LINCOLN – Jaz Shelley erupted for season highs of 22 points and eight assists while Alexis Markowski added her third straight double-double to ignite Nebraska to one of the biggest second halves in school history on its way to an 80-72 women’s basketball win over Georgia Tech on Saturday at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
The Huskers, who improved to 6-2 on the season, led 16-12 at the end of the first quarter but fell behind 32-22 at the half after going 3-for-19 from the field in the second quarter.
The Yellow Jackets, who slipped to 5-3 on the year, extended their lead to 15 points early in the third before the Big Red responded in a big way. Kendall Coley sparked the rally with back-to-back buckets in a 25-second span to cut the margin to 42-32. She finished with five points.
The Huskers went on to hit a remarkable 13-of-15 shots in the third quarter and took a 55-54 lead to the fourth after a period-ending three-pointer from Shelley.
Georgia Tech briefly regained the lead on a three-pointer from Ines Noguero, but back-to-back threes by freshman Logan Nissley put the Huskers back in front for good, matching their biggest lead in the game at the time at 61-57. Nissley finished with 11 points on 3-of-5 three-point shooting in the game, including a three-pointer before the buzzer to close the first quarter.
Natalie Potts, Markowski and Shelley then scored six consecutive points after a Georgia Tech timeout with 8:22 left to give Nebraska its biggest lead of the game at 67-57 to cap a 12-0 run that helped flip the score by 25 points in under 12 minutes of game time.
Markowski notched her fourth double-double of the season with 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, while Potts pitched in 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting for the game.
Georgia Tech got no closer than four points the rest of the way, as Nebraska executed well and scored in late shot-clock situations down the stretch, including Shelley’s three-point, banked hook shot from near the top of the key with 1:19 left. The shot gave Nebraska 1,000 points as a Husker. She also moved into the top five in Nebraska history in three-pointers made, while climbing into the top 10 at NU in career assists.
Nebraska hit 75.9 percent (22-29) of its second-half shots including 8-of-12 three-pointers (.667) fo finish at 52.5 percent (32-61 FG) and 38.5 percent (10-26 3FG) for the game. It marked the second straight game and third time this season that the Huskers hit 10 three-pointers in a contest. NU also committed a season-low five turnovers, while dishing out 23 assists, including eight by Shelley and seven by Darian White.
Nebraska’s 58 second-half points tied for the 10th most in a second-half in school history. The production came against a Georgia Tech team that held nationally ranked Creighton to 57 points in an 11-point loss to the Bluejays last week in Cancun.
Kara Dunn led Georgia Tech with 22 points, including a first-half half-court buzzer beater to send the Yellow Jackets to the locker room with a double-digit lead. Tonie Morgan added 20 points, five rebounds and six assists in a strong effort. Noguero contributed 11 points, but the Huskers held Georgia Tech stars Kayla Blackshear and Rusne Augustinaite to just six points apiece.
Georgia Tech hit 46 percent (29-63) of its shots for the game, including 8-of-26 threes (.308). Tech also won the rebounding battle, 39-29, while Nebraska was plus-eight in turnovers (13-5), outscoring the Yellow Jackets 12-4 in points off turnovers.
Nebraska wraps up its three-game home stand against UNC Wilmington on Tuesday, Dec. 5. Tip-off with the Seahawks is set for 7 p.m. (CT) with tickets available now at Huskers.com. The game can be heard across the Huskers Radio Network, and a live video stream will be available to subscribers of B1G+.
