Amy Williams on Jaz Shelley: 'What doesn't she do?'

Senior guard Jaz Shelley flirted with a triple double during Nebraska‘s 64-56 win over Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday. She scored 19 points on 4-of-9 shooting behind the arc along with seven rebounds and seven assists.

Despite the Boilermaker’s best efforts, Shelley and the Huskers advance to Friday’s quarterfinal matchup. After the game, head coach Amy Williams opened up on her Aussie point guard’s efforts in getting Nebraska into the next round.

“What doesn’t she do?” Williams asked. “I mean, she handles the ball, she makes plays for other people. She gets rebounds, she creates offense for herself, for other people. She’s just so integral to everything we do and we’re so appreciative of her efforts.”

It wasn’t just Shelley who shined during the match, center Alexis Markowski also had an all-around strong performance with 12 points and six assists while logging seven rebounds — three below her season average as she’s one of the top rebounders in the nation this season. Of course, when she’s dishing out the ball for six assists, the need for her rebounding prowess is offset.

“It’s a little scary,” Shelley said of her connection with her teammate. “[Markowski] is an incredible post player. She’s very underrated. I think she’s one of the best post players in the nation, and she’s fun to play with. She can pass the basketball, she reads the game so well.”

Now, the Huskers move on to battle four-seed Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals on Friday.

The two teams met earlier this season on Dec. 9, where the Huskers defeated the Spartans 80-74 on the road. Both teams have evolved in the time since their last encounter, and Shelley is already locking into tomorrow’s game plan.

“We have to lock into scout, we have to fight and we have to play 40 minutes,” Shelley said. “We can’t be trailing, we have to come out from the start and play really tough basketball. … We just have to take it one game at a time and we have to believe in each other. We’ve seen that we can beat the top teams in the nation and we just have to stick to it and fight.”

Tip-off between Nebraska and Michigan State is scheduled for March 8 at 3 p.m. ET and will air live on the Big Ten Network. The winner will advance to face either top-seed Ohio State or Maryland.