Nebraska Women's Basketball defeats No. 12 Purdue 64-56 to advance in Big Ten Tournament
No. 5 Nebraska Women’s Basketball overcomes a slow offensive start to defeat No. 12 Purdue 64-56 in the second round of the TIAA Big Ten Tournament.
The Huskers advance to the third round of the Big Ten Tournament to play No. 4 Michigan State on March 8 at 2:00 p.m. CT. The game will be on the Big Ten Network.
Second-team All-Big Ten selection Jaz Shelley led the Huskers with 19 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. She went 6-for-12 from behind the arc.
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Sophomore Callin Hake added 15 bench points and went 3-for-6 from three. First-team All-Big Ten pick Alexis Markowski had 12 points, seven rebounds and a career-high six assists.
Freshman Sophie Swanson led the Boilermakers with a career-high 25 points. She went 7-of-9 from three. Abbey Ellis added 11 points and Jeanae Terry had 11 rebounds before fouling out.
Nebraska scored a season-low seven points in the first quarter and 25 points in the first half. Hake led NU with 12 second-half points and Shelley had 10. Nebraska women’s basketball shot 54 percent from the field goal range and 43 percent from three in the second half.
Strong defensive first half
Shelley and the Huskers kicked off the game with a three-pointer at the top of the key. Nebraska missed its next nine shots. Markowski was the next Husker to score with 4:44 left in the first quarter.
Luckily for Nebraska Women’s Basketball, the Boilermakers also went on a three-scoring drought. Both teams were dialed in defensively, with three blocks in the first four minutes. However, the shots were not falling.
After a media break halfway through the quarter, Markowski got a quick two points on a layup. Purdue did the same to make it 6-5.
After back-to-back buckets from Purdue, Darian White sank a hook shot and was fouled. However, she missed the and-one. NU cut the lead to 8-7.
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Shelley, Markowski and White were the only Huskers to score in the first quarter. Purdue led 12-7 after the first quarter.
Nebraska shoots 17 percent from the floor and 13 percent from three. Purdue shot 33 percent from field goal range and was 0-for-2 from three in the first quarter.
Callin Hake made a much-needed three to start the second quarter. Markowski earned a layup on the next possession. Potts nailed another shot from beyond the arc to take a 15-14 lead with 8:21 remaining in the half.
Nebraska Women’s Basketball’s defense picked up as well. They forced three turnovers in the first three minutes of the quarter. But they became more sloppy on offense, suffering four turnovers in over three minutes themselves. They also didn’t score in that time frame.
After a Husker timeout, Logan Nissley pulled up a few steps in front of the arc for a nice jumper. Purdue’s Swanson responded with back-to-back buckets. She scored seven straight points for the Boilermakers.
Shelley’s three tried to calm the Purdue surge, but Ellis snuffed out the momentum with a fastbreak layup. After the shot, they led 25-20 with 2:32 remaining in the half.
Shelley nailed another three at the buzzer to tie it up 25-25 at the half.
Purdue’s defense limited Nebraska to eight paint points and 25 points in the first half. They had eight steals with 13 points off turnovers and 13 points off fastbreaks.
Shelley, Hake take over in second half
Markowski started the half with a quick layup. On the next possession, Potts went to work against Mary Ashley Stevenson, who was also voted the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, for a hard-earned bucket. NU took a 29-25 lead thanks to NU’s bigs.
The Huskers didn’t make another basket until Markowski laid one in with 5:08 left in the third quarter. NU took a 32-31 lead with 4:34 remaining in the third.
Purdue went on a 6-1 scoring run in between NU’s baskets. Potts made a free throw in the middle of the run.
NU went on a 7-0 scoring run after the media timeout in the middle of the third. Shelley made two free throws and Hake swished a three-pointer. NU went up 37-31 with 2:39 left to force a Purdue timeout.
Shelley is the first to score after the timeout. She drilled her fourth three of the game to make it a 10-0 run. However, Ellis ended the run with a layup plus an and-one shot.
The Boilermakers scored six unanswered points after the big Husker run. Nebraska led 40-37 after the third quarter.
Swanson tied it up with 9:26 remaining as she drained a top-of-the-key three. Hake took back the lead with a corner three. She backed it up with a layup.
Purdue found Swanson on the next possession and she hit another three to make it 45-43 Huskers.
Nebraska Women’s Basketball caught fire for a 14-0 scoring run. Four Huskers contributed points. Shelley had five of the points.
Jeanae Terry fouled out with four minutes remaining. She finished with 11 rebounds, 4 points, 3 assists and 3 blocks.
Stevenson ended the Boilermakers drought by making two free throws. The freshman scored Purdue’s first points in four minutes. Swanson nailed back-to-back threes to close the gap to 59-51.
Husker freshman Jessica Petrie ended an 8-0 Boilermaker run with a layup.
Swanson drilled another three-point with 17 seconds remaining. However, Nebraska’s lead was too much. The Huskers won 64-56 to advance to round three of the Big Ten Tournament to play No. 4 Michigan State on March 8.
A rematch with Michigan State
Nebraska and Michigan State will face off in the third round of the Big Ten Tournament. The Huskers beat the Spartans 80-74 on Dec. 9 in East Lansing, Mich. in their first conference game of the season.
“We’re gonna do everything we can to refresh our minds about Michigan State,” Williams said on BTN after the game. “It’s been a really, really long time. That was our first conference game, clear before Christmas in December. So it’s kind of refreshing to have somebody you haven’t seen for a while, but we’ll have to really refresh our minds and get familiar over the next 24 hours about what must happen to try to stop them.”
In their only 2023-24 game so far, four Huskers scored in double-digits (Alexis Markowski, Jaz Shelley, Jessica Petrie and Natalie Potts). Markowski had a team-high 13 points and 17 rebounds.
All-Big Ten Second team pick Moira Joiner led MSU with 18 points. Theryn Hallock added 17 points and went 3-for-5 from three. Nebraska women’s basketball limited All-Big Ten first-team selection Julia Ayrault to nine points, six rebounds and five assists.
The Huskers were one win away from being the No. 4 seed in the Big Ten tournament over Michigan State. However, in their last regular season game, they lost 74–73 to Illinois in Champaign.
