Braden Frager scored 22 points and Jamarques Lawrence added 18 as Nebraska dominated the second half en route to an 86-53 win over West Georgia on Monday in Lincoln, Neb., in the season opener for both teams.
Rienk Mast contributed 10 points and 11 rebounds for Nebraska, which opened the second half on a 20-2 run and never looked back. The Cornhuskers shot just 31.3% from the field in the first half before authoring a brilliant 62.5% shooting performance after halftime, including four 3-pointers by Lawrence.
Shelton Williams-Dryden scored a team-high 14 points for West Georgia but shot just 5-for-19 from the floor. The Wolves hit only 29.2% from the field and 4 of 24 (16.7%) from 3-point range.
Both teams got off to a slow start as West Georgia held an 11-9 lead more than 10 minutes into the game. The Wolves were up 19-13 with less than seven minutes left in the half, but Frager rallied his team into a 21-21 tie with about four minutes to go.
Shortly thereafter, Frager’s putback gave the Cornhuskers a 26-25 lead. Lawrence scored four points down the stretch as the hosts took a 30-25 lead into the locker room.
Nebraska’s second-half explosion featured three 3-pointers — including two by Lawrence — in the first three minutes. Lawrence knocked down another shortly thereafter, and Frager added a dunk as the Cornhuskers’ lead ballooned to 50-27.
The Wolves missed their final four shots of the first half and their first 11 of the second half. They did not make a field goal after halftime until 12:35 remained in the game.
In the end, though, a couple of 3-pointers by West Georgia didn’t do anything to halt Nebraska’s momentum. The Cornhuskers scored the next 12 points, including five by Cale Jacobsen and another 3-pointer by Lawrence.
Connor Essegian’s layup with 8:33 left sent Nebraska’s lead north of 30 for the first time. Frager’s dunk less than three minutes later made it a 35-point game, and his free throws with 5:16 remaining gave the Cornhuskers their largest lead, 77-39.
