Nebraska women’s basketball didn’t risk taking an upset in their opening game of the Big Ten Tournament Thursday night.
The Huskers (23-7) got huge games from All-Big Ten second team players Jaz Shelley and Alexis Markowski in a dominant 92-74 victory over Illinois (7-20). The 92 points are the most Nebraska has scored in any conference tournament game.
Shelley tied the Big Ten record for 3s in a conference tournament game. That’s also the Nebraska program record for a game in the conference tournament. She ended up 32 points, seven assists, and five rebounds.
Markowski, fresh off her Big Ten Freshman of the Year honor earlier this week, scored 22 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. She also notched three blocked shots.
Shelley and Markowski are the first teammates to score 20-plus point in a Big Ten Tournament game since 2012.
Nebraska and Illinois played tight through the first four minutes of the game. The Huskers used a 7-0 run to open things up and stretched the lead to as much as 12 before the first quarter ended.
That lead jumped to 17 during the second quarter and the rest of the game was never in doubt. The Huskers led by 20-plus for most of the final quarter, including a largest difference of 25 points midway through the fourth quarter.
The Huskers hit a Big Ten Tournament record 15 3s on 32 attempts. Overall, Nebraska shot 47.8 percent from the floor.
Issie Bourne (15) and Sam Haiby (10) also scored in double figures.
The win puts Nebraska into the quarterfinal round Friday against No. 3 seed Michigan. The teams met in Lincoln early in January, where Nebraska took the 79-58 victory.