Huskers Sent to KU for WNIT Super 16

The Nebraska women’s basketball team will travel to Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence to take on the Kansas Jayhawks in the third round of the Postseason WNIT on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. (CT).

The Huskers (18-14) advanced to the WNIT Super 16 with a 77-57 win over Northern Iowa in front of 6,478 fans at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Sunday. Kansas (21-11) advanced to the third round with a 75-47 win over Missouri in front of 3,682 fans on Monday night – the third-largest crowd in the WNIT’s second round. The Jayhawks entered the tournament with the highest NCAA NET ranking in Nebraska’s 16-team bracket, and were considered one of the first four teams out of the 68-team NCAA Tournament field.

Nebraska’s Sunday crowd at Pinnacle Bank Arena not only led all WNIT second-round sites, it also topped the crowds of eight NCAA second-round host sites, including Tennessee and Toledo (Knoxville, Tenn.), Texas and Louisville (Austin, Texas), Ohio State and North Carolina (Columbus, Ohio), Stanford and Ole Miss (Stanford, Calif.), Notre Dame and Mississippi State (South Bend, Ind.), UCLA and Oklahoma (Los Angeles, Calif.), Villanova and Florida Gulf Coast (Villanova, Pa.) and Duke and Colorado (Durham, N.C.).

Nebraska’s crowd for the win over the Panthers at PBA was not only the largest crowd of the second round in the WNIT, it overwhelmed all four second-round sites in the Northeast bracket combined, which managed just 4,263 fans (Syracuse, Harvard, Rhode Island, Columbia). It also out-classed all four sites in the Southeast, which combined for 4,721 fans (Clemson, Wake Forest, Memphis, Green Bay).

In Nebraska’s Midwest region, Texas Tech (4,412) was the only other school to attract more than 4,000 fans in the second round, while Kansas (3,682) and Arkansas (3,017) each drew more than 3,000, giving the Midwest the top-four attendance sites in the tournament so far. In the West region, only Oregon (2,591) and Washington (1,455) had completed their second-round games, while Kansas State and San Diego are the remaining host sites.  

Thursday night’s game will be the 85th all-time meeting between the Huskers and their most frequent opponent, Kansas. The Jayhawks own a 50-34 lead in the all-time series, but since 1998 Nebraska owns a 24-10 edge in the last 34 meetings, including a 15-1 mark in Lincoln.

Earlier this season, Nebraska outlasted Kansas 85-79 in triple-overtime on Dec. 21, 2022, at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Jayhawks entered that game ranked No. 20 nationally and unbeaten at 10-0. Jaz Shelley led four Huskers in double figures with 24 points, while Alexis Markowski added a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

First-team All-Big 12 guard Zakiyah Franklin led Kansas with a game-high 27 points, while fellow first-team All-Big 12 choice Taiyanna Jackson added 18 points and 21 rebounds in the loss. Jackson and Markowski were both top-10 finalists for the Lisa Leslie Center of the Year award in 2023.