Nebraska beats USF 74-67, grabs 3rd place in Cayman Islands

Haanif Cheatham scored a career-high 26 points, Dachon Burke Jr. added a career-best 19 and Nebraska got rolling with 61 percent shooting in the second half for a 74-67 victory over South Florida on Wednesday in the third-place game of the Cayman Islands Classic.

Nebraska (4-3) shot 55% overall to conclude the tournament with two wins sandwiched around an 85-66 loss to George Mason.

Burke had 19 points that included three 3-pointers and Cheatham added 15 points after the break. Each finished 8-of-11 shooting, with Cheatham making 9 of 11 free throws.

David Collins scored 16 points and Laquincy Rideau added 15 for South Florida (3-4), which shot 38.6% overall. Six made at least one 3-pointer, but they finished 8-of-27 (29.6%) shooting from long range. Michael Durr grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and had eight points for the Bulls.  Cheatham and Rideau were each named to the all-tournament team.

South Florida had a 35-33 edge at halftime and stretched it to seven with 12:39 left. Cheatham scored 10 points and Burke had a 3-pointer and dunk during a 17-2 run as Nebraska built its largest lead, 63-55 with 6:42 left.

Collins' 3-pointer and layup pulled the Bulls to 63-62 with four minutes remaining. Burke answered with consecutive 3-pointers between a Justin Brown free throw to extend Nebraska's lead to 69-63 with about two minutes left as the Cornhuskers pulled away.

Each team lead by as many as eight points.