Nebraska 80 Dayton 78

The Nebraska Men’s basketball team came out hot on Thursday night against a strong Dayton team. While the Flyers tried to pull off the win in the last few seconds, the Huskers held on for victory.

The Huskers lead for all but a last few seconds of the game in Fullerton, California on Thanksgiving night before free throws by Ed Morrow caped the victory for Nebraska.

The team started out strong and it was early in the game when they held a 14-4 lead on the Flyers. The lead eventually grew to 14 points before half time. Dayton did seem to start out slow in the game and it took them awhile to find their rhythm as time went on. The Flyers kept trying to close the lead and played well throughout the night just couldn’t get terribly close until the last minute of the game. Strong defense and hot shooting kept Nebraska in this fast paced contest.

Nebraska shot 57% from the floor on the night, a season high that kept Dayton on it’s heels for most of the night.

The Huskers were lead by Glynn Watson Jr. who had 20 point on the night along with 3 rebounds and 5 steals. It was huge game game for the sophomore from Illinois who hasn’t had double digits points since the opening game against Sacramento State.

He was followed by Ed Morrow who was just behind him with 19 points an 10 rebounds. Morrows ability to stay strong in the paint offensively and defensively was beneficial to the Husker win.

Senior Tai Webster finished 16 points on the night. He got into foul trouble that kept him out of the second quarter for a bit but was able to come back in and help the Huskers keep the lead before finally fouling out with 36 seconds left in the game.

One nice surprise was the emergence of junior Anton Gill who came off the bench and scored 10 points. The Louisville transfer added some much needed help from the reserves who had previously struggled to help the team out in previous games.

Dayton was lead by Charles Cooke who had 17 points on the night and was followed by Scoochie Smith with 13.

Nebraska will now face UCLA in the next game of the tournament. The Bruins beat Portland 99 to 77 in the last game of the night. Game time is 11:00 PM CST and will be on ESPN 2.