• Box Score: Michigan 63, Nebraska 52
• Photo Showcase: Michigan at Nebraska
• Video Below: See Nebraska coach Connie Yori's post game press conference
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LINCOLN — Seventeen straight missed shots. And 28 rim-outs, bricks and whiffs out of 37 3-point attempts.
The No. 13 Nebraska women's basketball team couldn't throw it in several oceans in a 63-52 loss to Michigan Thursday night. But NU coach Connie Yori wants her Huskers to take those shots again. And again. And again.
That's what the Wolverines' man-to-man defense — a regiment packed so tightly in the paint it resembled a 2-3 zone from the cheap seats — offered.
“If another team plays us that way — you guys think I'm crazy — I'd be comfortable trying to shoot 3s again,” Yori said.
Said junior guard Lindsey Moore, who scored 23: “We were getting really good shots. We had wide-open shots.”
And sophomore forward Jordan Hooper, who scored 14: “They didn't feel any different when they left your hand or anything. They just didn't fall in. That's just how it goes some games.”
This from a duo that hit 12 of 37 attempts.
Now, what gave this theory some credence were two 12-0 runs in the second half, in which 3-pointers accounted for 18 of the Huskers' 24 points.
In opposition: the entire first half. Michigan won that segment 32-12. And the first minute of the second half 7-0. The Huskers shot themselves into a 27-point hole. The quick runs helped shave 19 points off the deficit, cutting the lead to 58-50 with 2:02 to go.
Fighting for a spot in the NCAA tournament, Michigan — 18-7 overall and 7-5 in the Big Ten — iced the win with five free throws and breathed a sigh of relief afterward.
“Our kids played extremely well,” Michigan coach Kevin Borseth said. “And they had to.”
Nebraska (19-4, 8-3) missed four of its last five shots, but was pragmatic. The second-half blitz — which brought a Devaney Center crowd to its feet several times — put a silver lining on a loss that leaves NU a full game behind Purdue in the Big Ten race.
“We're fighters,” Moore said. “It would have been super-easy for us to give up.”
Especially during Michigan's 24-1 first-half run, when Nebraska missed 17 straight shots — mostly from the perimeter — and missed 26 of 30 shots overall in the first half.
The Wolverines, meanwhile, put on an offensive clinic.
What worked? The entire playbook.
Ball screens. Head fakes. Step-back treys. Hi-low game replete with 3-foot hook shots. Driving inside the 3-point arc for one-handed running jumpers. Hitting trailers who knifed down the lane for layups. Michigan is an experienced team, Yori said, and its chemistry showed.
“We were kind of chasing the ball,” Moore said. “And leaving things we talked about in the scouting report open. It was just a lack of discipline on our part.”
Michigan's opening run of the second half gave it a 39-12 lead. Nebraska shot two airballs in the first minute.
Led by Moore, the Huskers chiseled away.
First, they cut the lead to 43-23. Michigan padded it back to 50-25. Then Moore hit consecutive treys to make it 50-31. Two more NU 3-pointers made it 50-37. The Wolverines bit back with an 8-1 run for a 58-38 advantage. Nebraska's final surge — a 12-0 run featuring two layups, two 3-pointers and a jumper from Hooper — made it 58-50.
The Huskers got no closer, but earned some admiration from their coach.
“Down 27, we kept fighting,” Yori said. “We fought hard to get back in position where it got interesting.”
Contact the writer:
402-202-9766, sam.mckewon@owh.com
twitter.com/swmckewonOWH
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• Video: See Nebraska coach Connie Yori's post game press conference:
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