Amy Williams dishes on Nebraka's strong first half vs. Caitlin Clark, Iowa in Big Ten Championship game

Nebraska held Caitlin Clark in check early and nabbed the lead by the end of the first quarter in the Big Ten Tournament Champhionship.

After 10 minutes, the Cornhuskers led 23-17 and were up as much as 11 when head coach Amy Williams was interviewed ahead of the second period. She emphasized controlling the pace for her team and said they did a good job so far.

“Yeah, so far, so good. I think they played with pretty good pace. We’ve settled for a few too many perimeter shots and when you’re playing your fourth game in four days, we wanna make sure we continue to get paint touches. But I’m pleased with the pace of play.”

Maybe some improved shot selection, but otherwise a very solid job defensively on the Hawkeyes, per Williams.

The second quarter went just as well for Nebraska, who cashed in with a final 3-pointer from Jaz Shelley with less than 10 seconds to go to take an 11-point lead with them into the locker room. Before addressing her team, Williams again stopped by to give an interview. This time, she had a list of improvements to help build on the Huskers’ advantage.

“Yeah, as a coach we’re always gonna say we could shore up a few things. We lost Gabbie Marshall there late, gave up an open 3, some inside looks to Hannah Stuelke, some offensive rebounders really hurting us on the offensive boards. So if we can crack those things down a little bit, continue to play with good pace try to keep them below their scoring average.”

Amy Williams was also asked about the balanced scoring attack on the other end of the court that has Nebraska on pace for 90+ points at the half. She says:

“Well, that’s when Nebraska is at its best is when we’re getting balanced inside-outside attack. You know, Alexis Markowski just commands so much attention inside and that just frees some people up. We got some people shooting confidently and we’re going to need to keep that up in the second half.”