Nebraska women's basketball cruises by Northern Iowa 77-57, advances to WNIT Sweet 16
Nebraska women’s basketball (18-14) comes back from a first-quarter deficit to cruise past Northern Iowa (23-10) 77-57 in the second round of the WNIT. The Huskers advance to the Sweet 16 which will be March 22-24. The time, date and location are to be announced.
Issie Bourne ended with a team-high 17 points and 11 rebounds. Jaz Shelley recorded 16 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. Alexis Markowski and Maddie Krull added 11 and 10 points respectively.
The winner advantaged to the WNIT’s Sweet 16 to take on the winner of Kansas vs. Missouri, who play on Monday, March 20 at 6:30 p.m. CT.
Both teams struggled to get their shots to fall in the first couple of minutes. Sam Haiby had one that went halfway into the hoop and bounced out.
Alexis Markowski was the first player to score, as she made a tough layup two minutes into the game. Maya McDermott responded on the other end with a layup of her own. Soon after, Jaz Shelley drained a three at the top of the key to go up 6-2 with 6:34 left.
Northern Iowa’s Emerson Green earned a three of her own immediately after. McDermott hit back-to-back three-pointers to help UNI go on a 9-0 scoring run in under two minutes. The Panthers led 11-6 with four minutes left in the first quarter.
Two free throws by Maddie Krull ended UNI’s 9-0 run.
Green went on a 5-0 run of her own as she swished a jumper in the paint then hit a three at the top of the key as the shot clock was winding down. UNI went up 16-8 with under two minutes in the first quarter.
Nebraska didn’t score a field goal for five minutes. Haiby ended the drought as she made a difficult hook shot in the paint. Shelley backed her up with a three-pointer to close the gap to 16-13 UNI with 41 seconds left.
After a free throw from Rachael Heittola, Haiby drained a three of her own to make it a 17-16 Panther lead at the end of the first quarter.
Bourne started the second quarter with a three and then a layup to take a 21-17 lead with 8:49 left in the half.
Toward the beginning of the second quarter, Haiby went down with what looked like a right leg injury. She hopped off the court with help from a trainer and a coach and went right to the locker room.
Nebraska didn’t score for three minutes after Bourne’s layup. Bourne made another shot inside the paint to end the drought. Luckily for Nebraska women’s basketball, Northern Iowa wasn’t doing much scoring either during the drought either.
Grace Boffeli made a big play for the Panthers on the other end as she was fouled on a layup that she made. Boffeli missed the extra shot though. She made another layup after Markowski’s jumper. Markowski swished the jumper around the free throw line to make it 25-21 with under five minutes to go.
Callin Hake nailed a three-pointer to compliment Shelley’s layup to go up 30-23 with 2:46 left in the half. Shelley came in clutch with another three to force a UNI timeout.
Hake stepped up big-time with Haiby in the locker room. She laid in a tough shot in the paint and got the foul. She made the free throw to go up ten, 36-26. Bourne expanded it to an 8-0 run by driving inside for a smooth layup.
Nebraska’s streak and the half were ended by a three-pointer from Heittola, which she hit with three seconds left in the half. The Huskers jogged into the locker room up 38-29 at halftime.
Second half
Kendall Moriarity started the second half off with a bang as she swished an open three to go up, 41-29.
Northern Iowa women’s basketball went on a quick 5-0 run against Nebraska. However, Markowski decided to go on a 5-0 run of her own as she made two free throws and then was fouled on a layup and drained the extra point. With the sophomore’s help, Nebraska went up 48-34 with 5:30 left in the third quarter.
After the media timeout, Moriarty hit a jumper after a couple of Shelley free throws and then Coley made a bucket of her own.
Moriarty stepped up in a big way in the third quarter with Haiby out. She drilled an important shot behind the arc to end the third quarter and stop a 4-0 UNI run. Nebraska was up 61-43 at the end of the third.
McDermott scored back-to-back shots to start off the fourth quarter strongly for the Panthers. Krull pulled up a jumper to score the Huskers’ first bucket of the quarter. Bourne forced a timeout by draining a three to go up 66-47 with 7:24 left in the game.
