Huskers Shatter Attendance Record – University of Nebraska

Lincoln – Nebraska drew a women’s basketball school-record crowd of 14,289, but the Huskers dropped an 80-60 decision to No. 7 Iowa on Saturday afternoon at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Jaz Shelley led Nebraska with 19 points and nine rebounds, while Alexis Markowski added 15 points and nine boards for the Huskers, who slipped to 14-13 overall and 6-10 in the Big Ten. Caitlin Clark led Iowa with 30 points and eight assists to lead the Hawkeyes (22-5, 14-2 Big Ten), while Monika Czinano added 20 points and seven rebounds.

Nebraska’s attendance smashed the previous record of 13,595 fans in a sellout at the Bob Devaney Sports Center against Missouri on Feb. 27, 2010. The Huskers shattered the previous Pinnacle Bank Arena women’s basketball attendance mark of 9,750, which occurred in the first game in arena history against UCLA on Nov. 8, 2013.

Nebraska trailed 21-14 at the end of the first quarter, but surged early in the second to tie the score at 31 with four minutes left in the half. But the Hawkeyes closed out the half on a 9-2 burst that began with seven straight points from Clark, as Iowa took a 40-33 lead to halftime.

Clark led Iowa with 17 points including a trio of three-pointers, while adding six assists in the half. Czinano added 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Nebraska answered with 12 points from Markowski on 5-of-6 shooting, while grabbing five rebounds. Shelley added nine first-half points, while Bourne pitched in five points. Sam Haiby contributed two points while also dishing out five assists and snagging three first-half steals.

The Huskers hit 38.2 percent (13-34) of their first-half shots, but just 3-of-14 threes, while hitting 4-of-6 free throws. Nebraska outworked Iowa, 20-16, on the glass and won the first-half turnover battle 7-6, but Iowa hit 16-of-31 shots (51.6 percent) including 6-of-11 threes (.545) to account for the difference on the scoreboard.

Nebraska opened the second half with a three-pointer by Bourne, who finished with 12 points, to cut the margin to 40-36, but the Hawkeyes responded with a 7-0 run capped by a Clark three-pointer with 7:46 left to take their first double-digit lead of the game and force a Husker timeout. Iowa pushed the margin to 61-47 at the end of three quarters and Nebraska got no closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

For the game, Iowa hit 54.2 percent (32-59) of its shots from the floor, including 10-of-20 threes, while hitting 6-of-7 free throws. Nebraska managed just 34.4 percent (22-64) shooting, including just 21.2 percent (7-33) from long range. The Huskers also hit 9-of-15 free throws. NU won the battle of the boards, 38-33, while Iowa won the turnover war, 16-15.

Nebraska returns to Big Ten road action on Wednesday when the Huskers travel to Illinois to take on the Fighting Illini. Tip-off in Champaign is set for 7 p.m. (CT) with a live video stream provided for subscribers of B1G+. The game can also be heard across Huskers Radio Network stations, Huskers.com and the Huskers App.