Major college basketball's longest winning streak ended at 24 games Tuesday night with No. 5 Nebraska's 75-72 loss at No. 3 Michigan.

“To beat Michigan, you have to play almost perfect and we had a lapse at the end,” Cornhuskers guard Sam Hoiberg said.

Nebraska did not score over the final 3:20, missing its last five shots after leading most of the game despite two key players being out of the lineup.

“That just proved, hopefully to everybody, most importantly to the guys in the locker room, that we can compete with anybody,” coach Fred Hoiberg said.

Rienk Mast missed the game with an illness as did double-digit scorer Braden Frager, who was out for a second straight game with an ankle injury.

“It’s unfortunate, but I give our guys a lot of credit for the fight they showed in the game from start to finish,” Fred Hoiberg said.

The 24-game winning streak was an improbable run for a school with a modest history in men's basketball. Nebraska has emerged as the feel-good story of the season before hitting a bump in the road at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Cornhuskers' previous loss came in last year's final regular-season game, 83-68 to Iowa at home on March 9. The streak started when they swept through four games to win the inaugural College Basketball Crown tournament in Las Vegas last April.

“We haven’t had this feeling in a long time. It’s been almost a year,” Fred Hoiberg said. “They were hurt by it. We’re going to find out what we’re made of.”

Nebraska will have some time to regroup before hosting No. 9 Illinois on Sunday.

The Huskers' 20-1 start remains the program's best and their No. 5 ranking in this week's AP Top 25 poll is the highest in school history.

The 24-game streak was the longest in Division I since Gonzaga reeled off 35 in a row between 2019-21.

Nebraska entered this season with 500-to-1 odds of winning the national championship. That was down to 35 to 1 on BetMGM Sportsbook before Tuesday's game.

The winning streak captured the imaginations of college basketball fans because so little is expected of Nebraska on the hardcourt.

The Huskers are the only power-conference program that's never won an NCAA Tournament game, with an 0-8 record in March Madness. Nebraska's most recent regular-season conference championship was in 1950, and the school has finished with a winning conference record in just three of its first 14 seasons in the Big Ten.

The program has produced one consensus All-American — Sam Carrier in 1912-13 — and just three NBA first-round draft picks, none since 1998.

The Huskers' fast start was a breakthrough for Fred Hoiberg, who won 115 games in five seasons as Iowa State coach and took the Cyclones to four NCAA Tournaments. Nebraska hired him in 2019, and the Huskers were 24-67 overall and 9-50 in the Big Ten in his first three seasons. Since then they're 80-41 overall and 37-32 in Big Ten play.

The Huskers had to erase double-digit deficits in five of their wins during the streak, including comebacks from 16 points down against Oklahoma on a neutral court in November and Indiana on the road.

The veteran team is led by Mast, a seventh-year big man who returned from a major knee injury that caused him to miss the entire 2024-25 season.

Pryce Sandfort transferred from Iowa, Jamarques Lawrence returned after spending one season at Rhode Island, and Berke Buyuktuncel has elevated his game while teaming with Mast in the frontcourt. Sam Hoiberg, son of the coach and a former walk-on, is a glue guy who does a bit of everything.

One loss changes nothing in the big picture.

Fred Hoiberg has talked often about how he believes this team has a chance to do something few, if any, have done before at Nebraska. The Huskers won 11 games against opponents from outside the Big Ten to go unbeaten in nonconference play for the first time since 1928-29. The 9-1 start in conference games was Nebraska's best since 1965-66. A league title is still out there for the taking and, of course, the opportunity to end that nagging NCAA Tournament drought.

McKenney makes go-ahead layup as No. 3 Michigan hands No. 5 Nebraska its first loss, 75-72

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Trey McKenney made a tiebreaking layup with 1:07 left and No. 3 Michigan rallied past No. 5 Nebraska 75-72 on Tuesday night to hand the Cornhuskers their first loss this season.

Morez Johnson Jr. had 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Wolverines (19-1, 9-1 Big Ten), who trailed for 36-plus minutes before holding Nebraska scoreless over the final 3:20.

Jamarques Lawrence missed a 3-pointer with 4 seconds remaining for the short-handed Cornhuskers (20-1, 9-1), and Sam Hoiberg missed a jumper just before the buzzer.

Nebraska had won 24 straight games dating to last season, including four victories in the inaugural College Basketball Crown tournament at Las Vegas last April. That was the longest winning streak in Division I since the 2014-15 Kentucky team went 38-0 before losing to Wisconsin in the Final Four.

The previous defeat for the Cornhuskers came in their regular-season finale last year, 83-68 to Iowa at home on March 9.

McKenney had 11 points for Michigan off the bench. Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara scored 10 apiece.

Lawrence scored 16 of his 20 points in the opening 10 minutes. Pryce Sandfort also finished with 20 points for Nebraska, and Hoiberg had 13 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Nebraska played without forward Rienk Mast, who warmed up for the game but sat out with an illness. Cornhuskers forward Braden Frager missed his second consecutive game with a sprained right ankle.

Nebraska was 10 of 19 on 3-pointers in the first half and led by 11 before taking a 50-48 advantage into the break. But the Cornhuskers made only one shot from beyond the arc in the second half.

Up next

Nebraska hosts No. 9 Illinois on Sunday.

Michigan visits seventh-ranked Michigan State on Friday.