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Rosalie’s Reaction: Second half rally fails to save Huskers

By Rosalie Suggs

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After a low-scoring first half, the second half rally was not enough for Nebraska’s women’s basketball on Wednesday night. They suffered their 5tj conference road loss of the season at Northwestern,  59-51 in Evanston, Illinois.

At the tip, the Huskers could hardly find any offense. It was one of the worst shooting halves in school history. Nebraska (18-8, 8-7 Big Ten) shot just 10% (3-28), going 0-9 from 3-point range.

Tear’a Laudermill (photo NU Media)

The usually stellar Husker defense appeared to be asleep as they struggled to stop the Northwestern offense. The Wildcats, led by Nia Colley and Karly Roser shot at will, shooting 40% including 3 0f 10 from the three-point arc.

When the halftime buzzer sounded, Nebraska trailed Northwestern 29-12. To Husker Nation, it felt like the game was already over. However, this team has demonstrated their determination to fight back from first half deficits to win games earlier in the season. The second half began looking like a continuation of the first. Nebraska would fall behind 43-19 before the Husker defense slowly started to find answers that denied Northwestern shooters. As the Wildcats went on a scoring drought, the NU offense was STILL looking for a spark, anything to get the offense going.

Allie Havers

They found it in Allie Havers, who hit a key jump shot with 7:02 left. That opened the door to an 11-0 run with senior Tear’a Laudermill and freshman Natalie Romeo hitting 3 straight three-pointers. With 3:59 left in the game, Nebraska closed the deficit to eight points at 46-38.

Tear’a Laudermill was not done yet. Her high energy and speed helped her score four straight points to cut the lead to 48-42 with 2:04 remaining. She tossed another three point shot with 49 seconds left, hoping to spur the Huskers on to another last minute victory.

The comeback was just too little, too late. The final buzzer sounded, and the fight was over. Huskers would add another disappointing loss to this season.

What was it?? The frigid weather outside the arena? The nearly empty house with only 300 in attendance OR what it something else? In a long, physically grueling season, have the Huskers simply run “out of gas?” Were they preoccupied by the plight of a team member??

Nebraska’s leading scorer, Rachel Theriot, has missed the Huskers last five games with the injury. Prior to tip-off, Nebraska Coach Connie Yori announced that Theriot will undergo season-ending surgery on her left ankle on Thursday. Rachel Theriot has been the heart of this team and it’s leader.

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In her post game comments, Coach Yori explained the challenge her squad faces. “I think the challenge that you face losing our starting point guard and our leading scorer and assist player at the time that we lost her, it’s just hard,” Yori said. “It’s hard to get a lot of continuity in practice because at this time of year you can’t do that much. That’s the challenge that we are facing right now. If you lose somebody early in the year you have opportunities to kind of play catch up a little bit.” She ended her comments by saying, “we just got to hang in there. We got to keep trying and keep pushing,” Yori said. “So we will keep fighting, I know that with this group.”

Now the Huskers MUST find another leader to finish out the regular season before Big Ten tournament time. There are four seniors that have started nearly every game this season. Which one will step up?? Huskers play their final regular-season conference road game on Saturday against Indiana when they travel to Bloomington,IN and Assembly Hall. Tip-off between the Huskers and Hoosiers is set for 11 a.m. (CT) with live television coverage by the Big Ten Network. GO BIG RED!!!