Huskers make up for slow start, defeat Hawaii 69-55

The Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball team recovered after a slow start against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, earning a 69-55 win in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on Monday night.

Brice Williams dropped a career-high 32 points in the victory and Juwan Gary added a season-high 21 points to help Nebraska advance to the title game on Wednesday.

Williams and Gary combined for 34 of the Huskers' 40 points in the second half alone as Nebraska heated up as a team, hitting 59% of shots in the final 20 minutes of play.

The Huskers (9-2) overcame a slow start to eventually take a 29-27 halftime lead. Big Red missed 10 of its first 13 shots while Hawaii (7-4) hit 50% of shots (8-for-16) to begin the game. Trailing 22-14, that's when Nebraska started to shift momentum.

Nebraska used a couple of runs in the second half to help distance them from the Rainbow Warriors, going on a 7-0 run to take a 36-31 lead and then another 7-0 run later in the half to expand its lead to 52-41 with just under nine minutes left in the game.

Hawaii was able to get the score within six points at 56-50 before the Huskers pulled away.

Nebraska forced Hawaii to turn the ball over 16 times as the Huskers snapped a five-game losing streak against the host team, dating back to 1976.

The Cornhuskers are set to play in their first MTE title game since the 2018 Hall of Fame Classic, as they'll take on Oregon State on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. CT.