Brice Williams leads Nebraska past No. 18 Illinois

Brice Williams scored a game-high 27 points, including Nebraska's last eight in overtime, as the Cornhuskers stopped No. 18 Illinois 80-74 on Thursday in Lincoln, Neb.

Williams snapped a 72-72 tie on a pull-up jumper with 2:28 left, then drove for a layup at the 1:44 mark. He added a baseline jumper with 43 seconds on the clock and capped his clutch spree by sinking both ends of a one-and-one with 26.2 seconds left.

Connor Essegian came off the bench to add 14 points for Nebraska (13-8, 3-7 Big Ten), which ended a six-game skid and also beat the Fighting Illini for the first time in 10 games, dating back to 2019. Juwan Gary chipped in 13 points and eight rebounds.

Kasparas Jakucionis scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Illinois (14-7, 6-5), while reserves Will Riley and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn added 16 and 15 points. But the Illini shot poorly, making just 26 of 73 from the field and 10 of 42 on 3-pointers to negate a 58-42 rebounding advantage.

Illinois forced overtime when Gibbs-Lawhorn swished a 3-pointer with 46 seconds remaining. The Illini had a chance to win it as regulation ended, but Riley's corner 3 under duress spun in and out.

The teams arrived at this game traveling in opposite directions. While Illinois entered off a solid win over Northwestern on Sunday, Nebraska limped into its building without a win since beating then-No. 15 UCLA on Jan. 4.

But in the first half, it was the Cornhuskers looking like the team playing to improve its NCAA tournament seeding while the Fighting Illini authored a half rife with mistakes and missed shots. They made just 9 of 32 shots and coughed up a half-dozen turnovers.

Nebraska never trailed in the half and opened up a lead as large as 10 late in the first half before taking a 40-31 advantage to the locker room when Williams dunked off Ahron Ulis' feed. The Cornhuskers sank just 14 of 36 field goal tries in the half but committed only one turnover.

--Field Level Media