Huskers Ready for Rematch at Illinois

Nebraska Cornhuskers  (14-13, 6-10)

at #25 Illinois Fighting Illini (20-7, 10-6)

Wednesday, February 22, 2023, 7 p.m. (CT)

State Farm Center – Champaign, Illinois

Live Video: B1G+
Live Radio: Huskers Radio Network (6:45 p.m.)
Matt Coatney (PBP), Jeff Griesch (Analyst)

Lincoln (107.3 FM & 1400 AM), Omaha (590 AM), Huskers.com, Huskers App
Special Event: Illinois Senior Night

Huskers Ready for Rematch at No. 25 Illinois

The Nebraska women’s basketball team closes Big Ten regular-season road action on Wednesday when the Huskers take on No. 25 Illinois.

Tip-off between the Big Red (14-13, 6-10 Big Ten) and the Fighting Illini (20-7, 10-6 Big Ten) is set for 7 p.m. (CT) at the State Farm Center in Champaign. It will be Nebraska’s second game in a two-week span against Illinois, after the Illini defeated the Huskers 72-64 at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln on Feb. 9.

Husker fans can watch Wednesday’s game with a subscription to B1G+. The game also can be heard across the Huskers Radio Network with Matt Coatney and Jeff Griesch on 107.3 FM and 1400 AM in Lincoln along with 590 AM in Omaha, Huskers.com and the Huskers App.

Illinois slipped outside the AP Top 25 prior to the first meeting with the Huskers, but the Illini re-entered the poll on Monday (Feb. 20) at No. 25. Illinois will be Nebraska’s school-record 12th AP Top 25 opponent at game time in 2022-23.

The Huskers are coming off an 80-60 home loss to then-No. 7 Iowa on Saturday at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Despite the loss, Nebraska attracted a school-record 14,289 fans to its special Pack PBA event on Play4Kay Day in Lincoln.

Jaz Shelley continues to lead the Huskers, averaging team bests of 13.7 points, 6.3 assists and 1.6 steals. She led the Big Red with 19 points and nine rebounds against Iowa, which followed a career-high 37-point performance at Minnesota (Feb. 15). The 5-9 guard from Moe, Australia (pronounced MO-ee) owns 170 assists this season, which ranks as the ninth-best season total in school history, while her 141 career threes are four shy of ninth on the Nebraska career chart despite playing just her second season with the Huskers. Shelley had 12 points and eight rebounds in the first meeting with Illinois this season.

Alexis Markowski adds a a major presence inside for the Huskers. The 6-3 sophomore center out of Lincoln Pius X High School is averaging a double-double with 12.4 points and 10.1 rebounds, trailing only the Illini’s Kendall Bostic on the Big Ten rebounding list. Markowski, a Lisa Leslie Award Top 10 contender, owns 13 double-doubles on the season including 14 points and 11 rebounds in the first meeting with Illinois.

Isabelle Bourne, a 6-2 junior from Canberra, Australia, is also surging over the past seven games. Bourne matched a season high with 21 points at Minnesota and is averaging 16.3 points and 6.0 rebounds over the past seven games, including 12 points against No. 7 Iowa. Bourne, who has scored in double figures in seven straight games, is averaging 12.2 points and 6.3 boards on the season. She had 11 points and five rebounds in the first meeting with Illinois.

Sam Haiby has managed 11.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists over the last seven games. The 5-9 graduate guard from Moorhead, Minn., missed 10 of Nebraska’s first 11 games this season with a leg injury but has started 14 straight games. She had a nine-game stretch of scoring nine or more points snapped on Saturday against Iowa, when she managed just two points. Haiby, who is averaging 9.9 points and 5.2 rebounds on the season, had 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists in the first meeting with Illinois.

Maddie Krull (Omaha, Neb.) rounds out Nebraska’s starting five with 5.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists on the season. Krull has scored in double figures in five of the last 12 games. She had seven points and four rebounds in the first meeting with Illinois. 

