Williams, Gary lift Nebraska to 69-55 victory over Hawaii
In a game where Nebraska sputtered out of the gate and desperately needed a spark, its two most important players answered the call.
Brice Williams matched his career-high with 32 points, and Juwan Gary followed with a season-high 21 of his own to carry the Huskers to a 69-55 victory over Hawaii on Monday night. The duo didn’t just light up the scoring column, either.
Williams and Gary accounted for 34 of NU’s 40 points in the second half on a combined 13-of-18 shooting (72.2%). The seniors had 53 of Nebraska’s final 69 points while going 18-of-28 (64.3%) on the night.
As a result, the Huskers turned a 31-29 deficit to open the second half into a 14-point true road victory. With the win, they advance to the 2024 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic championship, where they’ll face Oregon State on Wednesday night.
Nebraska shot 59.3% in the second half, scored 38 of its 69 points in the paint, and scored 14 points off of 16 Hawaii turnovers, with 13 of those giveaways coming after halftime.
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It was a hot and cold start on both ends of the floor
Nebraska couldn’t have started the game shooting much worse than it did on Monday night. The Huskers missed 15 of its first 20 shots from the field, including going a dismal 1-of-7 on layups.
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That put NU in a 22-14 hole midway through the half, as Hawaii hit eight of its first 16 attempts. Things would shift dramatically soon after, though.
Nebraska flipped the game on both ends of the floor over the ensuing seven minutes. A pair of Brice Williams 3-pointers got the offense going, and the Huskers stifled UH defensively for a 7:49 scoring drought.
The Rainbow Warriors missed 13 of 14 shots over that stretch to help NU go on a 15-0 run and reclaim the lead. Williams was the only Husker to score in double figures in the first half with 11 points.
However, Hawaii scored five unanswered points over the final 40 seconds of the half, including a three from Marcus Greene at the buzzer to cut Nebraska’s lead to 29-27 at the break.
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