Nebraska women’s basketball improved to 9-1 on the season Wednesday night with a 63-50 win over Tarleton State.
The Huskers started slow, making just one field goal in the first 5:28 of the game, an interior bucket on an Alexis Markowski paint touch.
The good news is that Nebraska forced six of the Texans’ eight first-quarter turnovers in the first 5:17.
“It wasn’t the prettiest game that we’ve played all year,” Coach Amy Williams said in the post-game press conference. “We give credit to Tarleton State, I thought they came in and put pressure and heat on particularly our point guards but did some things defensively to take us a little out of rhythm. It wasn’t our best game, but we still found a way to win.”
Elite Company for Markowski
Alexis Markowski scored her 10th point of the game in the first half on a basket at the 2:54 mark of the first quarter. That was the 1,500th point of her career, making her just the fourth Husker to have 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds.
“It is really cool, especially being from Nebraska and watching Nebraska women’s basketball my whole life,” Markowski said. “To be in the history books is insane in my brain but I just come out there and do my thing and do whatever the team needs me to do to win,”
The 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds club in Nebraska women’s basketball history includes some of the greatest to wear the jersey. Markowski joins three former Husker All-Americans to do it: Karen Jennings, Kelsey Griffin and Jordan Hooper.
“That is pretty good company,” Williams said. “All three of those young ladies have their jerseys hanging up in the rafters up there … What an awesome honor. It doesn’t surprise me at all. I just think the thing I’m the most proud of is the way that she has just continued to come into my office all week and talk about how I can pour into my teammates, what can I do to lead this group, how can we win ball games, I just want to win. That is where her focus remains … and that is what is uniquely special about that young lady.”
Hargrove Does It Again
Amiah Hargrove came off the bench Sunday and had a personal 8-0 run versus Minnesota. In the second half, when her team needed a spark, she had a personal 5-0 run in 23 seconds in the middle of the third quarter that extended to a 9-2 personal run.
The freshman from Christopher, Illinois, finished with a career-high 13 points and has done all the little things right in the last two games.
“Miah has done a great job of just buying into doing all the little things to work early to give herself an opportunity and I think she has bought into that,” Williams said. “She’s done just an outstanding job of trying to sprint, lead post, try to position herself early. Sometimes, she is not even getting the ball, but she is collapsing the defense and it is creating opportunities for other people even if it’s not creating opportunities for her. Just the work she’s willing to put into the little details to try to get the right positioning, it matters and it’s starting to pay off.”
Poor Shooting
The Huskers entered the game as the Big Ten’s best team in both field goal and 3-point field goal percentage and were among the top 10 teams in the nation in both.
Wednesday hurt those averages. Nebraska shot the ball poorly in the win, just 17-of-57 from the field (29.8%) and 7-of-22 from 3-point range (31.8%).
“To be honest with you, from behind the arc, 31.8% is not great,” Williams said. “There are some teams that would be happy with 31.8% from behind the arc; it was the missed layups, it’s inside the 3-point line. The way we missed some bunnies, just easy shots. We do all the work, make a beautiful wrap-around pass and just miss a wide-open layup. Those are the ones I think we have the capability of really cleaning up and being a lot better as we move forward.”
The Husker got good looks at the basket, the shots just weren’t falling. The good news was Britt Prince made three of her six attempts from behind the arc and Hargrove missed just one shot.
Prince has been and will be relied on to do more for the Huskers.
“I think she is continuing to gain confidence every time. Our team flows better when she is on the court,” Williams said of Prince. “We just seem to produce more, play with better pace. I have a goal for her every game. Shot attempts, how active and how aggressive we need her to be offensively, thinking score, and I think that is when she is at her best and when our team is at our best.”
The Huskers opened their largest lead of the game, which was 18 points at the 2:12 mark of the third quarter, but didn’t make a field goal in the next seven-plus minutes.
A 9-0 run from Tarleton State cut the Nebraska lead to six in the fourth quarter, but the Huskers went on an 8-0 run and a Prince top-of-the-key three at 1:18 left was the dagger.
Nebraska next plays Chattanooga on Sunday, closing out a five-game home stand before hitting the road for three straight — at Georgia Tech, at UCLA and at USC.
