Nebraska WBB Gets a Road Win at Purdue 77-65

The Huskers played a shaky first quarter, but got rolling after that and Purdue never seriously challenged the Huskers. Purdue, which had only suffered home losses to the Big Ten’s top teams Ohio State (71-68), Indiana (74-68) and Iowa (96-71), slipped to 11-14 overall and 4-10 in the league.

Nebraska improved to 17-9 overall and remained in fourth place in the conference standings.

Alexis Markowski produced a huge effort with 20 points and a career-high 21 rebounds to lead a trio of outstanding performances. Markowski hit 9-of-18 shots from the field while tying the fourth-best rebounding total in school history to help Nebraska overwhelm Purdue on the boards over the last three periods (35-16). It was Markowski’s sixth 20-point scoring effort of the season, allowing the Huskers to improve to 9-6 in the conference with their fourth Big Ten road win. She is likely to be in the conversation for Big Ten Player of the Week.

In addition to Markowski’s monster effort, graduate guard Jaz Shelley pumped in 18 points while adding eight rebounds and six assists. Shelley’s points came on 3-of-6 shooting from the field, including 2-of-4 threes, while going 10-for-10 at the free throw line.

Logan Nissley matched her career high with 18 points in her first collegiate start, going 6-of-10 from the field, including 3-of-5 from three-point range. The 6-0 freshman from Bismarck, N.D., also went 3-for-3 at the free throw line.

Kendall Moriarty and Kendall Coley each contributed six big points for the Huskers as well, as eight different Huskers found the scoring column and nine Huskers got at least one rebound in a true team effort.

Nebraska got off to a solid start with a 10-9 lead after the first six-plus minutes, but Purdue closed the quarter on a 13-2 surge to take a 22-12 lead to the second quarter.

The Huskers started chopping wood early in the second, narrowing the margin to 24-21 on a Nissley putback with 5:35 left.

Moments later, Purdue point guard Jeanae Terry picked up her second foul, and Nebraska took advantage with five straight points from Shelley to tie the game at 26. The Big Red continued to surge and the Boilermakers put Terry back in the lineup, but the Huskers outscored Purdue 6-2 in the final 1:20 to take a 36-32 lead to halftime.

Nebraska led at the half despite going just 2-for-12 from three-point range.

Purdue got a three-pointer from Abbey Ellis, who finished with 16 points for the Boilermakers, to open the third period and cut the lead to one before Nissley buried back-to-back threes to push Nebraska’s margin to 42-35. Shelley and Markowski then combined for six straight points to extend the lead to 48-35. Purdue never cut the lead to single digits.

Nebraska extended its lead to 72-54 with 3:50 left on Shelley’s second three-pointer before settling for the 12-point victory to complete the season sweep of the Boilermakers.

The Huskers shot 44.6 percent (25-56) for the game, including 34.8 percent (8-23) from three-point range. Nebraska also connected on 82.6 percent (19-23) of their free throws, while out-rebounding Purdue, 42-26. Purdue won the turnover battle, 12-7.

Nebraska held Purdue to 37.3 percent (22-59) from the floor, including 6-for-19 (.316) from long range. The Boilermakers hit 15-of-19 free throws (.789). Mary Ashley Stevenson matched Ellis for team-high scoring honors with 16, including 8-for-8 free throw shooting. Madison Layden put three Boilermakers in double figures with 11 points.

The Huskers return to Big Ten home action on Tuesday when Nebraska takes on Northwestern. Tip-off between the Big Red and Wildcats is set for 8 p.m.