Nebraska women's basketball defeats Northwestern 80-64 to finish regular season 16-13, 8-10
Nebraska women’s basketball (16-13, 8-10) defeated Northwestern (9-20, 2-16) 80-64 on Senior Day. The Huskers scored 50 points in the second half with 30 points in the third quarter.
Jaz Shelley led the team with a near-triple double of 19 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. Alexis Markowski had 16 points and 14 rebounds. Sam Haiby added 13 points and Issie Bourne had 11. The Huskers outrebounded the Wildcats 49-26.
Paige Motts had a team-high 18 points and six rebounds for Northwestern. Hailey Weaver added 12 points.
Nebraska will be the No. 8 seed in the Big Ten tournament and play No. 9 Michigan State on Thursday, March 2 at 11:30 a.m. CT on the Big Ten Network.
Shelley started off Senior Day with a corner three-pointer to tie it up 3-3. She was fouled on the next possession and sank both free throws.
Anni Stewart, who started instead of Alexis Markowkski, pulled up for a smooth jumper to go up 7-5. Haiby was the next to score as she drove in for a layup. After that, Nebraska didn’t score a field goal for four minutes.
While the Huskers weren’t scoring, Northwestern was struggling as well. They didn’t score for three minutes.
Kendall Moriarty stole the ball from a Wildcat, took it down the court and laid it in for Nebraska’s first field goal in almost five minutes. The Huskers went up 12-7.
Bourne scored her first points of the game with a layup to start the second quarter. Shelley found her for an open three soon after to go up 17-9.
Maggie Mendelson went to work inside for her first layup as well. Northwestern called a timeout immediately as they went down 10 points with 7:30 left in the second.
Mendelson, a freshman, did it again as she hooked in another shot to make it 21-11.
Haiby and Mendelson fouled Caroline Lau and Paige Mott on back-to-back possessions. Both Lau and Mott made the bucket but missed their free throw. Lau stole the ball from Nebraska after Mott’s free throw for a breakaway layup. The Wildcats were on an 8-0 run.
Shelley and Bourne ended the run with back-to-back layups, making it 25-19 with 3:30 left.
After a Caileigh Walsh layup, Callin Hake went on a 4-0 run. She made two free throws. After that, Shelley stole the ball and found Hake for a fastbreak layup to go up 29-21.
Northwestern scored nine of the final 10 points of the half.
Nebraska was up 30-25 when all momentum shifted. A wildcat tried to take the ball from Shelley and it was called a jump ball. Nebraska and Head Coach Amy Williams strongly disagreed with the call. She disagreed so much that the coach received a technical foul.
Northwestern made both free throws and then hit Hailey Weaver hit a three with four seconds left to tie it up at 30-30 going into halftime.
Second-quarter scoring explosion
Nebraska wanted their lead back.
After two layups from Motts, Nebraska kicked it into gear. Haiby drove into the paint for a layup. Bourne and Maddie Krull hit back-to-back threes to go up 39-34 with seven minutes left.
Woods stopped Nebraska’s 8-0 run with a layup. Markowski responded with one of her own and an and-one. She made the free throw to give Nebraska a 42-36.
Shelley drilled a three from the top of the key with under five minutes to go in the third. NU took a 49-42 lead.
Jillian Brown made a three of her own on the next Wildcat possession.
As much as Nebraska’s offense hummed along, its defense wasn’t on the same level. Finally, the Huskers got back-to-back stops and then Markowski sank a three with the assist from Haiby.
Shelley came away with a steal for three straight stops. Markowski was fouled on an offensive rebound and made both free throws. The sophomore big fought for a layup in the paint to make it a 9-0 run. She had seven of those points.
Nebraska led 60-50 at the end of the third quarter.
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Krull was the first Husker to score a layup with 8:30 left in the game. Nebraska went on a three-minute scoring drought afterward. Haiby ended the drought with a layup in the paint, making it 67-56 with 5:49 remaining.
Motts and Wood both fouled out within seconds. Markowski was the victim of the fouls and went 3-for-4 at the line to go up 72-60 with 3:23 left.
Nebraska had a one-minute possession to eat up some clock down the stretch. The Huskers got two offensive rebounds that ended with Haiby driving in for a beautiful layup.
Shelley, Haiby and Bourne were pulled with one minute left as they were up 80-62. The crowd gave them a standing ovation on Senior Day. All three scored in the double-digits in their final regular season game in Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Notable:
***Nebraska women’s basketball sent off their three seniors the right way. Shelley, Haiby and Bourne all scored double-digits. Shelley had a career-high 13 rebounds.
Over their 11 combined seasons at Nebraska, the trio combined for over 3,500 points, 1,400 rebounds and 870 assists.
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Bourne and Shelley have another year of eligibility but neither has decided yet. Both have been far away from home, Australia, for four years. Bourne said she is weighing that with the great opportunities at Nebraska.
Haiby ranks among the few in Nebraska’s program history in the top 20 in career points, rebounding and assists. The fifth-year senior said her second and final senior day was much more sad and emotional, knowing she couldn’t return.
Shelley, who was at Nebraska for two seasons, and Bourne both had a significant impact on Nebraska as well.
“Just really incredibly special players, not just what they bring to the basketball court but the approach that they have every day, the way they come to work and their professional approach to taking care of their bodies, taking care of their school work, being committed to connecting to our community,” Williams said.
“They really take pride in doing everything the right way. We talk a lot in our program about how you do anything is how you do everything. Those two young ladies just really approach everything with that mindset that they want to do it to their very best. They’ve really set the tone for our program.”
***Nebraska scored 30 points in the third quarter and 50 total in the second half.
Three events sparked the big half. First, Nebraska came back fired up after Northwestern’s 7-0 run to tie it up at the end of the first half, including William’s technical foul.
“I’m really thankful for my team for having my back and coming back with 50 second-half points after the way the first half ended,” Williams said.
Bourne said the Huskers remembered how their game against Northwestern in Evanston went. They were leading by 46-34 going in the fourth quarter and the Wildcats scored 32 fourth-quarter points to make it extremely close. Nebraska still pulled out the win.
Bourne didn’t want that to happen again. She said her team talked about keeping their foot on the gas for all 40 minutes.
Markowski was a huge spark off the bench. Williams said it was a coach’s decision to start Stewart over Markowski.
The sophomore big still made a huge impact in her 24 minutes. She had just two rebounds in the first half. However, Markowski earned 16 points and 12 rebounds in the second half.
“It’s senior day,” Markowski said. “We weren’t going to lose that game. I was ready to lay it all on the line for my seniors and fifth years. I took it personal and I didn’t want to lose for them.”
Markowski shed some tears talking about how much the three seniors meant to her. She did everything she could to get them the ‘W’.
***Next up for Nebraska is the Big Ten tournament in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The No. 8 seeded Huskers play No. 9 Michigan State at 11:30 p.m. CT on the Big Ten Network at the Target Center.
“Just a good team win and we are excited to be carrying a little momentum with us into Minneapolis, where we expect to go and win,” Williams said.
Nebraska defeated then-No. 25 Illinois 90-57 in their previous game so they have two good wins to build on heading into the postseason. After losing four consecutive games, it seems like the Huskers are getting their rhythm back.
They started the season with many expectations, but now their only expectations are their own.
“No one expects us to do crazy things and I think that is when we play our best basketball, lose and free,” Shelley said. “I think everyone is in a really good mindset and is still trusting the process and believing in ourselves and what this team can do.”
