UNI falls at Nebraska in WNIT second round

LINCOLN, Neb. — Northern Iowa’s women’s basketball team had a promising start going to Sunday’s WNIT matchup against Nebraska.

At one point, the Panthers led 16-8 late in the first quarter and appeared to be taking control.

Nebraska had a response and it was all Huskers from the later part of the first quarter through the rest of the game, rolling to a 77-57 win in front of 6,478 at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Nebraska outscored UNI, 69-41, over the final three-plus quarters.

Maya McDermott and Emerson Green each shared the hot hand for Northern Iowa early, both scoring 8 points in helping UNI jump out to a 16-8 lead late in the first quarter. Green had 11 first half points for UNI, while McDermott had 10 points.

But Nebraska flipped control of the game with a 25-9 run covering the end of the first and nearly entire second quarter. The Huskers led 38-29 at halftime, then outscored the Panthers 23-14 in the third quarter to lead 61-43 heading into the fourth quarter.

Nebraska’s size and length bothered UNI most of the game and did not allow the Panthers to feel comfortable within the game most of the final three quarters.

“They’re big. They’re long. They have great size,” said UNI Coach Tanya Warren. “Their size and their length really bothered us.”

Nebraska clogged the lane, forcing UNI to settle for mostly mid-to-long range jump shots.

“We locked into our defensive keys,” said Nebraska’s Jaz Shelley. “We were locked into that and keeping their players out of the lane defensively.”

Nebraska’s defense kept clamps on Northern Iowa’s offense, forcing 13 turnovers, while the Panthers only forced seven Huskers turnovers and none in the first half. Nebraska outscored Northern Iowa, 16-4, off of turnovers.

“We started turning the basketball over,” Warren said. “All year long we’ve done a terrific job of taking care of the basketball. They had 16 points off our turnovers, which is a little out of character for us.”

Isabelle Bourne led Nebraska with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Shelley finished with 16 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists.

McDermott led all scorers with 19 points, to go with six rebounds. Grace Boffeli added 10 points and nine rebounds.

Northern Iowa’s season ends at 23-10. The Panthers lose a pair of seniors in Kam Finley and Cynthia Wolfe. But with the majority of the roster returns and Warren likes the future of Panther women’s basketball.

“This team was relentless all year long. We went through a lot of adversity all year long and they never hung their heads,” Warren said. “We had kids step up. I’m very honored to coach this team.

“We really do feel that we have a bright future and we can really do some things next year as long as we stay healthy.”