Nebraska women’s basketball picked up another Big Ten win on Thursday, grinding out a 56-48 victory over Illinois.
The Fighting Illini entered the night winless in conference play and with a 6-7 overall record. Still, most of their losses came by single digits.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Husker Defense Holds Off Illini While Offense Struggles
Nebraska led for over 39 minutes in the game, the only time spent tied coming in the opening 39 seconds.
However, there were still plenty of ups and downs. The Huskers opened up a 14-point advantage early, but a 9-0 Illinois run cut that lead to five by the end of the first quarter. The Illini closed the first half on a 9-2 run, making it a one-point game as the teams entered the locker room.
Nebraska created some more room early in the third, eventually carrying a 10-point lead into the final period of play. Its offense came to an abrupt stop after that, though.
Over seven minutes went by in the fourth quarter without any Husker points. A 49-39 advantage slowly shrank as Makira Cook’s layup made the score 49-48 with 2:52 remaining. On the other end, Nebraska was missing open looks and turning the ball over.
It finally got some points after that, but the biggest key to the team holding on was defense. Even with Nebraska’s inability to score, Illinois needed seven minutes to go on its 9-0 run. The Huskers rebounded well and forced a couple turnovers, holding Illinois to just those nine points in the fourth.
“We had to really dig deep on the defensive side of the ball to be able to come away with a win,” Coach Amy Williams said postgame.
Nebraska’s seven fourth-quarter points matched its third-fewest total in program history, with every mark equal or worse than it coming in a blowout loss. Rarely will you see a team win after those types of scoring struggles late, especially considering the lead wasn’t all that large to begin with.
The Huskers obviously will want to make improvements, but their defensive effort was enough for the win on Thursday night.
Shelley, Markowski Lead
Nebraska’s earned big contributions throughout its lineup this season, but stars Jaz Shelley and Alexis Markowski certainly led the way Thursday.
The two combined for 31 of the Huskers’ 56 points. Shelley led the team with five assists and five steals, while Markowski pulled down 15 rebounds. With the bench only contributing four points, that level of play was needed.
Shelley, who hasn’t been too efficient shooting the ball this season, nailed three of her first four attempts from deep. Her fourth make came late in the third quarter, when an Illinois defender fell down in front of her while trying to guard her tightly. The resulting open shot made it a 12-point game.
Markowski had struggles, shooting 3-for-10 in the first half before not missing any of her three third-quarter attempts. In the fourth quarter, however, the hiccups returned as she turned the ball over once and missed some good looks inside.
Once Illinois made it a one-point game, Shelley drove to the rim, getting blocked but drawing a foul call. She made both free throws, scoring Nebraska’s first points of the fourth quarter with 2:33 left in the game.
On the other end a few possessions later, the two combined to stifle an Illinois possession, and Nebraska called timeout with a three-point lead and 57.8 seconds to go. Williams knew where she wanted to go with the basketball.
“We looked right at Lex in one of those timeouts and said, ‘we’re coming right back at you,’” Williams said.
That’s what Nebraska did. The play out of the timeout ended with Markowski sealing off Illinois’ Kendall Bostic inside and Shelley finding her for a made layup. That made it a five-point lead with 43 seconds left, which felt like and turned out to be an insurmountable deficit for the Illini.
Markowski secured her 10th double-double of the season in the 14-point outing, while Shelley scored 17.
Illinois Continues to Struggle
Illinois was perhaps the biggest surprise in the Big Ten last year, bouncing back from a losing season to go 22-10 and make the NCAA Tournament under first-year head coach Shauna Green.
With nearly the exact same roster, the Illini are still yet to beat a high-major team. That includes plenty of close losses to good opponents, but also consists of games like their recent home loss to Wisconsin.
Illinois has a couple favorable games upcoming against Northwestern and Rutgers, but those certainly aren’t close to guarantees. A full turnaround seems really unlikely for the team, but it’ll hope to bounce back from the loss to Nebraska and build some momentum moving forward.
