Pryce Sandfort scored a career-high 33 points and No. 9 Nebraska got back on track with an 87-64 win over Penn State in Big Ten play on Saturday afternoon in Lincoln, Neb.
The Cornhuskers (23-4, 12-4 Big Ten) had lost four of their previous six games, scoring a season-low 52 points in a loss at Iowa on Tuesday. They reached that total less than six minutes into the second half against Penn State.
Sandfort was 11 of 17 from the field, making a career-best 8 of 14 3s to add to school record for 3s in a season with 98. Braden Frager had 15 points in place of a sick Berke Buyuktuncel and Sam Hoiberg added 11 points and a career-high 10 assists for the Cornhuskers, which earlier Saturday were projected as a No. 3 seed by the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
Nebraska shot 51.6 percent and made 14 of 35 3-pointers.
Penn State (11-17, 2-15) got 13 points apiece from Kayden Mingo and Ivan Juric, with Juric adding 10 rebounds. The Nittany Lions shot 42.1 percent but made only 4 of 20 3-pointers and suffered their ninth double-digit loss in Big Ten play.
Nebraska led 38-20 at the half, with Sandfort matching the Nittany Lions in scoring. Penn State started the second half on a 5-0 run and then went almost three minutes without points.
A 14-2 run got Penn State within 61-45 with eight minutes left and it cut the deficit to 14 with 6:35 to go but then Nebraska scored nine in a row to end any chance of a comeback.
Sandfort hit his first five 3-point attempts, including a four-point play that was part of a 10-0 Nebraska run to build an early 20-9 lead. The fifth make put the Cornhuskers up 36-17 with 1:41 left in the first half.
