Box Score Lincoln, NE – The University of Maine lost their opening night matchup against Big Ten opponent Nebraska on Monday night, 79-66.
 
Nebraska would find themselves off to an early 9-0 lead before Kellen Tynes broke up the run with an acrobatic layup to get the Black Bears their first points of the 2022-23 season.
 
Gedi Juozapaitis would catch fire from the field for the Black Bears as he buried 8-consectutive points for Maine to help trim the deficit to single-digits.
 
Both sides would start trading baskets throughout the first half after the Juozapaitis run as the Cornhuskers would take a 40-28 lead into the half on the effort of Keise Tominaga as he scored a game-high 13 points in the first half. Juozapaitis would lead the Black Bears in scoring at the half with 11, including a perfect 3 of 3 from 3-point range in the opening 20.
 
Maine would have seven different players find at least one bucket in the opening half. Maine would shoot 52.4% from the field and 41.7% from 3-point range during the first half, but struggled with turnovers as they had 11. They picked up four steals and had four blocks.
 
The Black Bears would come out of the half on a 7-0 run to cut into the Nebraska lead and make it a 40-35 game.
 
Maine would keep the offensive pressure up as they came out of the gates in the second half shooting 8 of 10 and 4 of 6 from 3-point range to make it a 2-point game.
 
Nebraska would pull back out to a 12-point lead as Sam Griesel had 11 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
 
The Black Bears would keep battling as they were able to get back to within single-digits but would come up short in their comeback effort in their season opening performances against Big Ten opponent Nebraska as the Cornhuskers hit their free-throws late to grow the lead back to a 79-66 final.
 
The Black Bears would conclude the evening shooting a better percentage from the field (47.3 to 46.2) and from 3-point range (41.4-31.8) than the Cornhuskers.
 
Gedi Juozapaitis led all Black Bears in scoring as he had 20 on opening night, including 6 for 7 from 3-point range and 7 of 10 overall.
 
 Kristian Feierbergs got it going in the second half as he scored 14 of his 16 points over the final 20 minutes of the contest. He also had an efficient shooting night, as he shot 6 of 9 from the field. His five rebounds led all Black Bears on the night.
 
Jaden Clayton had a solid collegiate debut as he dished out seven assists on the night.
 
Sam Griesel led all scorers on the night with 22 points. Keise Tominage finished with 19 points in the contest.
 
Maine (0-1) returns home as they will take on the University of Maine at Fort Kent on Friday, Nov. 11. Tip-off if scheduled for 7:00 P.M.
 
-UMaine-