Huskers Power Past Mastodons

Niceville, Fla. - Britt Prince scored a game-high 18 points and dished out a tournament-record seven assists to lead four Huskers in double figures, as Nebraska surged to an 80-57 win over Purdue Fort Wayne at the Emerald Coast Classic at Raider Arena on Monday.

Prince hit 8-of-14 shots from the field and contributed two steals and a block along with her 18 points and seven assists to shoot Nebraska into Tuesday's championship game of the Beach Bracket. The Huskers improved to 6-0 by scoring 80 points for the sixth consecutive game, while Purdue Fort Wayne slipped to 3-3.

Eliza Maupin contributed 13 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals off the bench while going 6-for-6 from the field including her first three-pointer as a Husker.

Amiah Hargrove added 11 big points and a game-high six rebounds for the Big Red off the bench, while also dishing out three assists and adding a steal.  Hargrove went 5-for-6 from the field.

Logan Nissley gave Nebraska three players in double figures off the bench, scoring all 11 of her points in the fourth quarter including three consecutive three-pointers to put the game away for the Huskers.

Jessica Petrie added another strong performance inside as well with eight points and five rebounds to go along with excellent defense, including a tournament-record three blocked shots.

In all, nine Huskers found the scoring column and nine players grabbed at least one rebounds. Nebraska hit 56.9 percent (33-58) of its shots from the floor, including a sizzling 11-of-15 (.733) in the fourth quarter. NU also hit 4-of-5 threes in the final period to finish 8-of-18 (.444) from long range. Nebraska's scorching-hot shooting helped the Big Red outscore the Mastodons 26-13 in the fourth.

Nebraska sank 6-of-7 free throws on the night and outworked Purdue Fort Wayne 34-26 on the glass. The Huskers also won the turnover battle, 18-14.

Nebraska used an 11-0 run over the final 3:08 of the second period to take a 38-26 lead to halftime. The Huskers led by six midway through the first quarter before Purdue Fort Wayne closed the gap to 16-14 at the end of one quarter.

The Mastodons then got three consecutive three-pointers from Rylee Bess in the first 3:07 of the second quarter to take a 23-19 lead over the Big Red.

But Maupin who had seven points and Claire Johnson sparked a Husker rally with back-to-back baskets before Prince and Maupin scored to give the Huskers a 27-25 edge with 3:43 left in the half. 

Jordan Reid slowed the Husker surge with a free throw to cut the margin to 27-26, before Prince scored four more and Hargrove hit a mid-range jumper to precede five straight points from Callin Hake to end the half.

Nebraska hit better than 50 percent (15-28) of its shots from the field, including 3-of-10 threes, and 5-of-6 free throws. The Huskers won the the first-half battle of the boards 21-14, but Purdue Fort Wayne turned five offensive rebounds into eight points in the first half to help the Mastodons stay within striking distance.

Prince led the Big Red with 10 first-half points, while Maupin and Hake each added seven points and Petrie and Petra Bozan each contributed five first-half points.

The Huskers held Purdue Fort Wayne to just 9-of-29 (.310) shooting, including 5-of-17 three-pointers (.294) and 3-of-5 free throws. 

Bess led the Mastodons with 11 first-half points including 3-of-3 three-pointers in the second quarter. Alana Nelson added six points on a pair of threes. The rest of the Mastodons went 0-for-12 from long range in the opening half.

Nebraska extended its run to 16-0 to open the second half starting with a layup from Prince and a three-pointer from Petrie to take a 17-point lead just over one minute into the third. The lead remained at 17 points (49-32) after a Maupin layup with 4:44 left, before Bess struck again. Her three-pointer with 3:05 left cut the margin to 49-37. Her fifth three of the game then beat the buzzer to trim NU's margin to 54-44 heading to the fourth.

Nelson opened the fourth with her third three-pointer to pull the Mastodons within 54-47, before back-to-back buckets by Hargrove and a Nissley layup off an assist from Hargrove put the Big Red back in front by double digits at 60-49. 

The two teams then exchanged buckets before Nissley unleashed three consecutive three-pointers to push the Big Red margin to 71-53 with 4:45 left.

Nebraska extended its lead to 23 points for the first time on Kennadi Williams' first career three-pointer with two minutes left.

The Huskers held Purdue Fort Wayne to 38.9 percent (21-54) shooting, including 8-of-27 threes (.296) with all eight threes by Bess (5-8) and Nelson (3-4). The Mastodons hit 7-of-9 free throws (.778).

Lili Krasovec joined Bess in double figures with 12 points for the Mastodons.

The Huskers will face either Virginia or Northwestern State in Tuesday's championship game at 7:30 p.m. Live coverage from the Huskers Radio Network can be heard on Huskers.com, the Huskers App and B107.3 FM in Lincoln. A live video stream also will be available to subscribers of FloHoops.