Nebraska women’s basketball needed everyone available and Alexis Markowski’s best game as a Husker to win 94-90 in overtime against Oregon Wednesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Playing their fourth game in 10 days and without freshman point guard Britt Prince, who is day to day with a lower leg injury, the Huskers needed everyone to “pull a little more weight,” Coach Amy Williams said.
In the first-ever meeting with Oregon in Big Ten play, the person who pulled the most was Markowski.
After a 10-0 start from Oregon, Markowski hit two 3s to start the scoring for the Huskers, and she didn’t stop there. After tying a career-high of 28 in her last game at Illinois, Markowski finished with 35 points and a career-best six made 3-pointers on nine attempts. She also had 15 rebounds, marking the 50th double-double of her career.
“I thought she really willed us,” Williams said. “Particularly in both halves when we decided to dig ourselves a little bit of a hole, she really willed us back .. I think she really knew she was going to really rise to the occasion down the stretch.”
It wasn’t just the offensive numbers for Markowski, it was the crush hedges and hard hedges on-ball screens and hustling back to cover the post and grab rebounds, or the leadership in the huddle when the team was down 14 points late in the fourth quarter.
“I’ve been talking about it all year that I’m just going to take the time to step back and enjoy what she is doing and appreciate what she is doing and just not take it for granted,” Williams said. “I just had the luxury now for four years and it’s really fun to see her hard work rewarded.”
With Prince out, Callin Hake moved to the point guard position and she had 17 points, seven assists and just two turnovers.
“I was incredibly proud of Callin Hake for the way she stepped in, went for 40 minutes tonight, ran the point, got us organized, was pushing pace,” Williams said. “Seventeen points but seven assists just having to step into that role, just very proud of the way she responded.”
Logan Nissley chipped in a career-high five 3-pointers and tied her career-high with seven rebounds, finishing with 16 points.
“I was a little surprised by that because we just have so much confidence in Logan,” Williams said. “We watch her drain multiple 3s all day in practice … I was a little surprised that was her career high.”
Alberte Rimdal had 15 points and five assists and Jessica Petrie finished with a career-high five blocked shots.
“We talked about in the locker room before this game just that there is a lot of people right now talking about what’s not on the court, but we know what is still on the court,” Williams said. “We are going to lean into that, and there are people that are counting us out, but we are not going to let people counting us out.”
Next up is Washington, in Lincoln on Sunday, one last time to appreciate Markowski and the three other seniors.