Nebraska Cornhuskers (14-13, 6-10 Big Ten)

34 – Isabelle Bourne – 6-2 – Jr. – F – 12.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg

40 – Alexis Markowski – 6-3 – So. – C/F – 12.4 ppg, 10.1 rpg

1 – Jaz Shelley – 5-9 – Jr. – G – 13.7 ppg, 4.5 rpg

4 – Sam Haiby – 5-9 – Gr. – G – 9.9 ppg, 5.2 rpg

42 – Maddie Krull – 5-9 – So. – G – 5.9 ppg, 2.1 rpg

Off the Bench

21 – Annika Stewart – 6-3 – So. – F – 5.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg

14 – Callin Hake – 5-9 – Fr. – G – 4.7 ppg, 1.3 rpg

15 – Kendall Moriarty – 6-1 – So. – G – 3.3 ppg, 1.7 rpg

44 – Maggie Mendelson – 6-5 – Fr. – F/C – 2.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg

32 – Kendall Coley – 6-2 – So. – F/G – 1.6 ppg, 1.3 rpg

2 – Trinity Brady – 5-11 – Jr. – G – 2.6 ppg, 1.9 rpg

3 – Allison Weidner (Out) – 5-10 – So. – G – 10.2 ppg, 6.2 rpg

Head Coach: Amy Williams (Nebraska, 1998)

Seventh Season at Nebraska (110-97); 16th Season Overall (303-206)

Illinois Fighting Illini (20-7, 10-6 Big Ten)

23 – Brynn Shoup-Hill – 6-3 – So. – F – 6.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg

44 – Kendall Bostic – 6-2 – Jr. – F – 10.7 ppg, 10.3 rpg

1 – Genesis Bryant – 5-6 – Jr. – G – 15.0 ppg, 3.2 rpg

3 – Makira Cook – 5-6 – Jr. – G – 18.4 ppg, 3.8 rpg

24 – Adalia McKenzie – 5-10 – So. – G – 14.0 ppg, 6.2 rpg

Off the Bench

11 – Jada Peebles – 5-10 – Sr. – G – 6.4 ppg, 1.4 rpg

12 – Jayla Oden – 5-9 – So. – G – 4.5 ppg, 1.7 rpg

14 – Geovana Lopes – 6-3 – Gr. – F/C – 1.2 ppg, 2.1 rpg

21 – Aicha Ndour – 6-6 – Jr. – C – 1.5 ppg, 1.8 rpg

4 – Kam’Ren Rhodes – 5-6 – Fr. – G – 2.0 ppg, 0.7 rpg

33 – Samantha Dewey – 6-2 – Fr. – F – 1.7 ppg, 1.7 rpg

Head Coach: Shauna Green (Canisius, 2002)

First Season at Illinois (20-7); Ninth Season Overall (176-82)

Scouting The Illinois Fighting Illini

Coach Shauna Green is a legitimate contender for national coach-of-the-year honors after leading Illinois to its first 20-win season since 2007-08 (20-15), which was Jolette Law’s first year in Champaign. The Fighting Illini enter Wednesday’s game with a 20-7 record and a 10-6 Big Ten mark, still hunting for a top-four seed in the Big Ten Tournament.

In the five years under Coach Nancy Fahey prior to Green’s arrival at Illinois, the Illini went 7-77 in Big Ten play.

Green and the Illini have changed the trajectory of their program by finding ways to maximize the strengths of several key players from a year ago while adding three impact transfers, including two who followed Green from her previous coaching stop at Dayton.

Makira Cook, a 5-6 junior who spent two seasons at Dayton, leads the Illini with 18.4 points per game. Cook was a second-team All-Atlantic 10 selection last season and a member of the A-10 All-Tournament team. She averaged 14.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists as a sophomore at Dayton. Cook had 18 points and six assists in Sunday’s win over Penn State and had 22 points in the Illini’s 72-64 win at Nebraska two weeks ago.

Fellow Dayton transfer Brynn Shoup-Hill has joined the Illinois starting five. The 6-3 sophomore forward is averaging 6.3 points and 5.6 rebounds. Shoup-Hill, who is hitting better than 40 percent (32-79) of her three-point attempts on the season, was scoreless in the first meeting with Nebraska.

A third transfer, junior guard Genesis Bryant from NC State, has made a major impact by averaging 15.0 points and a team-leading 3.7 assists.  The 5-6 Bryant is a knock-down shooter who has connected on 45 percent (63-140) of her three-point attempts, but was injured early in the first meeting with Nebraska. She returned Sunday with 21 points in 23 minutes off the bench against Penn State, connecting on 5-of-8 three-pointers.