Heittola came out of the timeout with a three which Markowski changed with a jumper in the paint. UNI refused to go away as Boffeli made another layup. Krull tried to silence them with a three at the top of the key. On the other end, Nebraska’s defense trapped McDermott to make her call a timeout.
McDermott stormed out of the timeout to drain a three-pointer.
Both teams went on scoring droughts of about three minutes toward the end of the game. Krull ended Nebraska’s by driving into the hoop and laying in a bucket. The Huskers swatched away the ball from UNI to dribble it out until the buzzer.
Next up
Nebraska plays the winner of Missouri vs. Kansas which is on Monday, March 20 at 6:30 p.m. in Lawrence, Kansas. The location/date/time of the Sweet 16 game is to be announced. However, the Huskers do have a good shot at hosting the game.
Stepping up after a big loss
Fifth-year senior Sam Haiby went down in the second quarter with a lower leg injury on her right leg. She hopped off the court with a trainer and a coach on either side of her. The 5-foot-9 guard didn’t return for the rest of the game.
Haiby had five points, three steals, two assists and no turnovers in her under 10 minutes.
Husker Head Coach Amy Williams said they will have to wait until tomorrow to know more about Haiby’s injury.
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“She played outstanding in our first-round game, scored 25 points and really sparked us,” Williams said. “I thought she was off to a great start in this game. She was really controlling tempo and pace.”
“Sam and I have been through a lot of things together in five years. I’m just going to be praying for her.”
Nebraska had several players step up in Haiby’s absence. Kendall Moriarty and Callin Hake played 25 and 18 minutes, respectively. Moriarty had eight points and Hake had six. Shelley had to transition back to the point guard role.
“It took us a little bit to get into the game after (Haiby) went down, just playing a little bit out of position,” Shelley said. “Then me coming into the point guard, it took me a little bit to get a feel with that changing defenses. I think we handled it pretty well but obviously, something like that’s going to happen when the floor general goes out.”
The Huskers missed their first seven shots after Haiby’s injury. They eventually settled in and went back to work.
“I felt like they really came together,” Williams said. “I think everyone felt like, “I need to rise to the occasion.” And we saw several people that did that.”
Williams said she saw the same thing happen when Allison Weidner got injured in the Huskers’ triple overtime win over Kansas earlier this year. She said several people stepped up to get the win and have since in her absence.
“They wanted to do it for Allison and they wanted to do it today for Sam and kind of finish things out strong,” she said. “It was great to see lots of people set up and try to make up for her loss.”
If Haiby is unable to return for the Sweet 16, it will be another huge loss for Nebraska because of her play, experience and leadership.
Going on a big run and the keys
Nebraska was down 16-8 in the first quarter with two minutes left in the first quarter. The Huskers scored eight points in the final 1:22 to close the gap to 16-13 at the buzzer. Haiby had five of those points including a huge three at the buzzer. That was her first three in Pinnacle Bank Arena since the Ohio State game on Jan. 14.
“I was pleased with the way we responded,” Williams said. “I thought they did get up early but we had a couple huge baskets. Sammy’s three that she hit right before the end of the first quarter, I thought was a really big shot. Just had a great response from that first quarter where they hit several three-point shots on our defensive rotations.”
After UNI went up 16-8, Nebraska went on a 30-13 run to finish the second quarter. The Huskers outscored the Panthers 22-12 in the second quarter.
One of Nebraska’s biggest victories of the game was that they didn’t have a turnover in the first half. When a reporter asked Williams about that, she knocked on the wood table several times. The Huskers ended with seven turnovers and 18 assists.
“It was outstanding,” Williams said. “I was really proud. We knew Northern Iowa has shown a lot of different defensive looks.”
In the first half, UNI played man-to-man defense but had different stunts where they changed it up by doubling different players. They started trapping more in the second half which caused the Husker turnovers.
Nebraska, on the other hand, forced 13 turnovers and had 16 points off turnovers. Northern Iowa Head Coach Tanya Warren said that was uncharacteristic of her team. She said Nebraska’s height and length bothered her team.
Williams said the Huskers’ focused on rebounding and offensive rebounding for this game. They struggled to do both against Missouri State in the first round. Bourne was a huge factor in keeping UNI to five offensive rebounds.
That will continue to be a focus for the Huskers as they continue on into the Sweet 16.
