LINCOLN, NE – Never a night about the outcome but opportunity, the University of Mary men's basketball team scrapped and battled all night against NCAA Division I and Big Ten member University of Nebraska. Playing in front of 8,459 rabid Cornhuskers fans at Pinnacle Bank Arena, the Marauders dropped a 70-38 decision.
 
"We had a lot of energy early and it affected our shots a little bit," said Marauders head coach Joe Kittell. "It took us a long time to start putting the ball in the basketball but I'm proud of them, the guys played hard, we did a really good defensively, we stuck to the game plan, playing a little bit slower then we normally do but I'm really proud of the guys they played their hearts out. We were trying to keep them under 70 there and the big fellow made two free throws but at the end of the day I think this is a great experience for our guys, I think it makes us better because I think we played well enough to hang our heads high and I'm really excited to coach this team even farther.
 
"There's not going to be any atmosphere that's going to be more hostile then this, our guys understand that and now they've played in it and it shouldn't bother us anymore so we are really excited about this group. I know we are 0-3 right now but there's a lot of good kids out there and they want to win and they want to get better and we're excited about it."
 
The after grabbing a defensive rebound off a Nebraska miss on the first shot of the game, Mary had a chance to take a lead but a turnover gave the ball back to the Cornhuskers. Nebraska emphatically opened the scoring when Ed Morrow Jr. skied to hammer home an offensive rebound. The Huskers scored the first six points of the game until Trevor Zacher put the Marauders on the board with a jumper in the key.
 
Rickey Suggs came off the bench to score the next six points with baskets in the paint for the Marauders but the Huskers continued to pull away, building a 33-10 lead at one point.
 
A late rush featuring a Bryan Jefferson layup and a trey from Zacher, the Marauders went into intermission down 34-16.
 
Damonta Henry drained a trey to open the second half for Mary but the size and speed of Nebraska continued to wear on the Marauders. Eventually the Huskers advantage grew to 32 points before the Marauders broke off a 7-0 run featuring a 3-pointer by Henry and baskets by Jaylan White and Jefferson.
 
Jefferson led the Marauders with 10 points. Isaac Lindquist, Suggs and Henry each added six.
 
Michael Jacobson and Tai Webster led the Huskers with 10 points each. All ten Huskers who played scored.
 
The Marauders next open their home schedule against Yellowstone Christian on Monday, Nov. 21, at 7:30 pm.
 
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