While the new faces in the Illinois program have made impacts, returning players Kendall Bostic, Adalia McKenzie, Jada Peebles, Jayla Oden and Geovana Lopes have played major roles in the Illini’s success. Bostic, a 6-2 junior forward, is averaging a double-double with 10.7 points and a Big Ten-best 10.3 rebounds per game, including a huge 22-point, 18-rebound performance Sunday against Penn State. She added 11 points and 10 boards in the win over Nebraska.

Sophomore guard Adalia McKenzie has grown into one of the league’s most explosive wing players averaging 14.0 points and 6.2 rebounds while leading the Illini with 1.6 steals per game. She had 16 points and seven rebounds in the first meeting with the Huskers.

Senior Jada Peebles leads the Illini off the bench with 6.4 points while hitting a team-best 45.8 percent (44-96) from three-point range. Sophomore guard Jayla Oden has added 4.5 points as a part-time starter in the Illinois backcourt. Oden played a huge role in the Illini’s win over Nebraska with 12 points and six rebounds off the bench in place of the injured Genesis Bryant.

Graduate forward Geovana Lopes gives the Illini a solid and experienced eight-player rotation.

As a team, Illinois is hitting 45.9 percent of its shots from the field, including a sizzling 38.3 percent from three-point range. The Illini also have hit 77 percent of their free throws. They own a plus-6.9 rebound margin and a plus-0.9 turnover margin. Illinois is averaging 77.1 while allowing 64.7 points per game on the season.

In Big Ten play only, the scoring margin for Illinois has narrowed to 73.6-70.5, while the rebound gap as shrunk to 37.1-34.3. They have hit 43.6 percent from the field, including 34.7 percent from long range and 78.1 percent at the line.

Nebraska vs. Illinois Series History

Nebraska leads the all-time series with Illinois 18-6, but the Illini snapped NU’s eight-game series winning streak with a 72-64 win in Lincoln on Feb. 9. 

Sam Haiby led four Huskers in double figures with 15 points and eight rebounds, while Alexis Markowski added a double-double with 14 points and 11 boards. Jaz Shelley contributed 12 points and eight rebounds, while Isabelle Bourne pitched in 11 points and five rebounds. However, the Huskers hit just 5-of-21 three-pointers and just 17-of-52 field goals overall.

Makira Cook led four Illini in double figures with 22 points, while Adalia McKenzie pumped in 16 points and seven rebounds. Kendall Bostic added a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards, while Jayla Oden came off the bench with 12 points and six boards in place of an injured Genesis Bryant, who went down with a lower leg injury in the first half.

In the final meeting last season between the two schools, Jaz Shelley led Nebraska with a then-career-high-tying 32 points and a school-record nine three-pointers in Nebraska’s 92-74 win over Illinois in the second round of the 2022 Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis (March 3). Shelley added seven assists in a spectacular effort, hitting 11-of-16 shots from the field overall. Alexis Markowski added 22 points and nine rebounds in Coach Nancy Fahey’s last game leading the Illini. Isabelle Bourne (15) and Sam Haiby (10) both contributed double figures for the Big Red. Adalia McKenzie led Illinois with 18 points, and Jayla Oden contributed 14 off the bench.

Shelley also scored 21 points on five three-pointers in an 82-63 win in Champaign (Feb. 12, 2022). Isabelle Bourne added 17 points and seven rebounds. Sam Haiby was also outstanding with 10 points, eight rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block.

Nebraska is 15-4 against Illinois as Big Ten Conference foes, including 13-3 in Big Ten regular-season conference games. 

Nebraska owns four straight wins over the Illini in Champaign. NU is 8-2 against the Illini in Lincoln.      

The series dates back to an 89-86 Nebraska win over the Illini on March 3, 1982 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

Huskers Face Historic Strength of Schedule

Nebraska’s game against No. 25 Illinois on Wednesday will be its 12th this season against an AP Top 25 team at game time, setting a new Husker standard for strength of schedule.

The Big Red tied the previous Nebraska record with its 11th game against an AP Top 25 team when the Huskers faced No. 7 Iowa on Saturday, Feb. 18. The game against the Hawkeyes marked just the second time in school history that Nebraska had ever faced 11 AP Top 25 opponents in a season, joining the 2000-01 Huskers. 

