Nebraska Women’s Basketball drops close game to No. 12 Ohio State 72-66

No. 25 Nebraska Women’s Basketball came up short against No. 12 Ohio State 72-66 during the annual Pack PBA game. The Huskers (15-5, 6-3) came back from a 66-57 deficit with a 7-0 run in the fourth. But NU didn’t score in the final 1:44. The Buckeyes improve to 19-1 and 8-1 in the Big Ten.

Nebraska had its third-highest attendance, with 9,772 fans at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Huskers’ 15-game home winning streak came to an end. It was the longest active home winning streak in the Big Ten.

Center Alexis Markowski led NU with 18 points and six rebounds. Guard Callin Hake recorded 12 points while going 3-of-7 from three.

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Nebraska shot 38 percent from field goal range and 26 percent from 3 despite a 44 percent clip after the first quarter. Ohio State was 50 percent from the field and 35 percent from 3.

“It was a really tough loss,” Markowski said postgame. “We had a lot of fans here today, and we really wanted to win for them, but I thought we fought really hard today. We really came together. And we were tough when we were down and came back towards the end. So, there are a lot of positive things today, but there are also things that we can work on. Overall, we’re really disappointed that we didn’t come out with a win, but I think there are a lot of good things that this team did.”

Taylor Thierry had a team-high 23 points and seven rebounds for the Buckeyes. The senior had a career-high five 3-pointers. Cotie McMahan added 15 points including nine in the third quarter. She had a double-double with 10 rebounds.

Jaloni Cambridge, who averaged 15.7 points per game before Sunday, didn’t score vs. Nebraska. Husker guard Britt Prince did a great job on defense vs. her fellow freshman, head coach Amy Williams said. Prince had eight points and eight rebounds.

A strong first half against a top-15 team

Nebraska and Ohio State started off cold offensively. Hake was the first to score – a 3-pointer – two minutes into the contest. Each team found their offensive grove afterward.

The Huskers set a 3-pointer record in their last home game with 16 threes. They stayed hot from behind the arc into the first quarter against the Buckeyes. NU went 4-of-9 from three in the first quarter. Hake was 2-of-2. Alberte Rimdal and Amiah Hargrove added one each.

NU took a 21-17 lead into the second quarter. But, Ohio State started quarter two with back-to-back buckets to tie the game 21-21.

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Nebraska went scoreless until Jessica Petrie swished a three with 7:23 left in the second. Petra Bozan gave an offensive rebound and the putback. Hake stole from OSU, and then Rimdal drove inside for a layup. The Huskers led 28-22 at the second-quarter media timeout.

At the buzzer, Madison Greene made her first three of the game for OSU. But the refs overturned the call due to her foot being out of bounds. Nebraska led 38-36 at the half.

Second half fall behind and come back

Hake began the second half, just like she did the first half – with a 3-pointer.

Nebraska and Ohio State traded baskets until McMahon made a three and then completed a fastbreak layup after a steal to make it a 52-50 OSU lead. Rimdal broke up the run with a 3-pointer, but then Thierry responded with one of her own.

The Huskers didn’t score for nearly four minutes while OSU went on a 9-0 run. Bozan made two free-throws to make the score 61-55 after the third.

The Buckeyes couldn’t miss in the third quarter. They were 11-of-16 (69 percent) and 3-of-6 (50 percent) from behind the arc.

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Nebraska struggled greatly to get their shots to fall in the second half. They shot 40 percent from the field in the third and were 2-of-8 from 3-point range. NU made one shot out of six in the first half of the final quarter.

The Huskers defense dialed in and didn’t allow Ohio State to score for four minutes. NU went scoreless for four minutes until Logan Nissley hit her first 3-pointer of the game. After an Ohio State timeout, Markowski made a contested layup and swished the and-one shot.

The Buckeyes went on a five-minute scoring drought, which was ended by a Thierry three with under two minutes left.

Ohio State won 72-66 after Nebraska didn’t score for the final 1:44 minutes of the contest.

Next, Nebraska goes on the road to face Purdue on Jan. 30 and then takes on Indiana in Bloomington, Ind. on Feb. 2.

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