Nebraska owns boards, ends rivalry drought with Kansas State

Field Level Media|published: Sun 17th December, 17:28 2023

Dec 6, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Fred Hoiberg reacts during the second half against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Williams Arena. credits: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

Rienk Mast scored 19 points to go along with 12 rebounds and Juwan Gary had 13 and 18, respectively, as Nebraska ended a seven-game losing streak to Kansas State with a win 62-46 Sunday in Manhattan, Kan.

The Cornhuskers (9-2) outrebounded the Wildcats 57-40, including 22-13 on the offensive glass, as they steadily built a 19-point second-half lead.

The Cornhuskers' Brice Williams chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds.

Kansas State (8-3) managed just 12 second-half points. For the game, the Wildcats shot 26.7 percent from the floor, including just 4-of-30 (13.3 percent) from the 3-point line.

Cam Carter scored 12, Tylor Perry had 11 and Arthur Kaluma added eight for the Wildcats.

The Cornhuskers finished 35.5 percent from 3-point range on 11-of-31 shooting. They had the advantage in points in the paint, 28-22, and second-chance points, 16-12.

Nebraska won the second-half rebounding battle 34-17 to take control of the game after the teams were even on the glass 23-all in the first half. Gary had 13 rebounds in the second half alone.

The Cornhuskers went ahead to stay at 39-38 on a layup by Gary at the 17:51 mark of the second half.

Nebraska then built a seven-point lead eight minutes into the second half on Josiah Allick's layup and slowly built the lead from there.

The Cornhuskers grabbed their first double-digit lead at 52-41 with 9:13 to play on a jumper by Mast.

The lead peaked at 62-43 with 3:59 left when Williams capped a 25-5 run with a 3-pointer. K-State scored just one point in a stretch of 9:39, missing seven straight field goals in the drought.

Nebraska built a 14-7 lead early in the game on the strength of three 3-pointers from Mast, who scored 11 first-half points.

Kansas State regained the lead a little more than two minutes later on Dai Dai Ames' layup.

Neither team built another lead larger than three points until Carter hit a 3-pointer from the corner for a 31-25 Wildcats lead with 3:12 left in the half.

K-State led 34-31 at halftime.

—Field Level Media