No. 25 Nebraska outlasts Indiana 78-73 for second win over Hoosiers in 11 tries
Nebraska Women’s Basketball (14-2, 3-2) outlasts Indiana (11-6, 0-5) to claim a 78-73 victory on its home court.
The Huskers have now won two of the last 11 games against the Hoosiers. Indiana is on a four-game losing streak and hasn’t won a Big Ten game this season.
Nebraska was paced by Britt Prince‘s 20 points and seven assists. Jessica Petrie added 17 points and seven rebounds. NU shot 42% from the field, 38% from three and 74% from the free-throw line.
The Huskers won the rebound battle 37-32 with 12 offensive rebounds. Eliza Maupin had seven rebounds including four offensive rebounds with her nine points. She had a career-high three blocks. Nebraska had a 20-7 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Shay Ciezki led Indiana with 31 points. Zania Socka-Nguemen added 19 points and 11 rebounds. The Hoosiers shot 51% from the field and was 4-of-13 from behind the arc. The last time Indiana came to Pinnacle Bank Arena they shot 14-of-23 from three to win 91-69 on Jan. 7, 2024.
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Huskers win first-half scoring battle
Nebraska and Indiana are both great 3-point shooting teams. The Huskers showed that in the first quarter with three straight buckets from behind the arc early in the game to go up 11-8. The Hoosiers did not shoot up to their capability. They were 1-of-5 from behind the arc in the first half and 4-of-13 overall.
“In practice we gave our scout guys four points for every 3-point field-goal that they made when we were competing against them,” head coach Amy Williams said. “We tried to do just a few things to make us just a little bit more conginisent of the fact that this is not a team that we want to let score a bunch of points from there. So I think we got the memo there.”
Both offenses were very efficient in the first quarter. The Hoosiers shot 64% from the field while the Huskers shot 50%. Indiana had two players score in the first quarter, while seven Huskers had points. Ciezki led IU with 12 of the Hoosiers’ 20 first-quarter points.
Indiana went cold from the floor as Nebraska’s defense picked up, and their shots didn’t fall. They shot 27% from the field and were 0-of-3 from three in the second quarter.
After going into the first quarter up 23-20, Maupin made back-to-back buckets to force an IU timeout, not even two minutes into quarter two. The Huskers scored eight unanswered points to take a 31-22 lead. The Hoosiers went scoreless for four minutes.
Nebraska went on a 13-2 run in the second. Indiana’s shots started to go through toward the end of the half. They scored six straight to cut the Huskers’ lead to 36-30 with 1:06 remaining. NU led 38-30 at halftime.
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Indiana shooting locks in but Prince leads NU to victory
Indiana’s offense got back on track in the third quarter. They shot 64% from the field and outscored the home team 23-15. NU shot 25% from field-goal range in the third quarter. Williams said she thought her team was taking good shots but they weren’t falling.
The Hoosiers went on a 14-1 run to cut Nebraska’s lead to 51-49 with 1:16 left in the third. NU didn’t make a field goal for four minutes until Prince sank a layup with one minute left. The teams were knotted at 53-53 heading into the fourth.
Ciezki was on fire in the second half for Indiana. She had 17 points and was 7-of-9 from the field in the last two quarters.
Prince was Nebraska’s best player down the line. The sophomore guard had 15 points and five assists in the second half. One of her assists was a no-look pass to Logan Nissley in the corner for a much-needed 3-pointer. Nissley added 10 points, three rebounds and two assists.
The Huskers went on a 7-0 run to take a 72-65 lead. Indiana’s Maya Makalusky made her third 3-pointer to make it 72-68, but Prince kept her foot on the gas with a jumper in the lane. She scored four of NU’s last six points.
“I just kept saying in my head ‘Ice in her veins’,” Nissley said. “Every time she shot it it was going in. I think that’s her maturity in a game like that, it gets down to the wire, just her calmness and consistency on the floor. You know that she’s going to make the right read.”
Next up, Nebraska faces No. 4 UCLA at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Sunday, Jan. 11 at 6 p.m. CT on the Big Ten Network.
