ATLANTA – In its first true road game of the season, Nebraska was faced with yet another new test in its Big Ten/ACC Challenge trip to Georgia Tech on Wednesday night.

By the time the 73-56 blowout loss came to an end, the Huskers were reminded once again of just how much work remains to be done.

After only trailing by four at halftime, NU couldn’t seem to put the ball through the basket and set a season-high with 18 turnovers in an ugly final 20 minutes.

Nebraska shot just 6-of-26 from 3-point range and 8-of-18 from the free-throw line in the defeat while going a stunning 12-of-30 on dunks and layups.

As a result, the Huskers fell to 4-4 overall, with the schedule only getting increasingly more difficult going forward.

“We’d actually been shooting the ball pretty well as of late; we just didn’t get off to a good start knocking down shots,” NU head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “I thought our pace was good early; I thought we were creating good shots, good opportunities getting to the rim. Then we hit a stretch where I didn’t think the movement was very good."

The first half was a series of momentum swings, as the teams traded four-point leads four times through the opening frame.

The Huskers then played their best stretch of the night during an 11-3 rally and took a 26-24 lead on back-to-back layups by junior Thorir Thorbjarnarson.

The shooting would quickly turn cold again, though, and the Yellow Jackets would capitalize with a 10-2 run of their own to close the half and go into halftime with a 32-28 lead.

On the positive side, NU owned a 23-21 rebounding edge in the first half, but it turned the ball over 11 times, only shot 2-for-13 from 3-point range, and did not attempt a single free throw.

“Give Georgia Tech credit for finishing off the first half,” Hoiberg said. “We talk a lot about the importance of getting off to a good start and finishing off the half in both sessions, and they did that.”

The second half started with more bad than good for Nebraska, as Georgia Tech opened with an 11-4 run out of the gates while the Huskers missed six of their first seven shots from the field.

“Obviously it’s frustrating when you’re not making layups or missing free throws, but we have to keep going,” said junior guard Thorir Thorbjarnarson, who finished with a career-high 11 points and a season-high seven rebounds.

“Especially in the second half, we were getting everything that we wanted. We were aggressive, moving the ball, but we’ve just got to be better at finishing.”

Despite missing 10 straight field goals at one point, the Huskers were slowly able to chip away at the free-throw line and pull back within 43-37.

The Yellow Jackets quickly pushed their lead back up to 11, and after a layup by senior guard Haanf Cheatham cut it down to eight, an alley-oop to James Banks gave Georgia Tech its biggest advantage yet at 57-44 with 9:33 remaining.

“I thought our second-half movement was really, really good; we just did not convert,” Hoiberg said. “We had several opportunities and missed them at the rim, and then obviously the free-throw shooting didn’t help. But then again, Georgia Tech has something to do with that.”

A 3-pointer by sophomore guard Cam Mack pulled it back to 60-51 with 5:26 left, but that would be as close as the Huskers would get the rest of the night. Georgia Tech answered with a 13-5 run to close the game, and that included a 3-pointer by Thorbjarnarson in the final seconds.

In a 17-point loss, Nebraska ended up leaving 46 points off the scoreboard with missed layups and free throws.

“That’s been our Achilles heel all year,” Cheatham said.

Cheatham led Nebraska with 14 points and a career-high 11 rebounds, while Mack had 11 points and six assists, and junior guard Jervay Green also scored 11.

Georgia Tech’s Michael Devoe, who came in leading the ACC and ranking seventh nationally with an average of more than 23 points per game, had another big night with a game-high 26 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists.

The Huskers will return to action on Saturday for its annual in-state rivalry game on the road at Creighton, which is set for a 1:30 p.m. tip on FS1.

“Once adversity hit, we stuck together, and I think that’s going to be a big part for us throughout the whole season, especially on Saturday,” Cheatham said. “That’s going to be a tough game, but I think the team that we’ve got, we’re going to be ready for it.”

1. Add turnovers to Nebraska’s long list of problems

As if Nebraska didn’t already have enough to worry about with its shooting and rebounding struggles, ball security has suddenly become another big concern for Hoiberg and his staff.

The Huskers turned the ball over a season-high 18 times against a Georgia Tech team that doesn’t exactly force the issue in pressuring ball handlers defensively. Only half of those giveaways came off of Yellow Jacket steals, meaning at least nine NU turnovers came on self-inflicted mistakes.

Nebraska had actually been fairly decent in taking care of the basketball through the first seven contests, averaging 11 turnovers per game to rank second in the Big Ten in that category.

But the Huskers matched that total in the first half alone on Wednesday night, which Hoiberg said was “just inexcusable… We just gave them the ball on several occasions.”

It wasn’t just one or two offenders, either. Seven of the 11 Huskers who played in the loss recorded at least one turnover, including four ending up with three apiece.

2. Rebounding wasn’t the biggest issue for once

Against a Georgia Tech team that, like most opponents this season, boasted far more size, strength, and depth in the low post, Nebraska held its own on the boards.

The Yellow Jackets only out-rebounded NU 47-43, and the teams tied with 12 offensive boards each.

Even better, the Huskers only allowed seven second-chance points. Now, seven of GT’s eight players who saw the floor on Wednesday night ended up with at least eight caroms.

But this still marked just the second time this season that a Nebraska didn’t allow an opponent to haul in double-figure rebounds.

If the Huskers can get that type of effort on the glass, they’re going to at least have a chance in most games they play (assuming they can fix all of the other issues).

3. Nebraska got a taste of road adversity

Nebraska had played several contests away from Pinnacle Bank Arena at the Cayman Islands Classic and the four-game tour of Italy, but Wednesday was another first for Hoiberg’s squad in a true road environment.

While the final score might not show it, the Huskers felt like they handled the new adversity well. Hoiberg said he liked the team’s energy and effort all night, while Cheatham and Thorbjarnarson both said they never felt the players get rattled when the game started to get away from them.

To be fair, the 8,600-seat McCamish Pavilion was hardly the epitome of a hostile road environment. The listed attendance was only 5,133, and many of those were Nebraska fans and players’ families.

But the game was a good warmup for much more daunting environments that await on the schedule, starting with Saturday’s trip to Creighton and then the Big Ten opener at Indiana the following week.