Connor Essegian scored a career-high 29 points and added a career-high five assists as Nebraska defeated South Dakota 96-79 on Wednesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Essegian, whose 29-point performance off the bench was the most by a Husker in at least two decades, hit a career-high six 3-pointers as Nebraska improved to 5-1 this season. Essegian’s previous record was 24 as a freshman at Wisconsin during the 2022-2023 season.

While Essegian enjoyed a career night, it was the Huskers depth that lifted Nebraska to its 16th straight home win. Brice Williams added 21 points and four assists, while Braxton Meah added 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting and five boards.

NU scored a season-high 51 points off the bench, including a season-high nine markers from Sam Hoiberg and eight boards and seven rebounds from Andrew Morgan.

As a team, Nebraska shot nearly 50 percent from the floor, including a season-high 13 three-pointers, and made 24 assists on 33 field goals. Rollie Rooster led NU with six assists and added six points and eight boards.

Essegian led a three-point barrage in the first twenty minutes, hitting five of the Huskers’ ten three-pointers in the first twenty minutes as Nebraska took a 54–35 lead at halftime on Ahron Ulis’ buzzer beater. Leading 16-12, Essegian had a trio of three-pointers in a span of less than two minutes as Nebraska built a 29-16 cushion.

The Coyotes (6-3) got to within 31-25 before Williams took over, as the senior scored 10 straight points, including consecutive 3-pointers to cut the lead to 16, at 41-25. Williams had 15 of his 21 points in the opening stanza.

Nebraska extended the lead to 23 twice, the last coming on a Hoiberg layup with 17:15 to go, and would lead by double digits the rest of the night.

Chase Forte led the Coyotes with 20 points, all in the second half.

The Huskers stay home to host the North Florida Ospreys on Sunday, December 1. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:00 PM (CT), tickets are available at Huskers.com/Tickets.