LINCOLN, Neb. – It wasn’t hard to guess the gist of what Chris Holtmann was telling his players, and it was even easier to understand how he was telling them.

With 8:39 to play in Tuesday night’s game inside Pinnacle Bank Arena, Ohio State’s Felix Okpara took a pass from Roddy Gayle and dunked it as Holtmann called timeout. The play had no bearing on the final outcome of the game as it briefly halted a 13-2 Nebraska run, pushing the Cornhuskers ahead 65-49 before Okpara’s dunk.

It was a 30-second timeout, and as the Buckeyes headed to the bench Holtmann let them hear it. And see it. Red in the face, Holtmann stood in the center of the huddle and lit into his team. At one point, he raised his hand, appearing to demonstrate what the Buckeyes weren’t doing as Nebraska’s Reink Mast continually rained 3-pointers on them like it was monsoon season.

Maybe it was because, despite having gone over the ability of Nebraska’s 6-10, 248-pound center to connect from deep, he still managed to hit six of his first seven threes en route to a career-high 34 points. Most of them were wide open.

The outburst didn’t change anything. Ohio State trailed by 14 at that point and went on to lose, 83-69.

“It was unacceptable for him to continue to get clean looks,” Holtmann told The Dispatch after the game. “A couple times we had guards switched on him and they were playing him like he was a non-3-point shooter. It was completely unacceptable. That falls on us (as coaches). We’ve got to be better. They’ve got to be more detailed. Yeah, I was not happy in that moment at all.”

There wasn’t much to be happy about from the Ohio State side of things.

Three days earlier, the Buckeyes had shaken off a three-game losing streak with a convincing home win against Penn State, a team that had overcome an 18-point deficit against the Buckeyes in early December. It was the first real sign of vulnerability for Ohio State, and the home win in the rematch gave the Buckeyes a chance to take some good vibes onto the road.

Those evaporated before halftime and completely dissipated by the time Holtmann called that timeout. Nebraska took the lead with 3:57 left in the first half and never trailed again as Mast finished with 34 points and 10 rebounds while going 13 for 17 from the floor, the Cornhuskers outrebounded the Buckeyes 35-28 and outscored them 16-2 on second-chance points.

“I thought we were really soft throughout the whole game, but again, give them credit,” Holtmann said. “Ultimately that falls on me. I don’t know if it was just the last 10 minutes or not. We did not have the fight in this game that we needed to have by any stretch. Ultimately, that falls on me. We just didn’t have the fight we needed to, really from the jump, to be honest with you, but certainly when adversity hit we did not respond.”

That stood in some contrast to Ohio State’s two prior road losses. At Indiana on Jan. 6, the Buckeyes trailed by 10 in the final minutes but cut it to two before falling, 71-65. At Michigan on Jan. 15, they trailed by a game-high 12 points in the second half and took the lead with a 16-0 run only to take a 73-65 loss.

This time, there was no late push from the Buckeyes and not much resistance.

“They had a certain amount of juice to them that we didn’t meet or exceed,” Evan Mahaffey, who had 8 points, four assists and no turnovers in 30:27. “When they were hitting shots, we weren’t calm enough to come down and get a good shot. Even then, we’ve got to be able to get some stops, too. We didn’t have that edge to us enough today.”

Here are four other takeaways from the loss.

Ohio State had no answers for Rienk Mast

To state the obvious: the Nebraska big man essentially got when he wanted and where he wanted it from against the Buckeyes. His 34 points came on 17 shots as he went 13 for 17 from the field, 6 for 8 from 3 and was perfect on two free-throw attempts.

He also pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds and had four assists with just one turnover in 32:39.

“When he's making 3s, it just spreads everybody out,” Holtmann said. “You have to look at different ways to guard it and sometimes it's maybe an atypical lineup. That's something that we have not been great with all year, with both Felix (Okpara) and Zed (Key), so we've got to get better at it.”

According to sports-reference.com, it was only the 12th time this season that a Division I player had at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and shot 75% from the field. Purdue’s Zach Edey is the only other Big Ten player to do it this year.

On the Peacock broadcast, Stephen Bardo said it wasn’t a question of Ohio State being unprepared.

“I don’t know how Chris Holtmann still has hair on his head,” he said after one of Mast’s second-half 3s. “They went over this in shootaround. They told them exactly what to be looking for and yet Nebraska’s still able to get the look that they want.”

Said Key: “He’s a good post player. He can hit the 3. Very talented around the rim, great touch around the rim and he showed that tonight. Give credit to him. Displaying step-back 3s, give him credit. He’s a great player, and tonight was his night.”

