despite hauling down 9 rebounds and dishing out 4 assists, his 6 turnovers were a third of Nebraska's season worst 18.
Meanwhile, Hoiberg just quietly and confidently kept the Huskers in the game in the first half and led the charge to explode to a 19-point win in the second period.
When Nebraska badly needed points, Hoiberg scored 8 in the first half while also hauling down 3 rebounds and nabbing a steal. After the break, he added another 6 points to finish with 14 while grabbing another 4 rebounds, tallying 4 more assists, and pulling off 3 more steals.
The coach's son's performance allows Cornhusker fans to rest easy after there had to be some concern over the sloppy play for the first 25-30 minutes. Pryce Sandfort's 18 (of his 25) and Cale Jacobsen's scoring 10 in the second half helped as well.
Still, Nebraska came off a game against Purdue where it had played just a little better in the first half, and would have toppled the Boilermakers. They repeated the poor start on Saturday. With six games to go in the season, the Huskers need to figure out a way to start fast, so heriocs aren't always needed.