Andrew Morgan scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds Sunday as Nebraska established a 20-point halftime lead and cruised to a 66-49 win over Murray State in the quarterfinals of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu.
The Cornhuskers (8-2) also got 15 points from Connor Essegian as they advanced to Monday night’s semifinals. They’ll meet Hawaii, which beat Charlotte in Sunday night’s last quarterfinal.
Kylen Milton scored a game-high 19 points for the Racers (6-5), who dropped their third straight game. Milton was 7 of 15 from the field but his teammates made only 10 of 40, with Murray State finishing the game at 30.9 percent.
Nebraska never trailed and led for all but the game’s first 1:16, thanks to equal parts good defense and horrific Murray State shooting. The Racers started the contest at 1 of 13 from the field and didn’t get much better in the first half.
Entering the game averaging 78.8 points per game and shooting a respectable 47.7 percent from the field — and 38.6 percent from the 3-point line — Murray State finished the first half at 4 of 28 overall and 3 of 15 on 3-pointers. Even with the Cornhuskers chipping in 10 turnovers, the Racers managed just one point off all those miscues.
When Nebraska wasn’t coughing the ball up, it scored enough to build a cushion that the Racers couldn’t erase. It converted 50 percent of its shots in the half, getting nine points from Essegian, all on 3-pointers.
Morgan’s short jumper at the 10:48 mark made it 15-4 and the margin kept growing. It got to 34-14 at the break after Morgan converted a layup with 1:15 remaining.
Rollie Worster rebounded a missed 3-pointer by the Racers’ Terence Harcum and drove for a layup to boost the margin to 41-18 with 17:36 left in the game. Worster finished with 11 points.
Even though the Cornhuskers sputtered at times offensively with the big lead, they never led by fewer than 12 for the game’s remainder.
–Field Level Media
