{"id":427216,"date":"2024-12-02T17:14:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T17:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=427216"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Nebraska-hits-century-mark-in-easy-win-over-North-Florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Nebraska-hits-century-mark-in-easy-win-over-North-Florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Nebraska hits century mark in easy win over North Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Connor Essegian scored 22 points and Nebraska had a second straight big offensive performance in a 103-72 home win over North Florida in a nonconference game on Sunday afternoon in Lincoln, Neb. Essegian, who was back in the starting lineup after dropping a career-high 29 last time out, was 8 of 10 from the field and 6 of 8 from 3-point range. He fueled a 45.8 percent performance from outside for the Cornhuskers, who shot 58 percent overall. Nebraska (6-1) reached the century mark for the first time since December 2021 in a four-overtime loss to NC State. The 103 points were the Cornhuskers&#8217; most since December 2020 and most against a Division I opponent since 2018. Essegian was in the starting lineup in place of leading rebounder Berke Buyuktuncel, who sat out with a hip injury. Nebraska still won the rebounding battle 38-37 as Andrew Morgan had nine boards along with 13 points, while Juwan Gary scored 18 and Brice Williams had 17 with six assists. Ahron Ulis added 10 points. North Florida (5-3) was led by senior guard Nate Lliteras, who had 17 points, with Jasai Miles adding 14. The Ospreys hit 14 3-pointers but attempted 43 and shot 38.5 percent from the field. The Cornhuskers led 53-32 at halftime thanks to 58.8 percent shooting. They made their first three shots to open the second half, including two Essegian 3-pointers, to bump the edge to 27. Seven straight points from Lliteras, including a four-point play, got North Florida within 67-52 with 14:15 left. The Ospreys could get no closer, as Nebraska put it away with a 7-0 run to get the margin back above 20 with 11:26 left. Nebraska hit five of its first seven shots, including all three 3-point attempts, and used a 15-0 run to take an 18-4 lead less than six minutes in. An 8-2 North Florida run got it within 10 with 8:37 left in the first half but the Cornhuskers responded with a 13-2 run to lead 41-20. &#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/07ec3fa227c3423be14457b0722c3b0c.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Dec 1, 2024; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers guard Brice Williams (3) drives against North Florida Ospreys guard Ametri Moss (55) during the first half at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dylan Widger-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>-Dylan Widger-Imagn Images<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Connor Essegian scored 22 points and Nebraska had a second straight big offensive performance in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-427216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}