Postgame Notes

• With the win, Nebraska extended its nation-leading win streak to 11 games, dating back to last season. The Huskers’ 11 consecutive victories ties for the sixth-longest win streak in school history and mark the first time since the 2010-11 season that Nebraska has had an 11-game winning streak.
• The Huskers also increased their nation-leading streak to 18 consecutive non-conference victories.
• Rienk Mast had 31 points for his third career 30-point game and first this season. Mast scored 22 of his game-high 31 points in the second half. 
• Mast was 7-of-10 from the 3-point line, setting a career high with seven 3-pointers. His seven 3-pointers tied for the most by a Nebraska player at Pinnacle Bank Arena. He tied the mark of Glynn Wattson Jr., who twice hit seven 3-pointers in a game inside PBA.
• Mast's seven 3-pointers were the most by a Husker since Kobe Webster had seven at Northwestern on March 7, 2021.
• NU had 21 assists in the game, marking the fourth time this season the Huskers have had 20 or more assists in a game this season. Tonight was also the second time this season that Nebraska has had 20-or-more assists and five-or-fewer turnovers in a game.
• Nebraska made nine 3-pointers in the second half (9-of-16). That performance marked the fourth time this season the Huskers have made nine or more 3-pointers in a half.
• The Huskers scored on 20 of their 33 second-half possessions, averaging 1.46 points per possession in the final 20 minutes to overcome a four-point halftime deficit.
• Nebraska turned the ball over on each of its first two possessions of the game but then had only three turnovers over the game’s final 38:41.
• Sam Hoiberg tied his career high with four steals. He also had five assists and only one turnover, giving him an assist-to-turnover ratio of 29-to-5 this season.
• Cale Jacobsen finished with a career-high 11 points and tied his career-high with six rebounds.
• Freshman Braden Frager made his first career start in tonight’s game and finished with 11 points.  Frager is the Husker freshman to start for NU since the 2023 Big Ten Tournament (Jamarques Lawrence)

Nebraska Head Coach Fred Hoiberg

On Winthrop’s performance
“I think you realize now I had so much anxiety going into this game. That’s a veteran team. They play nine seniors. They’ve got grad transfers, they just put you in a really tough situations because of their ability to shoot the ball and they take care of it. (Kareem) Rozier is a pitbull, and he does a great job setting those guys up. They don’t have any fear, they never panic. When we got the thing up to double figures, they cut that thing back to three. So, you know, this is a good win for us. It’s a team that I think was right around 100 in the NET (rankings). And you know this team, I think they’ve got a great chance to win their league and be in the NCAA Tournament. So proud of our guys for finding a way. That being said, yes, we have to start better.”

On the team’s rebounding struggles
“We have to set the tone from a physicality standpoint. I thought (Winthrop) did that to their credit, and then you give up 17 offensive rebounds, get out rebounded by ten on your home court. Berke [being out] had something to do with that, you know, there’s no doubt about that. He’s our best defensive rebounder. He’s a guy that’s our most versatile defender from an analytics standpoint. He does a lot of really good things on the court that don’t show up in the box score. So, we knew we had our hands full, especially when we found out Berke wouldn’t be able to play tonight.”

On the game being close down the stretch
“These games are great. You have some adversity down the stretch. Double-digit lead got cut back down to three. We had to find a way after the timeout to get a big bucket. We got it and then got the stop and score it again. Executed really well. Down the stretch, got Cale (Jacobsen) loose at the basket with Rienk (Mast) popping the way he had it going. To find a way to execute down the stretch when things were getting a little dicey out there, these are going to be great moments for us moving forward. You win a tight one against Oklahoma. You win another close one where we had a big lead against New Mexico, and then you win by one against K-State. So these have been really good games and experiences, and hopefully we can pull away in some of these and not have it come down to the last couple possessions.”

Nebraska senior forward Rienk Mast
On Winthrop
“Yeah we knew this was going to be a really tough game. That’s a very veteran group. That’s a really tough team that most likely has a very good chance of winning their league. So we knew coming in it was going to be very hard. We had too many screw ups especially in that first half. In the second half we were a little bit better, but there are still some things to get better at. But overall we won and that’s most important at the end of the day.” 

On stopping Winthrop’s bigs
“For me personally they had three bigs that they were just constantly subbing out, so for me with BK (Berke Büyüktuncel) out it was pretty tough. I’m very tired, I'm not going to lie, so it was pretty tough with the challenge that those three bigs gave us.”

Nebraska junior guard Cale Jacobsen
On handling physicality
“That’s what teams are going to do to us throughout the years; they’re going to pressure us. That’s when it’s kind of nice to have Rienk (Mast) back to get it to Rienk and let him initiate. We only turned it over five times, but they really pushed us out. We have to find ways to get our offense run closer to the three point line where we can shoot it. Teams are going to be physical with us all year, so we have to make them pay with back cuts or slips or all the different things to get to the rim.”

On what changed in the second half
“I think we cut harder. When we cut harder and we move faster our shooters get open looks. We got good looks in the first half, we just didn’t make them. And that’s part of basketball right? You’re not going to make every single shot. We knew coming out of half time if we kept getting the shots we were getting we were going to be okay and they would start to fall. We just wanted to keep moving, keep the flow, and those guys shoot, because we have some pretty darn good shooters on this team that are going to get hot at some point.”

Winthrop Head Coach Mark Prosser
On first thoughts after the game
“I don’t think if you just fast forward the first half, I thought it was a great atmosphere. They’re very good, and I told our team in the locker room to have the quick turnaround we had, and prepare the way we did. I was really proud of our effort. We talked about anticipating everything. Being one or two possessions in the last two wars. We knew we’d be right there, but again, it’s learning your team. The lead got to double figures at some point in the second half, but we’re going to be right back there. We don’t do moral victories. We win games at Winthrop. Every moment that we’re under .500 makes me horribly uncomfortable. But there’s not a lot of people doing what they’re doing, not a lot of people expect us to be putting ourselves in situations and winning environments like this. It took a very big time effort from a very big time player. They had a couple hit the back rim, shoot straight up and fall in throughout the course of the day, and that’s what happens to good players that work. You give them credit for that, but we pushed them to the brink, and they had to play well, and they did.”

On the fight from the team
“They’re good. We have good players. There’s good players that work. I’m so pleased with our resiliency. I’m so pleased with our commitment to being excellent in what we do. We didn’t achieve the final goal today. Give us that game at a neutral sight, give us that game in Rock Hill. But at the end of the day, you tip your cap. They’re very well coached. They’re terrifically talented. They stepped up and made shots throughout the course of the second half when they needed to. They made plays that we didn’t down the stretch. But again, we walk out of here with our heads held high knowing that there is special out there for this team. We’ve stretches of being very good and competed with top 25 caliber teams on the road. It gives you building blocks if you keep chopping wood. We need to keep working.”