Huskers.com
The Nebraska men’s basketball team resumes Big Ten Conference action Saturday afternoon as UCLA makes its first visit to Lincoln since 1955. The matchup between the No. 15 Bruins and Huskers from a sold-out Pinnacle Bank Arena is set for shortly after 1 p.m. The game will be shown nationally on FOX and carried on the Huskers Radio Network as well as on Huskers.com and the Huskers app.
Nebraska (11-2, 1-1 B1G) enters 2025 riding a five-game win streak following a 77-43 win over Southern on Monday night. The Huskers raced out to a 12-2 lead in the first 5:06 and were never threatened in building a 24-point halftime lead. Connor Essegian had 20 points, including a career-high six 3-pointers, off the bench to pace three Huskers in double figures. NU held Southern to opponent lows in points (43) and field goal percentage (.254), marking the lowest totals by a Husker opponent since 2018.
Nebraska’s defense has played a major role in the Huskers’ five-game win streak, as NU has held its last five opponents to an average of 56.2 points per game on 34 percent shooting while out-rebounding teams by +6.2 rebounds per game. Nebraska is now in the top five in the Big Ten in both scoring defense (65.1 ppg) and opponent field goal percentage (.381)
Senior Brice Williams leads the Husker attack, as the 6-foot-7 guard averages 19.0 ppg on 52 percent shooting to rank fifth in the Big Ten in scoring entering the weekend. Williams earned his second USBWA Player-of-the-Week honor of the season on Tuesday after leading the Huskers to the Diamond Head Classic title on Christmas. He averaged 28.5 ppg on 61 percent shooting in the final two games of the tournament, including a career-high 32 points at Hawai’i.
UCLA (11-2, 2-0 B1G) has been off since a 65-62 win over No. 14 Gonzaga on Dec. 28. In that game, Eric Dailey Jr. led four Bruins in double figures with 18 points, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range. UCLA trailed 60-58 before Sebastian Mack’s 3-point play with 33 seconds started a game-closing 7-2 run for the Bruins.