The Huskers started slow, scoring seven points in the opening period of play and shooting 16.7% from the field. They only trailed by five then, and tied the game up at halftime despite eight turnovers in the second quarter.
Perhaps Nebraska could afford to drop this game and still make the NCAA Tournament. But it entered close enough to not want to risk anything, and hoping to avoid a repeat of last season’s early exit. Regardless, the Boilermakers were right in it, and had the game tied up early in the fourth quarter.
It was sophomore guard Callin Hake who helped the team break through. After Sophie Swanson hit a game-tying three — the first of five she’d knock down in the period — Hake responded with her own deep make. On the other end, Purdue’s Jeanae Terry looked to go at Hake and make use of her size advantage, but the Husker took a charge and followed that up with a reverse layup to put the Huskers up five.
“That stretch right there really I think gave us the confidence to know that we could push forth and win this game,” head coach Amy Williams said postgame.
Just one game ago, Hake missed a layup and two crucial free throws that could’ve tied or given her team the lead late against Illinois. She hadn’t been all that consistent to end the year after cementing herself as one of the team’s best 3-point shooters. Thursday, however, she scored 12 of her 15 points in the second half.
“She hits big shots,” Jaz Shelley said. “Like timely, big shots and we rely on her to be able to do that and once she hits that, like everyone else around her gets hot.”
That Hake sequence was answered by another Swanson three, but a 14-0 run after that put the game firmly in Nebraska’s control. Hake scored again during that stretch, while Shelley, Alexis Markowski and Darian White also put up points.
Hake redirected praise to her teammates, and Markowski in particular. The Boilermakers looked to double the junior center, and she responded with a career-best six assists while also scoring 12 points.
“They [Purdue] were definitely collapsing and doubling from the low side, so I knew that I’d have teammates open on the perimeter and I just needed to be patient and make the right reads and lucky for me, my teammates hit big shots,” Markowski said.
Shelley led the team in scoring with 19 points, also contributing six rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Both her and Markowski picked things up late, but were also the driving forces in keeping the game close early.
Besides Swanson, who put up a ridiculous 25 points on 9-for-13 shooting and went 7-for-9 from three, the Boilermakers never got going. Everyone else combined to shoot 27.1% from the field 0-for-11 from three. The only other player to shoot over 35% individually was Jeanae Terry, who went 2-for-4 and filled up the box score elsewhere in her final college game.
Some credit goes to Nebraska’s defense, but Purdue had plenty of open misses throughout. Boilermaker head coach Katie Gearlds said her team “ran out of gas” late.
“Just down the stretch, the open looks that Nebraska got, they made,” she said. “And we did not.”
Nebraska was happy postgame with its ability to “survive and advance,” and it’ll head into a big quarterfinal matchup tomorrow.
The Huskers will play Michigan State, which has won its last five games, including the last three by 17 points or more. Nebraska beat the Spartans back in December, but this matchup promises to be another challenging one. If the Huskers can beat the team which eliminated them from this bracket a year ago, they’ll reach the conference tournament semifinals for the second time in a three-year span.
“In March, you want to win, survive and advance and I felt like today, just kind of adjusting to the tournament and playing under the big lights and stuff like that,” Markowski said. “But yeah, I think it was good to have an opportunity to play today and we’re gonna prepare for Michigan State and come here ready to play tomorrow.”
