Michael Felish’s take on the semifinals of the Big Ten Women’s Basketball tournament from Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Nebraska 77, Ohio State 62 —
Nebraska came into Indianapolis and definitely made their presence known in their first three games in their newest conference tournament. The Cornhuskers scored 80 or more points in both of their wins over Northwestern and Iowa (marking the first time that has happened since the 2001 Iowa Hawkeyes) and came three points shy of making it three games in a row against the defending three-time tournament champion Buckeyes.
It was going to be a tougher challenge lighting up the scoreboard one more time against the Buckeyes, featuring the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year, Amber Stokes but Nebraska found an unexpected leader who carried them offensively from start to finish. The story of the game was the exceptional play of Cornhusker senior, Kaitlyn Burke, who came into the semi-final game only averaging 5.4 points per game, but led her team in scoring, finishing with a career high 20 points.
At the start of the game, it was not easy for the Cornhuskers in the scoring department; Nebraska opened the game with poor shooting, connecting on only two of their 20 shots early on. A strong defensive effort by the Buckeyes led into a great transition game which was led by Samantha Prahalis who finished the opening half with half of her team’s 30 points. Halfway through the first, the Cornhuskers shots started to fall.
Nebraska was able to manufacture a 16-0 run to give themselves the lead going into half. Big Red remained red hot coming out of intermission opening up with a 12-2 run to extend their lead to 14. During the Huskers two significant runs, Lindsey Moore was not a crucial factor like she was in the Huskers last game against Iowa, where she led her team in scoring with 26. Moore’s first field goal of the game did not come until 13:11 in the second half. She would finish with eight points and seven assists.
On the other side of the floor, Ohio State’s star guard, Tayler Hill, who also led her team in scoring in their previous game, found it difficult to get things going offensively as she went into the half with only one point off a free throw, while missing all six of her field goals. She would go on to finish the game with 10 points.
The Buckeyes would finish the game with 40 points inside the point but the Cornhuskers won the battle from behind the arc, led by Jordan Hooper, who finished with 21 points, connecting on a game-high four three-point shots. Three-point shooting turned out to be the deciding factor it helped secure Nebraska’s lead which they held the entire second half on their way to their third consecutive win as many of days.
In the process of maintaining a perfect 3-0 record in the Big Ten Tournament, Nebraska was able to end Ohio State’s hopes of capturing their fourth consecutive tournament title. The win marks the first time in tournament history that a sixth seed moves on to the championship game.
Purdue 68, Penn State 66 —
It all came down to the last shot for the Boilermakers and it was fitting for senior captain, Brittany Rayburn, to hit the game-winning layup to secure the upset over the top-seeded team, sending Purdue to the championship game.
Rayburn, coming off a win over Michigan State where she scored a tournament-high 29 points, only played eight minutes during the first half, mustering together just two points. The Attica, Indiana-native started to look more like herself after the break, hitting crucial shots down the stretch, finishing with 14 against a Penn State team who refused to give up after trailing nearly the entire second half.
The Lady Lions were led by Alex Bentley, who at one point scored 10-straight points, keeping her team in the race against Purdue as they only trailed by one at the half. Going into the break, Bentley led all scorers with 15; she would go on to finish with a game-high 22 points before fouling out down the stretch.
Bentley’s production was not enough as the Lady Lions saw a lack of production in their star guard, Maggie Lucas, coming off a 24-point performance in her team’s too-close-for-comfort win over Minnesota, could not find her groove all game as she finished with just three field goals and 9 points.
On the other side of the ball, Purdue was led by an unexpected leader in Courtney Moses who tied her season average of 10 points in the first half alone as she hit two of her team’s three three-point shots in the opening half. She would finish with a team-high 21 points, hitting four of six from behind the arc.
Everytime the Lions looked to be gaining momentum, Purdue was there to respond, in large part due to their production off the bench. Antoinette Howard led scoring off the bench finishing with a double-double. Purdue’s 23 bench points compared to Penn State’s six were crucial when looking at the final box score.
The Boilermakers were able to avenge a loss they suffered to the Lady Lions earlier in the regular season at Mackey Arena as they were able to close out the hard-fought matchup with an exciting game-winning layup with 1.4 seconds left. Purdue will have their hands full in the championship game as they go up against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who will look to continue their impressive debut in the Big Ten Tournament.