Hoosiers Now

Indiana Women's Basketball Defeats the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Makes History with the Best Big Ten Start

The 72-65 win and 5-0 conference best start was done so even without the Hoosiers' leading scorer Mackenzie Holmes who sat out with a knee injury. Grace Berger led the team to victory with 22 points. Indiana coach Teri Moren said her team was "built for this moment."

Haley Jordan

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Hoosiers cruise to 5-0 in the Big Ten defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers 72-65 at home for an 8-game winning streak.

This is the best Big Ten start in school history. The Hoosiers broke the record shorthanded with junior forward Mackenzie Holmes out with a knee injury and junior guard Grace Waggoner on the bench fresh off health and safety protocol.

"We're the type of team that puts our head down and keeps working," graduate guard Nicole Cardaño-Hillary said. "Making history is definitely something we set out to do, but we're not satisfied yet. We're going to keep going."

In place of Holmes whose return is unknown, sophomores Kiandra Browne and Chloe Moore-McNeil played 25 and 29 minutes respectively. Head coach Teri Moren admitted she thought Browne started off shaky and that she was frustrated with herself. 

However, the valuable minutes the bench is getting to grow will only make the team better, Moren said.

"We knew the loss of Mackenzie was going to hurt us, but the main thing was we were confident coming into this game and that maybe we show other people that we do have depth," senior guard Grace Berger said in a post game press conference.

Berger took over as the team's leading scorer with 22 points. Senior forward Aleksa Gulbe followed with 17 points until she fouled out in the fourth quarter.

Nebraska is a three-point offense and is averaging 82.4 points per game, but Indiana kept their streak of keeping all opponents under 70 points.

The Hoosiers shot 42 percent from the field topping Nebraska that shot 40 percent. 

In the first quarter, Nebraska freshman guard Alexis Markowski claimed the first bucket off two offensive rebounds. Berger responded seconds later with a jumper of her own.

Gulbe sunk a three-pointer to continue the mojo with under seven minutes to go.

The Huskers fought back and took the lead with a layup from freshman guard Allison Weidner.

Moore-McNeil entered the game and utilized her steady ball control to weave through defenders and find Gulbe for a layup.

Graduate student guard Ali Patberg stole the ball out of Nebraska territory, passing it off to Cardaño-Hillary who was successful in getting the layup but had a little too much power and tumbled into the cameras.

This 8-0 run gave the Hoosiers the 15-10 advantage. With more work to do, Cardaño-Hillary utilized her scrappy defense to steal the ball and drive up the court for a layup with less than one minute to go in the half.

The Hoosiers finished with a 22-16 lead over the Huskers to end the first quarter.

The second quarter was like an unofficial three-pointer competition. Gulbe swished a three soon followed by Ashley Scoggin's answered shot from outside the arc.

With just above three minutes to go, Patberg cashed in on a three-pointer and helped her team lead Nebraska to a four minute scoring drought.

"I think we were able to penetrate on open looks and that's why maybe we took some three's because they were all good looks, but we definitely weren't trying to match their (three-point) tempo," Berger said.

The Hoosiers hit the locker room with a comfortable 44-31 lead and limited Nebraska's season leading scorer Jaz Shelley to 10 points.

"She was a hot topic of conversation for the last four days," Moren said. "We wanted to try and make things difficult for her. We wanted to protect the arc as well as we could. I thought Nikki was tremendous on the ball doing what she does, trying to create disruption."

Shelley's jumper started the third quarter, but both teams would find themselves struggling to score. 

Indiana had a stretch where they went 0-for-4 from the field with a 2:57 minute scoring drought until three minutes to go when Berger found an oasis with a jumper.

Cardaño-Hillary and Gulbe continued to be thieves on the court and tallied seven steals between the two of them.

"A lot of what she (Gulbe) provides for us never shows up on this thing," Moren said pointing to the stat sheet. "She's so good in those moments for us defensively."

The Huskers went through a dry stretch of their own with no field goals for six minutes. 

In the fourth, Nebraska narrowed its deficit and came within 10 points off a Markowski layup.

Indiana was quiet offensively until Moore-McNeil scored a three that got the Hall howling and on its feet.

"Chloe was exceptional," Moren said.

But Nebraska managed to bring the gap within three with 24 seconds on the clock.

The Hoosiers called a timeout and held off the Huskers for the remainder of the game to seal a slim victory.

"We rely on who we are," Moren said. "We're a defensive-minded team. You got to lock your heals into the floor and make a stance. We knew they were going to put the ball inside. 

"We're built for this moment. It's our game to go out and win."

Up next, the Hoosiers will travel to West Lafayette to face rival Purdue in the annual Barn Burner Trophy game Sunday, Jan. 16. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET at Mackey Arena.

Related stories on Indiana women's basketball

  • INDIANA TAKES ON NEBRASKA AFTER 8-DAY BREAK: Eight days away allowed the bench to get healthy, Moren said. Now the team is back and ready to fight for its best Big Ten start in history with a hopeful win over the Cornhuskers who recently knocked off then ranked-No. 8 Michigan. CLICK HERE. 
  • KEYARAH BERRY LEAVES THE TEAM: The freshman guard is one of two players to leave the team this season as Caitlin Hose exited the team last year to focus on her studies. CLICK HERE.
  • HOOSIERS STAY AT NO. 6 IN AP POLL: Indiana remains the top ranked Big Ten team in the country holding their place at No. 6 for the second week in the Associated Press. The Hoosiers are coming off a win against Wisconsin and are now 4-0 in conference play. CLICK HERE.
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Haley Jordan
HALEY JORDAN

Haley Jordan is a Sports Illustrated/FanNation video director, staff writer, host and reporter for Hoosiers Now, Fastball and Fastbreak sites. She is a graduate from Indiana University with degrees in Sports Broadcast Journalism and Spanish.

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