Nebraska women's basketball edges out Purdue 71-64
Nebraska women’s basketball took down Purdue 71-64 as they outscored them 23 to 14 in the fourth quarter. This was an important win for the Huskers to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive.
Alexis Markowski led the Huskers with a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds. Maddie Krull, who was under the weather, had 15 points and Sam Haiby had 14 points.
Freshman Callin Hake started her first game as a Husker on Wednesday with Krull not at 100 percent. She scored Nebraska’s first points of the night on a deep three-pointer at the top of the key. She finished with eight points and three rebounds.
Purdue went on a 7-0 scoring run in response. Abbey Ellis was a huge part of that run and the Boilermakers’ success all game long.
After Purdue went up 11-3, Nebraska kicked it into gear and went on a 10-0 scoring run over 3:30 minutes.
Markowski hurt her ankle two minutes into the game and was taken out quickly. She was escorted to the locker room but emerged later in the quarter. She drained a three at the top of the key, taking Nebraska’s first lead 13-11 with under four minutes in the first quarter.
Ellis ended the run with a wide-open three-pointer. She scored from all over the court and had 17 points in the first half. The Australian was 3-for-4 from behind the arc with five rebounds in the first half.
Krull went on a 6-0 scoring run herself over the final 1:31 of the first quarter.
Nebraska went on a 16-5 run over the last six minutes of the first quarter after Purdue went up 11-3. NU was up 19-16 after the first 10 minutes.
Purdue’s Cassidy Hardin started off the second quarter with a three-pointer to tie it up. Markowski and Haiby put together six points with an Ellis jumper in the middle to make it 25-21. Then the ball forgot how to fall through the net.
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The Boilermakers didn’t score for three minutes while Nebraska went a whopping five minutes without a single point. Krull ended the drought with a nice spin move in the paint to make it 27-26 Nebraska.
Despite her not practicing on Tuesday, as Husker Head Coach Amy Williams said, Krull made some huge plays for the Huskers.
During those five minutes of no scoring, Nebraska also had four of their six first-half turnovers. Luckily for them, Purdue only had five points of turnovers in the first half.
The Boilermakers jogged into the locker room up 31-30 at halftime.
A second-half battle
Nebraska was able to slow down Ellis at the beginning of the second half but Caitlyn Harper picked up the scoring slack. Harper scored eight points in the first five minutes of quarter three.
The Huskers started off slow offensively as Haiby and Hake combined for six points in the first five minutes. NU didn’t make a field goal again until Krull came in clutch again and made a layup with 2:36 left in the quarter. Five made free throws helped Nebraska get some points in their three-minute drought.
Then, Bourne backed up Krull’s bucket with a three-pointer to close Purdue’s lead to 50-46 with under two minutes remaining in the quarter.
The Boilermakers delivered a reality check by draining threes on back-to-back possessions. Purdue went into the final 10 minutes up 56-48.
Nebraska came out of the quarter break on fire. They outscored Purdue 14-4 over the first half of the fourth quarter.
Markowski was a key to the Huskers’ success in the fourth quarter as she had 11 of her 19 points in the last quarter. The sophomore had back-to-back layups to tie it up 60-60 and then take the lead 62-60 with four minutes remaining.
Both Moriarty and Krull had monster threes in the fourth. Moriarty drained a shot from behind the arc to close Purdue’s lead from 60-58 with six minutes left. After Nebraska took the lead, Krull made it large with an open three to go up 65-61 with 2:30 to go.
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Nebraska shot 27.3 percent from behind the arc, another performance below their average. They shot 40 percent from the floor and 81 percent from the free-throw line. Purdue shot 40 percent from field-goal range, 39.1 percent from three-point range and also shot in the 80s from the free-throw line.
The Huskers closed the rebounding gap which was Purdue led 28 to 19 at the end of the third quarter. Nebraska finished with 31 rebounds and the Boilermakers had 33.
Markowski was the star of the fourth until the end. She went up strong to get a bucket in the paint for Nebraska to go up 67-61 with 54 seconds left.
Jeanae Terry drained a three to end Purdue’s six-minute scoring drought.
Jaz Shelley earned her first points of the game as she made all four of her free throw attempts with under 30 seconds remaining.
Although Shelley only scored four points, brought down five rebounds and had three assists, she did a nice job shutting down Ellis in the second half. Williams said they made adjustments by putting Shelley on Ellis. The guard only scored three second-half points.
Nebraska shut down Terry as well. She has the sixth most rebounds per game in the Big Ten (7.8), the second most assists per game (6.9) and the fourth-highest assist-to-turnover ratio (2.4). She had eight points, eight rebounds, two assists and four turnovers on Wednesday.
Next up, the Huskers host No. 11 Maryland (14-4, 6-2) on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The game will be on Nebraska Public Media.
