The 12th-seeded Nebraska women’s basketball team’s time in the Big Ten Tournament comes to an early end at the hands of the No. 13 Indiana Hoosiers on Wednesday afternoon.
Nebraska (18-12, 7-11 Big 10) fell in the first round 72-69 to Indiana (18-13, 6-12) at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Huskers got off to a promising start, leading by as much as 20 in the second quarter, before the Hoosiers took over in the fourth.
“Obviously this is an incredibly disappointing loss for our team,” Coach Amy Williams said. “We led for 39 minutes and just found a way to let this game slip away. So, it’s very disappointing, but I still love coaching this team. I think they are a group that’s still got basketball left in us, and we’re excited that this will not be it for this team this season.”
The Huskers and Hoosiers came into the contest winners of their last two regular season games, with the latter taking six of their last eight.
Nebraska got off to a fast start, leading 14-4 in the first quarter. At halftime, NU led 45-28 while making 51% of its shots and holding the Hoosiers to 39% from the field and just one made 3-pointer.
The Hoosiers did not take their first lead until there was one minute left in the game. Redshirt sophomore guard Lene Beaumont sank two 3-pointers, sending Indiana on an 8-0 run for a 68-67 lead with one minute on the clock.
“I think it was paint touches, we gave up way too many in that second half,” sophomore forward Amiah Hargrove said. “They were getting easy shots at the rim, whether it be like kick-out 3s or dump offs to their big. So, I think we just let them get down hill way too much, and it just made things a lot harder for us.”
The Hoosiers outscored the Big Red 44-24 in the second half of the game.
Sophomore guard Britt Prince pointed to another reason for Nebraska’s collapse in the final 20 minutes.
“Our transition defense was also struggling for a bit in the second half, and we just didn’t get out to shooters when we needed to,” Prince said.
Indiana was efficient in the second half, shooting 65% from the field while the Huskers managed just 31% in the last 20 minutes.
“They were being a lot more aggressive,” Prince said of Indiana’s second-half defense. “I think they were obviously trying to take Amiah away a lot more. She had a great first half, and I think they made it harder for us to get it into her. They were a lot more aggressive, not letting us get paint touches, forcing us to shoot 3s, and we kind of settled for 3s and maybe shots that weren’t the best shots for our team.”
The Hoosiers limited Hargrove to just four points in the second half after dropping 23 in the first.
Coach Williams also noted that the 3-point shot decision-making didn’t bode well for Nebraska. The Huskers attempted 22 and made just five. The Hoosiers hit five of their 13 attempts.
“I just thought that there were a couple times where we took maybe some quick shots out of the flow and rhythm of our offense from players that maybe wasn’t right in the rhythm of what we were looking for,” Williams said. “They got those long rebounds and turned those into paint-touch points.”
Nebraska will head back to Lincoln to prepare for the potential of more postseason basketball.
“I think it’s sticking together,” Hargrove said. “There’s going to be a lot that we can learn from this game. I think something that we’ve kind of saw all year is just looking at it, learning from it, building on it, attacking each day, and just sticking together, leaning on each other, because we do have a good group of girls.”
The Huskers will find out their fate on Selection Sunday next weekend. The program will air on March 15 at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN
