No. 25 Nebraska women’s basketball battled Indiana for a 78-73 win Thursday at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The win was just the Cornhuskers’ (14-2, 3-2 Big Ten) second in their last 11 games against the Hoosiers (11-6, 0-5 Big Ten).
Britt Prince led Nebraska with 20 points including a perfect seven-for-seven from the free-throw line. She also led the Huskers with seven assists. Jessica Petrie tallied 18 and seven rebounds, while Logan Nissley contributed 11 points. IU’s Shay Ciezki led all scorers with 31 points on 13-for-21 shooting. Zania Socka-Nguemen turned in a double-double with 19 points (on nine-of-12 shooting) and 11 rebounds, while Maya Makalusky tallied 12 points before fouling out.
The Huskers’ ball-handling was the key to the win. Nebraska had 20 assists and seven turnovers, which Indiana converted into nine points, while the Hoosiers had just 12 assists with 11 turnovers, which NU converted into 19 points, a 10-point advantage. Nebraska was also better from the perimeter, as the Huskers hit eight three-pointers to Indiana’s four.
Nebraska built a 23-20 lead after one quarter, and grew the lead to 38-30 by halftime. A Petrie layup grew the lead to 44-32 two minutes into the third quarter. But Indiana worked its way back into the game. A 9-0 Hoosiers run late in the third quarter pushed Indiana ahead, 51-49, with 1:16 to go in the third quarter. The game was tied at 53 through three quarters.
Neither team held a lead larger than two points over the first six minutes of the fourth quarter. But with the game tied at 65, Nebraska went on a 7-0 run, building a 72-65 advantage with under three minutes to go. The Hoosiers scored four straight points to shrink the Huskers’ lead to three, but a Prince basket with 57 seconds left pushed the lead to 74-69 with 57 seconds to go. Two free throws by Prince boosted the NU edge to 76-69 with 24 seconds remaining. Kiaku hit a layup to pull Indiana to within five, but Nissley made one of two free throws to push the lead to 77-71 with 17 seconds to go. Caffey’s layup cut Nebraska’s lead to 77-73, but Petrie drained a free throw with eight seconds to go to push the lead to five.
A big challenge looms for the Huskers Sunday as No. 4 UCLA comes to Pinnacle Bank Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m., with pregame coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m. on KLIN and B-107.3.