Basketball Huskers Blister Sun Devils With Second-Half Rally

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Brice Williams scored a game-high 30 points to lead three Huskers in double figures, as Nebraska rallied for an 86-78 win over Arizona State in the first round of the College Basketball Crown Monday evening.

While Williams posted his fourth 30-point game of the season, Nebraska (18-14) also got 18 points from Juwan Gary and 17 from Connor Essegian off the bench as the Huskers picked up their first postseason win since 2019.

Trailing 49-39 with just under 15 minutes left, the Huskers used a 14-5 spurt to cut the deficit to 54-53 after five straight points from Essegian with 10:08 left.

Essegian, who was held scoreless until the 10:30 mark, helped Nebraska regain the lead for good, scoring eight straight for the Huskers, who turned a 58-55 deficit into a 63-61 lead with 5:22 left. The Essegian basket started a 10-0 Husker run in less than two minutes as Nebraska built a 71-61 lead on a Sam Hoiberg 3-pointer with 3:29 left.

From there, the Huskers, kept attacking, building a 12—point lead before Williams capped his fourth 30-point night by scoring NU’s final seven points to seal the Huskers’ first postseason win since 2019.

Nebraska will play the winner of the matchup between Washington State and Georgetown on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. (CT)

 

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Postgame Notes
- Nebraska improves to 25-26 all-time in postseason games with tonight's win

- Nebraska is now 4-4 all-time against Arizona State

- Nebraska overcame an 11-point second-half deficit, marking the third time this year the Huskers rallied from a double-digit deficit

- Brice Williams finished with 30 points for his fourth 30-point game of the season. He is the second Husker in the Big Ten era with four 30-point games in a season, joining James Palmer Jr. who also had four in 2018-19

- Williams' 30-point night is the second-highest scoring effort by a Husker in a postseason game, trailing the 33 points that Tom Baack scored against Marshall in the 1967 NIT

- Williams now has 650 points, passing Eric Piatkowski (646 in 1993-94) for fourth place on NU's single-season scoring list

- Nebraska's 56 points in the second half was its highest scoring half of the season (previous high 54 in the first half vs. South Dakota) and the highest since scoring 57 in the first half against Doane during the 2020-21 season

- Connor Essegian finished with 17 points, all coming in the final 10:29 of the game. It marked the 29th time this season a Husker reserve reached double figures. Essegian was 7-of-7 from the floor in the second half

- Cale Jacobsen led NU a huge lift off the bench, setting career bests in assists (five), steals (three) and minutes (23), as he finished +10 on the night

- Sam Hoiberg matched a career high with four steals as the Huskers finished with 11 steals on the night

- Nebraska shot 50.8 percent on the night, the eighth time NU has shot 50 percent from the field this season. The Huskers were 20-31 from the field in the second half.

 

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	1st	2nd	TOTAL
Nebraska	30	56	86
Arizona State	38	40	78

Nebraska	STATS	Arizona State
31-61 (50.8%)	FG	26-56 (46.4%)
8-24 (33.3%)	3FG	6-20 (30.0%)
16-22 (72.7%)	FT	20-26 (76.9%)
34	Rebounds	30
17	Fouls	19
16	Assists	12
14	Turnovers	16
11	Steals	2
1	Blocks	4
44	Pts in Paint	30
7	2nd Chance Pts	10
15	Fast Break Pts	9
20	Bench Pts	6
24	Pts off Turnovers	11

SCORING

NEBRASKA
Brice Williams - 30
Juwan Gary - 18
Connor Essegian - 17
Sam Hoiberg - 7
Andrew Morgan - 6
Berke Buyuktuncel - 5
Cale Jacobsen - 2
Braxton Meah - 1
TOTAL - 86

ARIZONA STATE
Alston Mason - 23
Basheer Jihad - 21
Adam Miller - 15
Amier Ali - 7
Shawn Phillips Jr. - 6
Trevor Best - 6
TOTAL - 78