Huskers advance to Crown semifinals with win over Georgetown

Nebraska’s season lives on.

Behind a game-high 28 points from first-team All-Big Ten player Brice Williams, Fred Hoiberg’s short-handed Huskers beat an even more short-handed Georgetown Hoyas crew 81-69 in a quarterfinal of the College Basketball Crown Tournament in Las Vegas Wednesday night in MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Nebraska will play NCAA Tournament snub Boise State (26-10) in a semifinal Saturday at 12:30 p.m. inside T-Mobile Arena, home of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. As part of a unique and new-age twist to the Crown, teams that make the semifinals earn $50,000 in NIL money. Runner-ups get $100,000 while the champions get $300,000.

Much like Nebraska’s first opponent in the first round from Monday, Arizona State, Georgetown was a shell of itself at the Crown. The Hoyas were without their top three scorers — including potential NBA draft picks Micah Peavy and Thomas Sorber — and four of its top five.

Nebraska was without starting point guard Rollie Worster (foot) and seldom-used Gavin Griffiths (ankle). The Huskers’ starting five featured Williams, Juwan Gary, Sam Hoiberg, Berke Büyüktuncel and Cale Jacobsen, who made his first start of his Nebraska career following a strong outing Monday against Arizona State.

On Wednesday, Jacobsen played well again. He added seven points, six rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks. Oh, and a team-leading plus-16 in the plus/minus category.

Ed Cooley’s team had enough juice to beat Washington State in a first-round matchup Monday, but not against the Huskers, who shot 47% from the field with nine 3-pointers, five of which came from Williams and three from Gary.

Georgetown’s best player who was actually available, Malik Mack, who scored a career-high 37 points with eight 3s against Washington State, had trouble getting hot in the first half. The 6-foot-2 Mack scored just 2 points on 1-of-8 shooting in the first 20 minutes, but turned it on in the second half with 23 points to finish with 25 on the night.

Nebraska took a 34-24 lead into halftime and pushed its edge to 19 points, 45-25, at with 16 minutes left. Connor Essegian, who scored 17 points in the second half against Arizona State, scored seven points with two 3s in the first half Thursday before being held scoreless in the second and going 0-of-3 from the field.

Georgetown never quite, though. Led by Mack, the Hoyas, who made 12 3s, eventually cut their deficit down to nine, 53-44, with 11 minutes remaining. It got down to eight with 2:43 left.

But Nebraska, the deeper and bigger team, had answers. One was the 6-10 Andrew Morgan, who came off the bench to score 12 points and nine rebounds — and eight of those 12 points came in the second half to help keep Georgetown at bay.

Nebraska outrebounded Georgetown 40-31 and held a 10-4 edge in second-chance points. NU collected 10 offensive boards with Morgan having four of them. The North Dakota State transfer was a problem the Hoyas didn’t have an answer for.

But at the end of the day, Williams and Gary were too much for the Hoyas to handle. Williams scored 18 points in the final 20 minutes while Gary added 12. Gary recorded a double-double on the night with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

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