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Connor Essegian scored a career-high 29 points and added a career-high five assists, as Nebraska bested South Dakota, 96-79, on Wednesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Essegian, whose 29-point outing off the bench was the most by a Husker in at least two decades, hit a career-high six 3-pointsers, as Nebraska improved to 5-1 on the season. Essegian’s previous best was 24 set as a freshman at Wisconsin during the 2022-23 season.
While Essegian enjoyed a career night, it was the Huskers depth that carried Nebraska to its 16th straight home win. Brice Williams added 21 points and four assists, while Braxton Meah added 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting and five boards.
NU got a season-high 51 points from its bench, including a season-high nine markers from Sam Hoiberg and eight boards and seven rebounds from Andrew Morgan.
As a team, Nebraska shot nearly 50 percent from the floor, including a season-high 13 3-pointers, dished out 24 assists on 33 field goals. Rollie Worster led NU with six assists and added six points and eight boards.
Essegian led a three-point barrage in the opening 20 minutes, hitting five of the Huskers’ 10 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes as Nebraska took a 54-35 halftime lead on Ahron Ulis’ buzzer beater. Leading 16-12, Essegian had a trio of 3-pointers in a span of less than two minutes, as Nebraska built a 29-16 cushion.
The Coyotes (6-3) pulled to within 31-25 before Williams took over, as the senior scored 10 straight points, including consecutive 3-poitners to push the lead back to 16, at 41-25. Williams had 15 of his 21 points in the opening stanza.
Nebraska extended the lead to 23 on two occasions, the last coming on a Hoiberg layup with 17:15 left and would lead by double-figures the rest of the night.
Chase Forte led the Coyotes with 20 points, all coming in the second half.
The Huskers are staying home to host the North Florida Ospreys on Sunday, Dec. 1. Tipoff is set for 3:00 p.m. (CT), tickets are available by visiting Huskers.com/Tickets.