Photo Showcase: Wisconsin women at Nebraska
Box Score: Nebraska 68, Wisconsin 59

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LINCOLN — One minute into Sunday's game vs. Wisconsin, sophomore forward Jordan Hooper launched a long 3-pointer. She held her right finishing hand aloft in a rare — for her — show of bravado. Go in, the pose said.

It did. And so would two more early 3-pointers for the No. 21 Nebraska women's basketball team. A quick, useful relief for NU, which has struggled hitting shots — point-blank or perimeter — for a month.

“A huge boost of confidence,” Hooper said after Nebraska's 68-59 win over the Badgers.

The Huskers used that instant fuel differently than you might expect. They pounded Wisconsin's interior with sharp drives to the basket and 12 offensive rebounds. Hooper had eight of them and a career-high 18 boards overall.

“We were really just attacking the hoop,” said senior guard Kaitlyn Burke, who scored 11 points, including a key three-point play late in the first half. “Everyone was, whether it was our guards or our posts. That really helped. It allowed us to penetrate, have open layups. We finished strong.”

Nebraska scored 36 points in the paint, ran out to a 42-24 halftime lead and battled through an eight-minute, second-half scoring drought to break its three-game losing streak.

And after languishing in the 30s for all of February, the Huskers (20-6 overall, 9-5 Big Ten) shot 43 percent from the floor. They weren't any better from beyond the 3-point line at 29 percent, but 16 second-chance points and 17 free throws helped offset the long-range pain.

Wisconsin (8-18, 4-10) shot just 38 percent. Instead of allowing easy layups like it did against Michigan and Northwestern, NU defended its basket fiercely, drawing more fouls, but also picking up four blocks.

“We really bore down on both ends,” coach Connie Yori said. “But mostly what we did was get the ball inside. ... There was a concerted effort to try to see if we could get some easy things inside. And we finished more of those.”

Yori said NU missed 12 of 17 shots from five feet or shorter in the second half vs. Northwestern. Sunday, Nebraska made 50 percent of its shots inside the arc. Yori's strategy figured prominently in the 19-4 run the Huskers used to end the first half. Only one basket in that run was a 3-pointer. NU hit six free throws and four layups in that stretch, turning a 23-20 game into a blowout.

“The hole was too big,” Wisconsin coach Bobbie Kelsey said.

Not that the Badgers didn't try to erase it. Trailing 60-34 with 13:40 left, they went on a 25-8 run to end the game. Wisconsin went to a modified box-and-one to stop Hooper — who scored 19 points — and zone the rest of Nebraska's shooters.

“We just made it up as we went along,” Kelsey said.

When freshman Emily Cady left the game with an injured knee, NU had one fewer scoring option on the floor. Cue Wisconsin's 13-0 run cutting the lead to 60-47. After Burke made a corner 3-pointer, the Badgers chipped away further, closing the gap to 64-56. Junior guard Lindsey Moore made four free throws to ice the game.

Hooper led all scorers. Cady scored 13 while Moore and Burke scored 11. Wisconsin was led by Morgan Paige, who scored 15, and Taylor Wurtz, who scored 14 but missed 11 of 17 shots.

NOTES: Yori did not know the status of Cady for Thursday's game at Michigan State. ... With the win, NU moved into a tie for third with Iowa and Purdue, which lost 67-52 at Michigan State on Sunday. The Huskers have the head-to-head tiebreaker over both. ... Even if Nebraska wins its final two games against the Spartans and Ohio State, it needs considerable help to tie for the league championship. Penn State, at 11-3, must lose its last two home games to Ohio State and Minnesota, while OSU (10-3) must beat PSU, then lose to Minnesota and Nebraska.

Contact the writer:

402-202-9766, sam.mckewon@owh.com

twitter.com/swmckewonOWH

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