Late steals seal win for Nebraska at Illinois

A newcomer and a captain came up big when the lights were brightest Sunday.

Ahead by one with 15 seconds left, junior transfer MiCole Cayton made her biggest play of the game. After the inbound, Cayton picked the pocket of Illinois ball handler and was immediately fould. Cayton made one of her two free throws.

After another Illinois timeout moved the ball into the front court, a steady leader stepped up defensively. Junior Sam Haiby stole the inbounds pass, and rather than just take the easy layup, dribble out more clock before getting fould.

Haiby made both free throws and Nebraska (8-5, 6-4 Big Ten) survived Illinois (2-8, 0-7 Big Ten) in Champaign.

Haiby scored a career-high 33 points in a 78-72 win over the Illini in December. This time, Illinois pressured Haiby more, keeping the ball out of her hands and taking away drive opportunities. The effort worked for three quarters as the junior had just 10 points. But in the final quarter, Haiby scored 12 of her game-high 22 points, including hitting 7-of-8 from the free throw line.

Nebraska shot a paltry 29.6 percent for the game, but had three players do the majority of the damage. Haiby, Ruby Porter, and Annika Stewart combined to shoot 36.3  percent (12-of-33), making three 3s each, and combining for 45 points. The rest of the team shot 19 percent (4-of-21) and failed to make a triple (0-of-8).

This team hasn’t been built on shooting, though. It has been on team defense and doing what you can to contribute. There is no bigger stat to exemplify that than rebounding. Kate Cain led the team with 10, but the other six players to register a rebound had either four or five for the game.

Isabelle Bourne missed her third consecutive game with an ankle injury.

The Huskers return home Thursday to host Wisconsin (3-10, 0-10 Big Ten).