Since entering the Big Ten (2011-12), the Huskers had never played more than eight games in a season against AP Top 25 foes prior to this season.

Nebraska’s game with Iowa was its fifth against an AP Top 10 team this season. The Huskers have never faced more than five AP Top 10 teams in the same season.

The Huskers have played 10 games this season against current NCAA NET Top 20 teams, including 4-Indiana (1), 6-Iowa (2), 12-Virginia Tech (1), 14-Maryland (2), 16-Michigan (2), 18-Ohio State (1), 20-Creighton (1). Solely as a comparison, Illinois has played six games against current NCAA NET Top 20 teams and six games against AP Top 25 teams at game time.

Nebraska Attendance Figures

Nebraska shattered its single-game attendance record by attracting 14,289 fans for Pack PBA on Play4Kay Day at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Saturday, Feb. 18 vs. No. 7 Iowa.

Nebraska’s Pack PBA crowd eclipsed its previous women’s basketball attendance mark of 13,595 fans (sellout) against Missouri at the Devaney Center on Feb. 27, 2010. NU drew 10 straight crowds of more than 10,000 fans at the Devaney Center in 2009-10.

The record Pack PBA crowd also eclipsed the previous Pinnacle Bank Arena record crowd of 9,750 to open its stay in the arena with a win over UCLA on Nov. 8, 2013. The home-opening crowd at PBA is also a Nebraska non-conference record.

Nebraska ranks No. 12 nationally in average home attendance (5,794) through 14 games in 2022-23. It is an increase of 1,305 fans per contest at Pinnacle Bank Arena over last season.

Nebraska finished No. 14 nationally in total home attendance (76,317) while ranking 18th in NCAA Division I women’s basketball in average home attendance (4,489). Nebraska’s 16 home regular-season wins (16-1) at Pinnacle Bank Arena also led the nation in 2021-22.

Nebraska ranked No. 20 nationally in average home attendance (4,397 fans per game) over 17 regular-season games at Pinnacle Bank Arena in 2019-20. It marked an increase of 296 fans per game compared to the 2018-19 season, when the Huskers ranked No. 22 nationally (4,101). 

The Huskers have ranked among the top 25 nationally in attendance for 12 consecutive seasons (not including 2020-21 when no fans were allowed at Pinnacle Bank Arena).

In 157 all-time home games at Pinnacle Bank Arena, the Huskers own a 114-43 record (.726 winning percentage).

In 146 games with attendance allowed (excludes games during COVID pandemic in 2020-21), the Huskers have averaged 5,062 fans per game (739,041 total fans/146 games).

Nebraska produced its top attendance season in school history by ranking No. 7 nationally with a record 7,390 fans per game at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in 2009-10. The Huskers went 16-0 at the Devaney Center on their way to a perfect 29-0 record, a Big 12 title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Husker Numbers to Watch

Sam Haiby (620) needs seven rebounds to match Cory Montgomery at No. 17 (627, 2007-10) on Nebraska’s career rebounding list. 

Sam Haiby (620) needs eight assists to match former teammate Hannah Whitish at No. 6 (470, 2017-20) on Nebraska’s career assist list.

Isabelle Bourne (598) needs two rebounds to become the 21st Husker in history to pull down 600 career rebounds. 

Alexis Markowski’s 13 double-doubles this season are tied for the seventh most by a Husker in a season in school history. Her next double-double will move her into a tie for fourth on NU’s season double-double list with 14 (Jordan Hooper, 2011-12 & 2013-14; Emily Cady, 2013-14).

Alexis Markowski needs one more double-double to become just the 10th Husker in history to amass 20 or more career double-doubles.

Alexis Markowski (538) needs seven rebounds to move into the top 25 on the Nebraska career rebound list, matching Ann Halsne (545, 1988-91). 

Alexis Markowski (273) needs 11 rebounds to move into a tie for fourth on the Nebraska sophomore season rebound list with 284 (Jessica Shepard, 2016-17).

Jaz Shelley (330) needs 12 assists to catch Amy Beiriger (342, 1979-81) in 11th on Nebraska’s career assist list.

Jaz Shelley (170) is 12 assists from tying Rachel Theriot (182, 2015-16) for eighth on the Nebraska single-season assist chart.