Nebraska women's basketball falls 76-67 to No. 3 Ohio State despite comeback run
Nebraska women’s basketball put together a big comeback against Ohio State but it wasn’t enough as they fell 76-67 to the No. 3 Buckeyes.
The Huskers started off slow. Ohio State started off in a 6-0 scoring run, which was broken up by an Alexis Markowski layup. The Buckeyes continued their run and went up 13-2 with 5:48 left in the first quarter.
Nebraska Head Coach Amy Williams called a timeout then to rally the troops and did just that. Freshman Callin Hake hit a three soon after the timeout, ending an over two-minute scoring drought. Jaz Shelley stole an OSU pass and threw it down the court for Markowski to layup.
Nebraska then closed the gap to 15-9 when Markowski hit a smooth mid-range jumper. Hake followed it up with a three-pointer. The Huskers were in it, only down 17-12 to the No. 3 team in the nation.
Ohio State didn’t like it.
The Buckeyes hit back-to-back shots behind the arc and went on an 8-0 scoring run to end the quarter. Ohio State led 25-12 after the first 10 minutes.
Markowski and Hake were the only two Huskers to score in the first quarter. They each had six points.
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Sam Haiby sparked the Huskers in the second quarter with five early points. Markowski and Hake were still key to Nebraska’s success but their teammates finally got involved when it came to scoring.
Maggie Mendelson and Issie Bourne made back-to-back layups. Before the Hake-Markowski duo went on a 9-0 scoring run over the last 3:30 of the half. Hake drained a three off a great assist from Mendelson down low. Markowski scored the rest.
Ohio State didn’t score for the final 2:53 of the half while Nebraska/Markowski was on a run.
Second-half comeback X2
Nebraska started the second half on a 7-0 scoring run, spearheaded by Haiby. She had Nebraska’s first five points, three were from free throws. The graduate student went up against two Buckeyes, made the layup and was fouled. She made the and-one.
Bourne hit a layup on the next possession and Nebraska was in it 42-39 with 7:45 left in the third. Pinnacle Bank Arena was rocking and Ohio State was forced to call a timeout.
They used the timeout well as they hit two three-pointers to cool off Nebraska’s crowd slightly.
Nebraska kept with it and came back with five points but then Rebeka Mikulaskikova scored nine points for the Buckeyes in two minutes.
The Huskers didn’t score for the final 2:30 of the third quarter and Ohio State took back a 12-point lead. OSU led 62-50 going into the final 10 minutes.
Both teams started the final quarter a little flat as they went on a two or more scoring drought after the first couple of minutes.
Nebraska’s drought with a Hake layup.
Ohio State went on a 7-2 run over the next 1:30 minutes and the game was all out of reach after that. The Huskers were down 74-56 with under four minutes to go against the No. 3 team in the nation.
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NU made one last push as they went on a 6-0 scoring run with 2:23 remaining. Bourne made all six points. The senior made a layup, then Shelley stole the inbound and Bourne made another layup to close the gap to 74-62.
Nebraska hung in there despite shooting 36.8 percent from the floor and 18.5 from behind the arc. Ohio State shot 51.8 percent from field goal range, 53.3 percent from three-point range and 83 percent from the FT line.
Haiby had 16 points and seven rebounds. Markowski had 15 points and eight rebounds. Mikulaskivoka had 25 points and seven rebounds for Ohio State.
Next up, Nebraska is at Purdue on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 6:00 p.m. on B1G+.
Nebraska needs a strong start
Williams said she hoped her team had learned from their loss against Michigan that they need a strong start in order to win, especially against top-ranked opponents. Unfortunately, they didn’t.
The Huskers were down 19-5 against No. 14 Michigan after the first quarter. Similar to their game against the Wolverines, Nebraska faced a 13-2 deficit with under six minutes left in the first quarter.
“I thought we had kind of learned our lesson playing against Michigan here a few weeks ago that we can’t dig ourselves a hole like that in the first quarter,” Williams said. “We have to get off to great starts. You have to put together 40 minutes in this league against anybody and particularly against the No. 3 team in the country.”
NU battled their way back but Ohio State took back their lead in the third quarter.
While Nebraska got within three (42-39), they never tied or took the lead in the game.
Williams felt like her team did some nice things to help put themselves in a position to win. Nebraska had 18 assists to 12 turnovers and forced Ohio State to have 18 turnovers, which Williams was proud of. The Huskers had 24 second chance points compared to OSU’s nine. They outscored them in points in the pain (42 to 36) and fast break points (12 to 4).
“All those areas were really big focuses and we took care of business there but didn’t shoot it very well from the three-point line and continued to shoot,” she said. “We didn’t shoot it very well from the free throw line, partially at times when we need to. But our team is going to need to find a way to not go as our three-point shooting goes.”
Nebraska shot 18.5 percent from three-point range. But again, they did enough to win enough after digging a big hole at the beginning. Now the Huskers need to learn to start playing 40 good minutes of basketball and see what they can do against a top-three team.
“We got back to playing Husker basketball, what we talk about in practice and what we need to do this whole week,” Haiby said. “That start isn’t what we need to get off to a good start for the game. But once we settled in, we knew what we were capable of. We played three quarters of really good basketball and hung with the No. 3 team in the country so it’s important for us to get off to better starts.”
