Rienk Mast Too Much as Nebraska Dispatch of Ohio State

The Ohio State Buckeyes walked into Lincoln, Nebraska, with their heads held high after a win over Penn State Saturday. Unfortunately for the Bucks, they walked out after dropping yet another conference game to the Cornhuskers 83-69 thanks to 21 second-half points from junior forward Rienk Mast.

The Buckeyes and Cornhuskers traded buckets early but Ohio State began to pull away just over 10 minutes left. Ohio State went on a 7-0 run before Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg took a timeout

The Huskers came out of those three minutes a new team. Junior guard C.J. Wilcher led an 8-0 run after the Buckeyes came up with several wasted possessions. Wilcher finished with seven in the first half. Husker senior guard Kesei Tominaga, a First Team All-Big Ten contender, went out with just under four minutes remaining with two fouls and didn’t return in the half. But Nebraska looked revamped yet again.

Tominaga wouldn’t score the remainder of the game. Buckeye senior guard Dale Bonner was fouled on a 3-pointer but missed all three free throws and Mast hit three straight 3s to fully flip the switch in favor of the Huskers. Mast finished with 13 first-half points. Although Ohio State outscored Nebraska 18-10 in the paint in the first, the Huskers shot 41 percent from 3, which really changed the game of the half.

The Cornhuskers ended the half on an 11-5 run up eight. Right out of the half until the end of the game, it was Nebraska’s to lose. Mast hit three 3s in the first eight minutes and dominated the Buckeyes down low. Not to mention he came up big on the defensive end as well — both he and senior forward Josiah Allick hedged and recovered very well in on-ball screens and limited the Buckeyes to just 14 points in the paint in the second. Mast went on to record a 34-point, 10-rebound double-double in a career game for the junior. The Huskers went on an 11-4 run in three minutes to go up 10 and the game was all but over at that point.

Wilcher also came up big with three 3s in the second, finishing with 16 for the game. Buckeye sophomore guard Bruce Thornton had a quiet 16 points but perhaps the highlight for Ohio State fans was sophomore guard Bowen Hardman, who had played just 11 minutes prior, who put up 11 points in the last seven minutes of the game. The Huskers led the Big Ten with 9.3 3s per game and hit 14 in their 14-point win tonight.

The Buckeyes return to action in Evanston, Illinois, against Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena at 8:30 p.m., streaming on Big Ten Network.