Derrick Walker scored 20 points on 10-of-12 shooting and Sam Griesel added 13 points — 11 early in the second half — as Nebraska pulled away to beat turnover-prone Florida State 75-58 on Sunday in the seventh-place game of the ESPN Events Invitational in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Both teams dropped their first two games in the tournament to set up Sunday’s meeting.
Walker, who made his season debut on Friday after an undisclosed medical condition, had his second consecutive double-double by adding 13 rebounds and four assists. Griesel added nine assists.
Nebraska (4-3) put together a 12-2 run to end the first half with a 33-26 lead, and then poured it on, going on a 13-2 run to lead by 16 with 15:09 left in the game. Griesel, who had two 3-pointers during the burst, ended it with a pair of free throws.
Later, Florida State made a 10-2 run, with Cam’Ron Fletcher and Matthew Cleveland scoring four points apiece, to get the deficit to 10, but a dunk by Nebraska’s Juwan Gary ignited a 12-2 run to make it a 71-51 game with 3:39 left.
Cleveland led Florida State with 17 points and Fletcher supplied 10 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Caleb Mills, the team’s leading scorer who entered at 13.1 points per game, added nine points and six assists.
The Seminoles (1-7), who matched the program’s worst start to a season since 2000-01, finished with 19 turnovers. They shot 39 percent from the floor and 3 of 21 on 3-point attempts.
C.J. Wilcher chipped in 13 points, mostly on 3-of-6 shooting from long range. Keisei Tominaga added 13 points and Gary supplied 10 as the Cornhuskers shot 50 percent from the floor and 6 of 24 on 3-pointers. They had 14 turnovers, but just three in the second half.
Each team missed its final four shots of the turnover-plagued first half. Florida State had more turnovers (14) than rebounds (13), and Nebraska had 11 turnovers in the half.
Tominaga scored nine points in the half, and Walker and Wilcher added eight apiece. Cleveland led the Seminoles with eight points.
–Field Level Media
