After an exhibition and then season opener that were both a bit closer than they probably needed to be, Nebraska finally put it all together from start to finish in an 86-66 rout of North Texas on Monday night.

Junior guard James Palmer led the way with 18 points while junior guard Glynn Watson followed up with 15, as the Huskers controlled the game from the opening tip to the final whistle.

It’s not as if NU lit it up from the field, though, as a blistering first half ended with a second half that saw 36 combined free throws and 31 total fouls. In all, there were 56 fouls called in the game, and Nebraska ended up going 33-of-45 from the charity stripe.

“I thought that we were locked in…” head coach Tim Miles said. “We had two goals tonight: pass the ball and guard the ball, and I thought we did that for a long time. We jumped way out on them … and you know when you’re up that early there’s always that kind of impending, ‘OK, here we go.’ ... (But) we played a really solid 32 possessions of defense.”

Nebraska came sprinting out of the gates and made six of its first seven shots to take an early 15-2 lead. While the Huskers kept on rolling, North Texas didn’t make its second basket of the night until the 10:26 mark and finally reached double figures with 5:30 left in the half.

As a result, NU ended up leading by as many as 28 points before a layup by Watson at the buzzer sent the Huskers into halftime up by a commanding 52-30 advantage.

That marked the most points Nebraska had scored in a first half since getting 53 vs. Southeast Louisiana in 2015-16, and only the third time it has scored 50-plus in a first half under Miles.

“I think this game we just focused on coming out strong,” Palmer said. “The last two games we came out a little sluggish … but today we finished the first half strong.”

Nebraska’s shooting cooled off considerable to start the second half, scoring only one point through the first four minutes while making just 3 of its first 19 shots from the field and starting 0-of-8 from 3-point range.

Even so, the Huskers were able to keep the Mean Green at arm’s length the rest of the game, and junior forward Jack McVeigh finally knocked down NU’s first 3-pointer of the second half with 2:40 left to make it an 82-60 lead.

“I think everybody just came out and played hard and didn’t think about making shots or anything, and that took care of itself,” Watson said. “I think that was the main key tonight, just coming out and playing hard.”

Senior guard Evan Taylor finished with 12 points while going 10-of-12 from the free throw line, while sophomore forward Isaiah Roby added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Junior Isaac Copeland shot just 1-of-7 from the field for eight points but made still made his presence felt with a team-high eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Five different Huskers had scored in double figures, with Copeland nearly making it six.

Nebraska returns to action on Thursday night for its first road game of the year, as it travels to take on St. John’s as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games. Tip time is set for 5:30 p.m. Central and will be televised nationally on FS1.