Nebraska Women’s Basketball Bludgeons Wisconsin 91-60 as Five Huskers Score in Double Digits

This looked like it could be a game, for one quarter. After that, Britt Prince took over the second quarter and the rest of the team followed suit. Soon, the Badgers were in a hole even they couldn’t dig out of…

Get it? Badgers, digging holes??

Okay, I’ll go back to writing about the game and quit making jokes.

It was fun. It was a big win. And most importantly, no Husker knees were injured today.

First Quarter

Both teams were rushing their offense early on with especially mixed results for the Huskers. The Badgers have an excellent post player in Carter McCray who is hitting for the Badgers with four early points (4-2 Wisc). Prince tied the game with two free throws (4-4) at four minutes in…#RockFight.

Of course, as soon as I type that, both teams start offensive spurts and score more than twice as many points in the second four minutes as they did in the first four minutes (16-12 Neb). Most impressively, this spurt for Nebraska occurred with most of the starters getting a breather. Petra Bozan put up an especially impressive one-handed shot while on the move.

Nebraska 18 Wisconsin 14

Second Quarter

Wisconsin picked up right where they left off and tied up the game in the first minute (18-18). Nebraska answered with two Prince baskets, both assisted by [checks notes] Alexis Markowski (23-19 Neb). In a huge development, the Badger starting point guard, Ronnie Porter, drew her third foul (Update: stats later in the game showed she had two fouls. I don’t know what changed.)

Prince is terrorizing the Badgers on offense and defense. I think she wants another conference freshman of the week accolade (27-19 Neb). Markowski tied former Husker and All-American Jordan Hooper in career rebounding. That isn’t bad company to keep at all.

A timeout to stem the Nebraska tide didn’t work for Wisconsin as Kendall Moriarty took her turn at terrorizing the Badgers (33-19 Neb). Wisconsin brought back their point guard, Porter despite her three fouls. Nebraska’s bigs (Bozan and Petrie) hit three shots from long range and the Husker defense held Wisconsin scoreless for over five minutes.

Nebraska 42 Wisconsin 26

Prince (12) and Petrie (10) are already in double digit scoring for the Huskers. Prince has seven rebounds and Markowski four. Nebraska is shooting 52% (15-29) from the field and 47% (7-15) from long range while holding the Badgers to 35% (12-34) from the field and 8% from behind the arc (1-12).

After the past two games, some of the best news for Nebraska is that Markowski has zero fouls in the first half.

Third Quarter

Markowski is ON A MISSION. She isn’t going to let Prince and Petrie get all the glory as she hits two early baskets. Callin Hake made her second three of the game. It is great to see her get into the scoring column after a couple of games where she had trouble finding the basket (51-34 Neb). Markowski is the third Husker in double digits and a Petrie three extends the lead to 20 (54-34 Neb).

The rest of the quarter was fast and furious and the Huskers increased their lead to as much as 25 (69-45 Neb). Kendall Moriarty is now the fourth Huskers to reach double digits in scoring (10 points).

Nebraska 69 Wisconsin 47

Fourth Quarter

Moriarty makes a three from the corner AGAIN (72-47 Neb). HARGROVE FOR THREE! The Huskers are 14-26 from long range (54%). Petra Bozan is the fifth Husker in double figures. Alberte Rimdal has seven assists. Oh, and the Husker lead is 30 (81-51 Neb) with seven minutes left in the game.

The Huskers have now tied the Pinnacle Bank Arena record for made three pointers with 16. The last two came from Logan Nissley (87-56 Neb). Kendall Coley is the only Husker that has not scored yet tonight and there are almost three minutes left. Will she get a basket?

Unfortunately, no. I don’t think she cares very much as the Huskers absolutely dominated Wisconsin, a team that frequently takes Nebraska down to the wire.

Final. Nebraska 91. Wisconsin 60

Stats and Thoughts

The Huskers were led in scoring by Kendall Moriarty (17) followed by Jess Petrie (15), Britt Prince (14), Alexis Markowski (12) and Petra Bozan (10). Callin Hake was knocking on the double digit door at nine points. Markowski, Petrie and Prince each grabbed seven rebounds while Bertie Rimdal dished eight assists. Markowski and Hake contributed five assists each.

This game was total domination as Nebraska shot 54% from the field (32-59) and LIT IT UP from long range making 16 of 32 (50%). They held the Badgers to 38% shooting (25-66) and put an exclamation point on a three point defense that is one of the best in the nation as Wisconsin struggled to a 3-17 (18%) showing from behind the arc.

Nebraska outrebounded the Badgers 38-33 and assisted 27 baskets compared to 16 for Wisconsin. Both teams committed 15 turnovers, but the Huskers turned those into 22 points while Wisconsin only managed 12 points from TOs. The Huskers hit 11 of their 12 free throws (92%).

Next Game

The Huskers currently sit in fifth place in the Big Ten behind USC, UCLA, Ohio State and Maryland. The Huskers have already beaten the two teams nipping on their heels in 6th and 7th (Minnesota and Michigan State respectively). They need to overtake one of the teams ahead of them to earn one of the coveted double byes in the Big Ten Tournament.

Nebraska faces a big challenge (and a big opportunity to get closer to a top four seed) when they host Ohio State this weekend. The Buckeyes are coming off a loss to Penn State and they will be looking to prove that was a fluke. Their suffocating defense and frustrating full-court press have made Husker lives miserable as of late. Nebraska will have to be ready for the Buckeye pressure if they want to keep their home win streak alive.

The game is Sunday, January 26 with tipoff at 2:00 pm (central). The game will be on the Big Ten Network.