Nebraska men’s basketball survived and advanced to the semifinals of The College Basketball Crown with an 81-69 win over Georgetown Wednesday night.
The Cornhuskers needed to start faster than they did in their first-round win over Arizona State on Monday, and they did just that. On the Huskers’ first possession, their best player, Brice Williams, hit his first shot attempt, a 3-pointer from the right wing. After the first three minutes, Nebraska led 9-3 and never trailed in the game.
“I thought it was really good,” Coach Fred Hoiberg said of the quick start. “Jumping out early, we got a quick six or eight-point lead and just kind of kept it going and got that thing up to 18.”
Williams led the team in scoring with 28 points, his 19th 20-plus-point game of the season and two shy of his fifth 30-point game of the season.
For the second game in a row, Williams was extremely efficient, making eight of his 14 field goals including 5-of-9 from 3-point range and a perfect 7-for-7 from the charity stripe. In the two Crown games, Williams is a combined 16-of-30 from the field, 9-of-19 from distance and 17-of-20 from the free-throw line.
“Brice got hot at the right time, hit some big shots for us,” Hoiberg said. “He’s been unbelievable here in the first two games for us.”
It was the 19th win of the season for Nebraska and the 82nd in the Fred Hoiberg era, moving him to seventh on the all-time Husker wins chart, one ahead of his grandfather, Jerry Bush.
For the second game in a row, Cale Jacobsen had a major impact.
The sophomore Ashland-Greenwood product nearly doubled his season-scoring output (11) in the game with seven points. Jacobsen recorded the game high in three different categories with four assists, three steals and two blocked shots. He also was the game leader in plus/minus at plus-16.
In the first start of his Husker career, Jacobsen’s played 36 minutes, scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds — all career highs.
“Cale just makes people better, that is the best quality about him,” Hoiberg said. “It is a great quality to have when you have that type of impact on the game.”
The depth of Nebraska showed for the second game in a row. Arizona State played without key contributors due to injury or players in the transfer portal on Monday. Wednesday was more of the same with Georgetown missing players due to injury and the portal.
The Huskers’ bench outscored the Hoyas’ 25-14 in the game, and in the second half it really showed. Senior post Andrew Morgan led the Husker bench production with 12 points and nine rebounds, with eight of his 12 points and seven of his nine rebounds coming in the second half.
“Really proud of Andrew Morgan,” Hoiberg said. “I thought he responded in a big way with huge minutes off the bench, and I thought Ahron Ulis was terrific all night as well. Good bench production and total team effort tonight.”
Nebraska will face Boise State on Saturday at 12:30 CT in the Basketball Crown Semifinals televised on FOX.
‘We are going to have our hands full on Saturday,” Hoiberg said of Boise. “It is a very physical team that can shoot it from everywhere.”