Second-year forward Evan Mahaffey said the Buckeyes obviously didn’t do a very good job accounting for him and said it requires a collective effort to keep track of Mast given how much the Ohio State defense switches.

“We all have to be knowing who’s coming off of different screens,” he said. “You can’t pin it on one person.”

Bowen Hardman earns an opportunity

Ohio State sophomore guard Bowen Hardman was a healthy, unused substitute for his team’s first seven Big Ten games this season. As a freshman, Hardman made two last-minute appearances in Big Ten wins against Maryland and Michigan State for his only experience in conference play.

But when the Buckeyes took the court with 7:35 left and the Nebraska lead at 67-51, Hardman subbed into the game in place of Baylor graduate transfer guard Dale Bonner. They would become the first significant minutes of Hardman’s career, and the 6-3, 190-pound guard made the most of them.

Hardman stayed on the court for the remainder of the game, scoring 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting. In 13 prior career appearances, Hardman had totaled 20 points.

Holtmann said Hardman earned the opportunity by doing things he needs to see from other players on his bench.

“I just think he’s practiced well,” the coach said. “He’s been on the scout team here for a couple months, but he’s had a great attitude. I think right now, that’s what we’re looking for out of our bench is just the right approach and the right attitude and I think he’s really had that. I thought he needed to be given a look because he’s had the right approach and right attitude and I think his play was a by-product of having the right attitude.”

Hardman missed his first two 3-point attempts but finished 3 for 7 from deep on a night where his teammates went a combined 5 for 16. Hardman’s ability to shoot has never been in question, and while it was part of why Holtmann said he played the sophomore for the first time since a Nov. 21 win against New Orleans, it wasn’t the driving reason.

“That was part of it, but also I think he’s earned the right,” the coach said. “He’s the first one on the scout team. He lifts with the scout team. He does extra work. He’s got a great attitude about just getting better. I think his play was a result of it.”

Ohio State’s bench didn’t do much

Aside from Key and Hardman, Ohio State once again got little from several of its bench players.

In 19:14, Bonner finished with 2 points on 1-of-3 shooting and missed both of his 3-point attempts to drop him to 28.3% (15 for 53) on the season. Since going 3 for 6 against Miami (Ohio) on Dec. 6, Bonner is 3 for 26 (11.5%) from deep. He also had a turnover where he stepped out of bounds and was involved in a pivotal first-half sequence.

Trailing 34-32, Bonner was fouled on a 3-point attempt from the right wing and went to the line with 2:34 left. A 72.7% free-throw shooter this season, he missed all three, and at the other end Mast drilled a 3-pointer for a potentially six-point swing. He finished with a minus-25 individual plus-minus rating.

Freshman forward Devin Royal, who had 8 points in 5:14 against Penn State, was on the court for only 1:29. He subbed in as Bonner was at the line, grabbed an offensive rebound on the next possession but had the ball stripped for a turnover leading to a possession where he was beaten on the block by Josiah Allick for a bucket in the paint. And when Key missed a free throw on Ohio State’s next possession, Royal was called for going over the back on the rebound, giving Mast a one-and-one situation at the other end with 1:05 left.

He hit the free throws, adding to the late-half run for the Cornhuskers. Royal was subbed out after that foul and did not get back into the game.

It’s more playing time than classmate Taison Chatman saw. The freshman guard was a healthy, unused substitute.

After a one-game suspension for an unspecified violation of team expectations, freshman wing Scotty Middleton returned and played 14:11, finishing with 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting but missing all three of his 3-point attempts. Ohio State was outscored by 15 points when he was on the floor.

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Good news for Evan Mahaffey and his family

Late last week, Mahaffey and his family went public about a GoFundMe created to assist with their financial costs as his father, Jamie, was awaiting a heart transplant.

Sunday night, the elder Mahaffey received his new heart and is slowly progressing through his recovery at Vanderbilt’s medical center. As of Tuesday night, the GoFundMe had raised more than $61,000 from 554 donors that include teammates Roddy Gayle Jr., Jamison Battle and Key.

“I would honestly just say thank you,” Evan Mahaffey said. “Thank you so much to the Buckeye community, just the constant people reaching out, people donating to the GoFundMe. It means the world to us. Thank you for the prayers. It means the world to me, my mom, my sister, obviously my dad. He’s doing a lot better. He had the surgery and we’re waiting for them to take him off the sedation and wake up, but just thank you is the biggest thing I want to say.”

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Nebraska's Rienk Mast exposes Ohio State's defense: 5 takeaways