HONOLULU — Nebraska saw in Hawaii a potential threat to its physical primacy, so it threw down the steel gauntlet.
The Cornhuskers of the Big Ten drove hard into the paint, rebounded like iron and set boulder-like screens in a 69-55 win over the Rainbow Warriors in the semifinals of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on Monday night.
"The physicality was in their favor," lamented UH coach Eran Ganot, "whether it was on the glass or attacking the rim."
Cheers of “Go Big Red!” from a few hundred Nebraska partisans among the 2,700 evening-session fans (4,611 tickets issued) echoed in an otherwise quiet Stan Sheriff Center as guard Brice Williams poured in a career-high 32 points while wing Juwan Gary added 21. The Cornhuskers (9-2) advanced to the championship game of the nationally televised tournament at 3:30 p.m. on Christmas where they will face Oregon State (10-2), which came back to beat Oakland in overtime, 80-74, in Monday's first semifinal.
"None of us stepped on that plane to not come back with a title, not come back with a championship," said Williams, a 6-foot-7 three-level scorer who is considered an NBA prospect. "It’d mean everything. I mean, it would mean the goal’s accomplished. We have one more game and we’ll see what happens."
UH (7-4) will play Oakland (4-8) of the Horizon League in the third-place game at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. It appears it will be the Rainbow Warriors' last Christmas Diamond Head Classic game after Monday's announcement of the tournament's shift to Thanksgiving week starting in 2025.
A night after he scored a career-high-tying 24 points on 10-for-14 shooting against Charlotte in the opening round, forward Gytis Nemeiksa was held without a field goal (0-for-5) shooting and scored one point.
"He’s a heck of a player. I thought our attention to detail on him was good," said Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg, a former NBA guard nicknamed, "The Mayor" because he received some write-in votes for the Ames, Iowa, election while he played for Iowa State in 1993. He said Williams was "unbelievable on both ends."
While Nemeiksa hit the proverbial wall, Williams broke loose after being held to a season-low nine points in Sunday's Cornhuskers win over Murray State. He shot 10-for-18 from the field (4-for-5 on 3-pointers) and made all eight of his free-throw attempts. Gary was 8-for-10 (3-for-4 from 3).
"Williams is an NBA-caliber player," said UH wing Ryan Rapp, who scored nine. "We let him get too comfortable early. … Once you feel comfortable you don’t think about the defender or feel it, really."
Rapp noted that UH achieved four "kills" of three consecutive stops in the first half, and none in the second.
"We lost the winning plays. … They out-competed us tonight," he said.
Point guard Kody Williams scored 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting, all in the second half, but had five turnovers. Marcus Greene scored a team-high 11 points, but nine came in the first half and he was shut out in the second until hitting a mid-range jumper with the game out of reach. Tanner Christensen, who faced a center of comparable size in Braxton Meah, also did not score from the field and finished with three points.
UH started strong for the second straight night. But unlike Sunday's first-round performance against Charlotte, the Rainbow Warriors ran out of gas in the middle of the first half. They held a 22-14 lead after two baskets off the bench from Akira Jacobs — then Nebraska rattled off 15 straight points, with Williams supplying eight.
Greene hit a 3-pointer on a set play at the halftime buzzer to get UH within 29-27 at intermission. UH briefly recaptured the lead to start the second half with a steal and layup by its Williams but Brice Williams responded with a layup and 3-pointer.
Ganot noted a drastic turnaround from Sunday's first-round win over Charlotte in which UH shared the ball exceptionallly. His 'Bows assisted on a season-low five baskets in their follow-up effort, while committing 13 of their 16 turnovers in the second half as the Cornhuskers' defensive intensity rose a level.
"There were a lot of unforced turnovers. They get you to play catch a little bit," Ganot said. "We just saw a team that shows and traps a lot (in Charlotte). Today was a little bit more of (isolation) and weak side of the floor, your left hand.
"We were able to overcome it with some tough shots early and glad we finished the half well," he added, "and started the second half well. And then we had just so many lapses."
The 'Bows hung around for a while, with Jacobs connecting on a 3 to get within 56-50. But the 'Huskers closed the game with a 13-5 spurt, with Brice Williams tallying the last seven.
UH was outrebounded for only the second time this season, 28-27.
"We really just let our defense do the work; our offense just kind of flowed from there," Brice Williams said. "In the first half they had their run and they started off good because we weren’t playing defense. We were letting offense control and dictate everything. In that second half we really locked in on defense and it led to easy offense."
The outcome snapped a five-game UH winning streak in the series dating to 1979. The last came in the 2014 Diamond Head Classic first round when UH was led by interim coach Benjy Taylor. UH still leads the series 7-3.
In Monday's consolation semifinals, College of Charleston beat Loyola Chicago 77-68 and Charlotte topped Murray State 94-90 in the first double-overtime game in the tournament's 15 editions.
The Oregon State Beavers eagerly erased a 12-point deficit with a 15-3 run over the final 4:32 of regulation, capped with Lithuanian Liutauras Lelevicius's tying three-point play with 12 seconds left. DQ Cole missed a 3 and the teams played an extra five minutes.
The Grizzlies scored the first three points of overtime, then yielded the last nine of the game to the Beavers.
"Unbelievable comeback. I couldn't be more proud," OSU coach Wayne Tinkle said. "I've had some pretty good highlights as a head coach — as far as being proud of our group, this ranks right up there."
Lelevicius led the Beavers with 17 points and nine rebounds and guard Josiah Lake II sank three of five from long range for 11 points. OSU went 11-for-24 (45.8%) on 3-pointers.
"It was huge. You've gotta give credit to Oakland," Tinkle said. "They frustrated our guys and put some of our key guys back on their heels. We kept trying different lineups, substitutions to find different energy. We found a group there with about five and a half minutes to go, simple little offensive adjustment and we saw us bang some shots, get key stops, fight through some adversity with some foul calls and finish shots."
OSU overcame a tournament-record performance by Oakland big man Allen David Mukeba, who went 10-for-10 from the field for 21 points. Forward Tuburu Naivalurua added 14 points and 12 rebounds on 6-for-7 shooting. Between them, they nearly overcame an errant performance by the rest of Greg Kampe's Grizzlies.
"They beasted us," Tinkle said. "We just weren't ready for the fight and (center) Matt Marsh was absolutely huge for us. We didn't have a shot-blocking presence and we went to him ... and rolled with him down the stretch and he was huge for us. They weren't getting those in crunch time and we were."
Note: This story has been updated with quotes and details.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.