Postgame Notes

• With the 10-point win, the Huskers have now posted 11 double-digit victories this season, including nine double-digit wins in 12 home games.
• Nebraska shot 50.9 percent from the field, the third consecutive game the Huskers have shot better than 50 percent. The streak of three consecutive Big Ten games shooting 50 percent or better ties is the longest since a four-game Big Ten streak in 2015-16
• Pryce Sandfort scored a game-high 23 points, his third consecutive game with 20 or more points. Sandfort has eight 20-point efforts this season and nine in his career.
• Sandfort was 4-of-7 from the 3-point line, and he has now made 16-of-28 3-pointers over the last three games (57.1 percent).
• Sam Hoiberg scored 14 points, the second-highest total of his career in a Big Ten Conference game, one shy of the 15 points he scored at Maryland in 2023.
• Hoiberg tied for the team lead with seven rebounds, marking the fourth time in the past seven games he has led the Huskers in rebounding. Hoiberg also tied for the team lead with four assists, the sixth consecutive game he has led Nebraska in assists.
• Nebraska has 18 assists and just eight turnovers, the fourth straight game with eight or fewer assists.

Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg

On Braden Frager
“He’s pretty sore, we’ll know a lot more tomorrow, so don’t want to say too much until we see how he does overnight. We’ll x-ray him tomorrow just really for precautionary reasons. Our trainer thinks everything is gonna be fine. Right now, it’s an ankle sprain and we’ll know more tomorrow.”

On if Frager misses time
“I just told the guys in the locker room, everybody has to be ready. Braden has given us a lot obviously, this season on both ends of the floor and everybody has to be ready to step up in his absence and contribute and I thought guys did that tonight. Jared (Garcia) gave us some good minutes and that lineup with Cale (Jacobsen) at the end at the four gave us some good defensive versatility. We’ve got guys that, with everything we've done, are built to play big minutes. We are probably going to have to change some things in practice now. We get pretty physical with them at times when we have to but we may have to change that up a little bit now. Especially with the two games here with a short amount of time. We are heading into a really tough Minnesota team in an early game on Saturday so we won't do a ton of live reps in practice the next couple of days. Then we have another two day prep after that. We will get through it. Next man up mentality, that's how it goes in this business. I am confident in that locker room.”

On the physicality of the game
“Yeah they were unbelievably physical. That’s what they do. (Hannes) Steinbach is an absolute monster. He’s one of the best I’ve seen at getting his own miss. I thought we did a better job on the glass in the second half with him. He had four in the first, one in the second, but he was washing us out of the paint pretty good. We did a lot of good things in that game, we got up 18 in that game. I thought our offensive rhythm was really good with exception at the end of the first, and then we were just trying to hang on there at the end in the second half. You shoot over 50% against a really good defensive team, a really physical team. It’s a good win. They made some tough shots in the first half. They made some mid-range contested ones. That’s what we live with, with our defense. You shake their hand when they make those. If you keep doing it and keep giving those up, you’re going to have good success. They did beat us up a little bit in the paint, there’s no doubt about it. There’s a lot of things we’re going to learn from this game, but at the end of the day it’s a double-digit win in Big Ten play. That’s a hell of an accomplishment.”

Junior forward Pryce Sandfort

On the way he’s being guarded
“It's kind of felt like that the whole season with how they’ve been guarding me, but I give a lot of credit to my teammates and coaches for getting me in the right spots. We know how to combat those types of defensive principles if they are going to hug me like or switch a lot or anything like that, but it’s nice when I can get going and transition when this guy (Jamarques Lawrence) is finding me in transition and Sam (Hoiberg) and everybody, and I got Rienk (Mast) and BK (Berke Buyuktuncel) setting great screens and Coach is drawing up good sets. It's been good getting going even when I’m getting defended like that.”

Senior guard Jamarques Lawrence

On Frager being out
“I blocked it out good. Personally, I didn't know what's going on until the end of the last media (timeout). That's when I saw him (Braden Frager) walk out in the boot, and I saw a clip of Connor (Essegian) just sitting down and praying with him. We'll all be here to support him, stick with him.”

On Jared Garcia’s impact
“Just his toughness and obviously his size. He's very athletic. Obviously, when he steps on the floor, he's big for us. The main thing for him is just being confident, in our rotations defensively, sometimes he could just be in his own head. Like I said, he's a great player, and he's going to keep finding his shot as well. For him, just stay in poise, that’s really it.”

Washington head coach Danny Sprinkle

Opening Statement
“I’m proud of our guys’ effort. It’s not an excuse, we lost another guy this week, Wesley Yates on Monday. Just a basic non contact rebounding drill. But I love the fight of our guys. To have this many freshmen playing against a team like Nebraska is right now. They’re playing as well as anybody in the country. Their pace is phenomenal. I got to give a lot of credit to Coach Hoiberg and their staff, but their players, to be in the shape and to share the basketball the way they do is really impressive. I know a lot of coaches have probably said that they’re impressive offensively and defensively. But my team, I’m proud of these guys for the way they compete and just hung in the game. Because you guys have seen a lot of teams have come in and when they start making shots and the crowd gets rocking, which by the way, that was the best crowd that we’ve played in front of this year. That’s impressive too. But for our guys to keep fighting back when the game could've gotten away from us really easily, I’m really proud of our competitive spirit tonight. I love the way Zoom Diallo came out and kept us in striking distance in the first half, and being aggressive. I didn't think the rest of the team was as aggressive as they needed to be in the first half if they were going to have a chance to win this game. In the second half, Hannes (Stienbach) was a lot more aggressive getting that ball to the rim and rebound and opening things up. When you play a team like this, we don't have much margin for error against a team like this. When they start making those threes and the place gets rocking, it gets really hard. In the first half, we probably had five or six switch breakdowns, which led to four of their threes.” 

On trying to take advantage in the paint
“I wouldn’t say trying to exploit because I think they do a pretty good job in the paint. But, that’s one of our strengths. We haven’t shot the ball great this year, and it’s crazy because I think we have some pretty good shooters. I’m just waiting for that kind of dam to break a little bit. But Hannes (Steinbach) is an elite offensive rebounder. I thought even some of our guards getting in there and Jacob (Ognacevic) getting some tip backs was critical because we had to get some of those second chance points.”