Sam Griesel had a game high 22 points on Monday night, as the Nebraska Cornhuskers beat the Maine Black Bears 79-66 in a season opening men’s non-conference basketball game played at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska in front of 12,875 fans.
Nebraska started strong scoring the first nine points and had an early 11 point advantage, but visiting Maine wasn’t intimidated. Gedi Juozapaitis would get hot and score eight consecutive points as the Black Bears trimmed the deficit to single digits. Keisei Tominaga though would also start hitting shots, scoring 13 in the first half as the Cornhuskers pushed it out to a 40-28 halftime lead.
A 7-0 Maine run to start the second half sliced it to 40-35, but Griesel scored 11 of his 22 in the first 10 minutes of that second half and Nebraska went back up by 12. The Black Bears kept battling under first year head coach Chris Markwood, and would get within two points at one point but the hosts hit some key shots and their free throws down the stretch to ice the victory. The Cornhuskers dominated the paint 42-16, and had a 16-5 edge in second chance points on the night.
Juozapaitis, the fifth year graduate student out of England, led Maine in the loss with 20 points and four rebounds. He shot 7-10 from the floor, including 6-7 from three-point range. Kristian Feierbergs added 16 points and six rebounds, while Ja’Shonte Wright-McLeish had nine points and Kellen Tynes had eight. The Black Bears shot the ball well from the floor at 47% that included 12-29 from the three-point arc (41%), but struggled at the free throw line missing 8 of 10. Along with the 22 points from Griesel, Tominaga finished with 19 points and Juwan Gary 14 for Nebraska out of the Big 10 Conference. Maine is back in action on Friday when they host UMaine-Fort Kent at the Cross Insurance Center at 7 p.m.
