Former Wisconsin basketball players Chucky Hepburn and Connor Essegian had career-high scoring games with their new teams in the last two days.
Hepburn, now with the Louisville Cardinals, and Essegian, now with the Nebraska Cornhuskers, have had good starts this season after entering the transfer portal following last season. But they’ve had a stellar week helping their respective teams to victory.
Here’s more about the career-high games for Hepburn and Essegian this week:
Chucky Hepburn scores 32 points for Louisville
Hepburn scored 32 points, with six steals, as the Cardinals defeated West Virginia 79-70 in overtime Thursday in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis tournament semifinals at Paradise Island, Bahamas.
The senior guard shot 8-for-12 from the field, 2-for-5 on three-pointers, and made 14 of 17 free throws.
“I’ve been kind of laying in the back seat for a long time; and it’s time to show the world who Chucky Hepburn is,” he said on the ESPN broadcast after the game. “I’m a bucket-getter, one of the best point guards in the country; and I stand by that.”
Hepburn’s big game followed a 16-point, seven-steal performance Wednesday in the Cardinals’ 89-61 victory over Indiana. He’s averaging 15 points and 4.2 steals per game this season.
Louisville (5-1) takes on Oklahoma at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the championship game.
Connor Essegian scores 29 points for Nebraska
Essegian scored 29 points as Nebraska topped South Dakota, 96-79, on Wednesday in a nonconference game in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The junior guard came off the bench and shot 10-of-22 from the field, including 6-of-15 on three-pointers, and added five assists in 33 minutes. It’s the most of any Nebraska bench player since 2004.
Essegian is averaging 13.5 points per game this season.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ex-Badgers Chucky Hepburn and Connor Essegian have career-high games
