The junior center and first-team All-Big Ten selection put up 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the team’s win over Purdue. She followed that up with 22 points, 12 boards and four assists in a dominant performance against Michigan State.
Her plus/minus stands at +44 through two games, exceeding the margin of victory in both. That stat has aligned with the eye test — the Huskers have been at their best playing through the center.
Opponents have been aware of the threat Markowski poses and brought double teams to try and slow her. She’s responded with 10 total assists in the last two games.
The Huskers are 6-0 this year against power conference competition when Markowski has multiple assists and 1-3 when she has none. All six of those multi-assist performances have come in the last 11 games.
It’s a sign that Markowski is reading and reacting well as defenses swarm her, while also showing that her teammates have been moving sufficiently off the ball.
“They were definitely collapsing and doubling from the low side,” Markowski said after the team’s win over Purdue. “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.”
She’s continued to be strong on the glass, too, leading the team’s efforts there. Markowski pulled down 12 boards against the Spartans as Nebraska finishing with a rebounding advantage of 44-30.
That’s going to be important in the semifinals, too. The Huskers outrebounded Maryland 48-30 on the way to a win in December, grabbing 20 offensive boards.
“Every game is a battle and the team that rebounds better usually ends up on top,” Markowski said Friday.
She’s not the only one known for being active on the glass, with true freshman Natalie Potts standing alongside her in the frontcourt. The forward had 11 rebounds in the quarterfinal and a team-high 13 in the regular season win over Maryland.
Potts has also stepped it up in postseason play. She’s tied her season-high in blocks twice, rejecting three shot attempts in both conference tournament games.
For Nebraska to earn another win against the Terrapins and advance to the Big Ten championship game, it’ll likely need another strong performance from the frontcourt duo.
Other Big Ten Tournament Notes
>> This isn’t quite the same Maryland team the Huskers faced back in December.
The Terrapins’ top two scorers in that game have since suffered season-ending knee injuries. True freshman Riley Nelson had 11 points off the bench, while Lavender Briggs poured in 25 points on 11-for-17 shooting. She scored 19 of those in the second half, keeping her team in the game.
“I remember Lavender Briggs, for sure,” Nebraska head coach Amy Williams said Friday when asked about the semifinal matchup. “She had a great game against us.”
That being said, Maryland is still playing its best basketball as of late. It has won seven of its last nine games, the losses coming to Ohio State and Indiana.
First-team all-conference selection Shyanne Sellers shot 1-for-7 and had seven turnovers in the first matchup against Nebraska, but most recently put up 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in leading the win over the Buckeyes.
Nebraska is 2-1 against Maryland in the past two seasons after the Terrapins won the first 15 meetings between the teams. It will certainly still be a challenge for the Huskers to pull off another win.
>> Three lower-seeded teams won on day three of the tourney.
Maryland’s aforementioned victory was the clear standout, as the Buckeyes came out flat and were blown out. Cotie McMahon shot 3-for-17, while Jacy Sheldon and Celeste Taylor also weren’t particularly efficient offensively.
“We played like a team that showed up as the No. 1 seed and everybody was just supposed to lie down, and that’s not what happened,” Buckeye head coach Kevin McGuff said postgame.
Nebraska may not have been expected to win, but that result wasn’t quite as shocking. The Huskers had beaten the Spartans once this season already, and were separated by just a game in the league standings.
In the final game of the day, Michigan came back from a 17-point deficit to beat 3-seed Indiana behind 30 points from Laila Phelia. Hoosier star center Mackenzie Holmes was limited with a knee injury, and head coach Teri Moren said on Big Ten Network that she’d only play if the team needed her.
That ended up being a fairly literal statement, as Holmes came in with Indiana trailing in the fourth quarter and didn’t make much of a positive impact. Even without Holmes, Indiana is a talented bunch, so it was an impressive effort for a Michigan team that likely secured an NCAA Tournament bid.
Iowa was the only team with a double-bye to advance, and should feel good about its chances the rest of the way. The Hawkeyes are 3-1 against the remaining field, with Nebraska beating them back in February.
