Nebraska’s reputation of being exactly the medicine a struggling opponent needs once again held true on Tuesday night, as Ohio State snapped a four-game losing streak with an 80-68 win over the Huskers in Columbus, Ohio.

Poor shooting and defensive energy hindered NU (7-10 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) early and dug it into a 16-point hole in the first half. While the offense was much better after halftime, it was once again too little, too late to change the final outcome.

Ohio State (12-5, 2-4), which barely shot over 30 percent from the field during its losing skid, made 54.5 percent and made 10 3-pointers.

The Buckeyes also hadn’t eclipsed 60 points in any of their past four losses. But they hit that mark with 11 minutes still to play in the second half and led by as many as 25 before all was said and done.

“We wanted to come out obviously with the urgency to get out to a great start, and we didn’t do that again…” head coach Fred Hoiberg said on his post-game radio show on the Husker Sports Network.

Nebraska started the game with two quick layups by Dachon Burke while Ohio State missed its first five shots, but the momentum quickly swung the other direction when Andre Wesson knocked down three straight 3-pointers to turn a 4-0 lead into a 9-4 disadvantage.

That would eventually turn into a 17-3 run for the Buckeyes while NU went more than four minutes without a point and missed 13 of its first 16 shots from the field.

A 3-pointer by Justin Ahrens gave OSU its largest lead of the half at 36-20 with 1:52 remaining, and then Ahrens knocked down a long two at the buzzer to send Nebraska into halftime down 38-25.

The Huskers shot just 31.4 percent from the field, made only 1-of-9 3-pointers, and were a dismal 10-for-20 on layups in the first half. Ohio State, on the other hand, was 53.6 percent from the floor and made 5-of-10 from behind the arc.

Nebraska actually out-rebounding Ohio State 19-18 overall and 8-2 on the offensive glass, and holds a 20-16 edge in paint points, 8-2 on second-chance points, and 9-8 on points off turnovers. Yet NU still trailed by 13 at halftime.

“They’re a big, strong, physical team. That’s what they do, and that’s how they play,” Hoiberg said of the Buckeyes. “The close-outs to the shooters, we missed a couple of those rotations, and that’s what opened up that game.”

Things got much better for the Huskers offensively in the second half, as they shot a blistering 54.8 percent overall and hit 8-of-13 3-pointers. That included junior Thorir Thorbjarnarson scoring all of his team-high 15 points after halftime on 5-of-7 shooting from behind the arc.

Yet all of that was only good enough to pull NU back to within 12 in the final minute with the outcome already long decided. Nebraska was able to cut it to 13 on a three by Thorbjarnarson with 11:54 to play, but Ohio State countered with a 12-0 run to take back control.

The Buckeyes made 23 of 32 shots during one stretch to take their biggest lead of the game at 68-43 on a 3-pointer by C.J. Walker with a little over eight minutes to play.

“The second half, I loved our offense,” Hoiberg said. “I thought it was as good as it’s been all year, and this team (Ohio State) is top-10 in the country in defensive efficiency. The ball movement was incredible…

“It’s something that we can build on offensively in that second half, but we’ve got to find a way to string together stops when we’re making runs like that.”

Cam Mack finished with 10 points and six assists despite playing most of the second half with four fouls, while Yvan Ouedraogo had 10 points, five rebounds, and two assists after a rough start.

C.J. Walker led Ohio State with a game-high 18 points, and Kaleb Wesson added 13 points and 14 boards, as six Buckeyes scored in double figures. The 80 points were the most OSU had scored since an 80-48 win over Southeast Missouri State on Dec. 17.

Nebraska will return to action on Saturday when it plays host to Indiana for a 6 p.m. CT tip on Big Ten Network.

“That’s two games in a row now where we’ve dug ourselves into too big of a hole in the first half to give ourselves a chance to come back,” Hoiberg said. “I know I sound like a broken record when I say this, but we just have to have more consistency every time we step on the floor and have a trust level with each other to take the next step to where we can win this games, or at least have chance to win these games.”

1. Nebraska’s offense was good enough to win; its defense was not

Nebraska couldn’t have played much worse offensively in the first half tonight, but it made up for it by putting together one of its best shooting halves of the season after halftime.

Led by five 3-pointers from Thorbjarnarson, the Huskers played with the perfect rhythm, pace, and flow with the basketball that Hoiberg wants. Had they been even remotely better in the first half, this very well could have been a closer game.

However, when NU plays defense like that – particularly with its lazy perimeter rotations, half-hearted close-outs on shooters, and jogging back in transition after misses – it won’t matter much how well they shoot the ball.

Hoiberg was clearly irritated with his team’s defensive effort during his post-game radio interview, as he should have been.

Ohio State was a team that couldn’t buy a bucket over the previous four games, as yet Nebraska made the Buckeyes look like a bunch of Steph Currys and Klay Thompsons by allowing them to get one open shot after another and build up early confidence.

If it’s not one thing with this team, it’s another, and tonight it was the defense that kept the Huskers from having any real chance at winning. Until both ends of the floor can execute together, nights like this will continue to be all too common.

2. Hats off to Jervay Green

There were conversations as recently as Tuesday afternoon about whether Jervay Green would ever see the floor in a game again as a Husker.

The junior guard had just been scratched from the lineup per coach’s decision the previous two games, and it was a question of whether he had been completely written out of Nebraska’s plans entirely this season.

Well, after another sluggish start offensively, Green checked in at the 4:44 mark of the first half, his first game action since the loss to Rutgers on Jan. 3.

Green ended up playing 17 minutes off the bench and scored 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting (2-of-3 on 3-pointers) with four rebounds. That marked his highest point total since scoring 10 at Creighton on Dec. 7.

Hoiberg praised the way Green handled his playing time situation and then how he responded when given another opportunity on Tuesday night.

"I was proud of Jervay…” Hoiberg said. “It's not easy when you get taken out of the rotation to keep yourself ready like he has, but he's handled it professionally, he's handled it well as you possibly can. It was good to see him back out there playing well tonight."

3. Ouedraogo is learning the hard way

Ouedraogo’s education by fire this season added another hard lesson against Ohio State, but it was once again an experience that should only make him better in the long run.

As will be the case most nights in the Big Ten, the 17-year-old freshman forward was tasked one of the most difficult assignments on the team in being matched up with Kaleb Wesson, one of the best bigs in the conference.

It wasn’t pretty for Ouedraogo early on, either. He shot just 1-for-5 in the first half with two turnovers and three missed layups.

But to his credit, he settled in and played much better in the second half, making all three of his shot attempts, dishing out two assists and blocking a shot to go along with five rebounds.

The learning curve Ouedraogo is going through right now will, in theory, at least, help him immensely in his development going into next season and beyond. Being able to bounce back in a matchup like this was an encouraging silver lining for Nebraska.