No. 21 Nebraska women’s basketball overcame a slow start to rout Southern 84-58 and improve to 3-0 on Monday night.
“We’re happy to come out with the win,” Coach Amy Williams said. “I thought we had some really good performances. I thought Natalie Potts really set the tone for us with that double-double and eight offensive rebounds, and I thought Alexis Markowski obviously was quite efficient. I thought Berte [Rimdal] came in off the bench and really gave us a spark and just had lots of contributions to give us a great, solid win.”
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Double Trouble
Markowski failed to reach double figures in either points or rebounds against Southeastern Louisiana, something she did only one time all last season. She totaled just nine points and five rebounds on 2-of-8 from the field as Nebraska didn’t pull away until the fourth quarter of the 10-point win.
Getting their All-Big Ten performer involved early and often seemed to be a priority for the Huskers, and Markowski delivered. Nebraska got her the ball in some high-low actions and other well-designed sets for easy buckets, and she also showed her range with a couple of 3-pointers.
Markowski finished with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-13 from the field (2-of-4 from 3) and 4-of-7 from the foul line, six rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes. She scored six points in the second quarter, helping kick Nebraska’s offense into gear.
“It started with getting a couple of really good paint touches, I thought,” Williams said. “It feels like to me that that Britt [Prince] and Lex are starting to kind of develop a little bit of a chemistry where Britt’s looking for her and Lex is going to go catch it if she throws it to her, and finding her in a couple of transition situations where she was able to get to the paint and dump down or look up over the top as Lex was sealing, or beating her post player down the floor. And it seemed like those kinds of things tend to start opening some other things up for us.”
Prince returned to the starting lineup after missing Saturday’s game with an ankle injury, contributing six points and four assists, three of which came on Markowski buckets.
“She just reads the floor really well, and she plays with such great pace that my post defender sometimes has to help off, and she does a really good job of reading that and getting me the ball,” Markowski said. “And I think, also, that over-the-top pass when she’s coming down the floor, I think that’s a really hard read to make, and she does it consistently. She’s just a really great passer.”
Potts picked up the slack against Southeastern Louisiana with 17 points and seven rebounds while shooting 4-of-5 from 3, and she followed it up with another strong performance on Monday, notching a double-double before the end of the third quarter.
“She’s just so fun to play with, and in the offseason, she just got that much better,” Potts said. “I’ve just kept telling her, ‘I can’t wait for your sophomore season, you’re just going to be that much better.’ I think Natalie is such a great offensive rebounder, and it just really sparks our team, and that’s something she does really well. She’s worked really hard. She’s in the gym every morning at 7 a.m. working and getting her shots up, and you can just tell. I have a lot of confidence in her and I really enjoyed playing with her.”
Potts finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds (eight offensive), shooting 5-of-9 from the floor (1-of-2 from 3) and 6-of-8 from the foul line. The 6-foot-2 sophomore is 6-of-9 from deep through three games this season after making her perimeter shot a focus during the offseason.
“It gives me a lot of confidence going out there and stepping up to hit the big shot,” Potts said. “I’ve worked a lot in the offseason and each and every day still growing that range, and it’s starting to pay off.”
Finding Rhythm
Southern’s aggressiveness on defense and the offensive glass prevented Nebraska from getting into a rhythm throughout much of the first half. The Huskers shot 5-of-16 from the field (including 1-of-4 from 3) in the first quarter and only led 15-13 at the break.
After cleaning up some mistakes defensively that gave the Jaguars some wide open looks early, Nebraska held them scoreless for the last five minutes of the first quarter and the first 2:14 of the second but only managed eight points on its end to turn a two-point deficit into a six-point lead.
The Jaguars continued to hang around throughout the second quarter and were within two after a put-back from Jocelyn Tate with 1:45 to go in the half, but they didn’t score the rest of the period. Nebraska closed with an 8-0 run to take a 10-point lead into the locker room. Five of those points came from the free-throw line as Southern’s aggressiveness put Nebraska into the bonus.
Nebraska shot 7-of-10 from the field and 5-of-7 from the line but committed six turnovers in the second quarter. The Huskers eventually found their rhythm and pulled away, putting up 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting in the third quarter before cruising through the fourth.
After scoring 21 points in the first 15 minutes, the Huskers put up 63 in the last 25.
“Saturday’s game, we didn’t start off strong, and we knew we needed to respond today,” Potts said. “It was going to be a similar style of play today, so we knew we had to come out and be the hammer and not the nail. And at first, we didn’t really do that, but we kind of made the adjustments we needed to and had a stronger second half.”
Berte Bench Spark
Prince’s return pushed Florida transfer Alberte Rimdal back to the bench. The senior started against Southeastern Louisiana and notched her first double-digit game as a Husker with 14 points and three assists while shooting 3-of-6 from deep.
The sixth woman role fit Rimdal just fine on Monday, however, as she scored 13 points in 26 minutes — all inside the paint or from the foul line. She shot 5-of-7 on 2s and 3-of-4 on free throws.
“I thought Berte came in off the bench and just really did a great job of exploding and getting to the basket,” Potts said. “Thirteen points and not taking the 3 is kind of unique for Berte’s game, but I thought she just did a great job of really putting pressure on the rim and getting to the basket.”
Through three games as a Husker, Rimdal has totaled 32 points, five assists, four steals and just three turnovers while shooting 9-of-11 inside the arc, 3-of-7 from 3 and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.
“I think she’s done a really good job of kind of figuring out what our system is,” Potts said. “I thought today she was just calm, cool and collected the whole time with the ball pressure that she was having. She didn’t shoot a 3 today, and that’s kind of what she usually brings to the table. So I’m really proud of her for attacking the rim and getting downhill, giving them a different look.”
After three straight games at home, Nebraska women’s basketball will head to the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Saturday to face Williams’ former school, South Dakota. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT on Big Ten Plus.
