Nebraska splits annual contests against Creighton
Story by Darren Ivy • Photos by Amarillo Mullen
The Nebraska women’s basketball team ended a five-game losing streak against in-state rival Creighton with a 67-62 victory over the Bluejays (1-2) on Nov. 17 at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.
“I think we were just ready,” said Sam Haiby, who scored 15 points, grabbed five rebounds, made five assists and added three steals. “There was no talk about losing. It was, ‘When we beat Creighton.’”
It was the first time Haiby and current head coach Amy Williams had defeated Creighton during their time at Nebraska.
“We just wanted to give our coaching staff that win,” said Husker guard Ashley Scoggin. “We were so ready for that, and we wanted to be the first ones to do that for them.”
Freshman Alexis Markowski added 11 points, four rebounds and one block.
Bella Cravens and Ashley Scoggin each finished with nine points with all of Scoggin’s coming from long rang.
On Saturday, Nebraska defeated North Carolina Central 113-58 and are is 5-0 on the season. It was first time in NU history that a team has scored 100 three times in the same season. In the men’s game on Nov. 16, the Creighton basketball team continued its dominance over the Huskers winning for the third year in a row and 19th time in the last 23 meetings.
The Huskers actually started out with a 5-1 lead in the game, but Creighton then responded with a 28-5 run of their own to take a 29-10 advantage.
“We lost that game in the first five minutes,” NU head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “Every day, we put the key on what the games are and the last two we have not gone out and executed. The last game was (offensive) rebounding. They got four of them in the first minute and a half. Tonight was transition and after getting off to a solid start. I think it was 5-1 in our favor, but they got anything they wanted in transition. That is disappointing.”
To Nebraska’s credit, the Huskers responded with their own 26-10 run the rest of the half to get back within 39-36 at the halftime break.
NU trailed by one at 44-43 early in the second half, but never led in the second half and Creighton eventually pulled away for the nine point win. Kobe Webster scored 20 points off the bench, C.J. Wilcher added 15 and Alonzo Verge Jr. tallied 10 points.
Trey McGowens finished with two points in just under 10 minutes of action before being hurt. Afterwards, it was announced that he broke his foot in the game and already has had surgery done.
“It was devastating news for the heart and soul of our team,” Hoiberg said. “He came down on it wrong and broke the fifth metatarsal. He will meet with our team of physicians and trainers, and we will put a time frame on the rehab and when we can expect him back. We expect him to make a full recovery and be back to normal. We don’t know the time frame of it yet. but it’s just heartbreaking for a guy that has come in here and bought into his role. He is our best leader. He uses his voice every day in practice for the warmup all the way to the end. Really tough loss and really feel for him. He will have a lot of support through this process and hopefully he will be back as soon as possible.”
