Nebraska played spoiler Monday night in the University of Maine men’s basketball team’s opening game under new head coach Chris Markwood.
Nebraska held off a charging UMaine Black Bears squad in the second half to earn a 79-66 victory in game one of the season.
The Black Bears didn’t roll over when they trailed 40-28 at the half, however.
Instead, UMaine went on a 20-10 run to start the second half, pulling within two points, 52-50, after a pull-up jumper from Ja’Shonté Wright-McLeish.
UMaine finished last season with a 6-23 record.
Both UMaine and Nebraska were picked to finish last in the America East conference and Big 10 conference, respectively.
On the next Maine possession, Kellen Tynes drove the lane and got fouled and sent to the free throw line. In the first half, Tynes was 0-4 from the stripe.
Tynes missed both free throws, and on the other end Juwan Gary grabbed his seventh offensive rebound and scored a layup to put Nebraska ahead 54-50.
Gary finished the game with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Maine continued to attack, pulling within one point, 54-53, with 13 minutes left in the game thanks to a 3-pointer from Gedi Juozapaitis.
The largest lead Nebraska amassed was 15 points in the first half.
Juozapaitis started the game five-for-five from deep, while Kristians Feierbergs scored eight points in the first 2:40 of the second half.
Juozapaitis finished with 20 points to lead UMaine.
Nebraska broke its cold streak and went on a 10-0 run to pull ahead 68-54 with 8:20 left in the game.
UMaine’s ball movement was strong all night, and the offense ran well through freshman Jaden Clayton, who had seven assists.
Feierbergs hit another triple late, followed by a Tynes layup, but Nebraska still held a 73-64 lead with 1:30 left to play.
On the Nebraska side of the ball, Sam Griesel scored 14 of his 22 points in the second half to help the Cornhuskers stave off the Black Bears.
In the first half, Nebraska started on an authoritative run.
The Cornhuskers jumped out to a 9-0 lead before Tynes hit an up-and-under layup to stop the run with 16:12 left in the first half.
UMaine started two returning players, a freshman and two transfers. The team as a whole returned nine players and brought in eight new players this season. On the floor, the Black Bears looked like a team still finding its chemistry.
Milos Nenadic hit a 3-pointer to get the offense going about seven minutes into the game to pull the Black Bears within 13-5. After Nebraska answered with a three of its own, Wright-McLeish scored what was originally called a three-pointer but was later changed to a long two that made the score 16-7 with 12:30 left in the half.
Nebraska expanded the lead to double digits before Gedi Juozapaitis scored his first of three 3s of the half to cut the Nebraska advantage to 20-13 with 9:15.
Jupzapaitis scored a team-high 11 points in the half and would have led all scorers if it wasn’t for Nebraska’s Keisei Tominaga, who had 13 points in just seven minutes of play in the first half, eight coming in the final three minutes.
UMaine went to the locker room trailing 40-28. Nebraska out-rebounded UMaine 22-12.
The Black Bears play the University of Maine Fort Kent on Friday at home at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
